Toxicity Impact Assessment of Nitrogen Oxide and Sulfur Dioxide Emissions in China’s Textile Industry With Chemical Footprint Method

Emissions of air pollutants cause adverse impacts on human health and the environment. As typical air pollutants, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide cause acid rain and particulate matter (PM). Significant emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide in the production phases make the textile industry face tremendous challenges. Determining the chemical footprint is an effective method for transforming the potential environmental risks of pollutant emissions into an intuitive form of toxicity. In this study, we adopted the chemical footprint method to assess the toxicity impact of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from China’s textile industry. The results indicate that the chemical footprint of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide in China’s textile industry showed a significant decreasing trend from 2001 to 2019, and the chemical footprint of nitrogen oxide was about 11 times higher than that of sulfur dioxide. Among the three sub-sectors of China’s textile industry, the textile manufacturing sector had the highest chemical footprint, accounting for 57.1–65.7% of the total chemical footprint. The remaining chemical footprint is allocated to the chemical fibers manufacturing sector, and the textile wearing apparel, footwear, and cap manufacturing sector. The chemical footprint intensity of China’s textile industry also showed a decreasing trend from 2006 to 2015, and the chemical footprint intensity of the three sub-sectors was in the order of the chemical fibers manufacturing sector, the textile manufacturing sector, and the textile wearing apparel, footwear, and cap manufacturing sector.