How to Read a 250-Substance SVHC Report on 600D PVC

TL;DR: A "PASS" on a 250-substance SVHC screen does not mean nothing was detected. It means nothing crossed the 0.1% threshold. Two substances can still show up below it, and a buyer who knows how to read that distinction can tell a real material claim from a brochure. This is what our July 2025 600D PVC report actually shows — and, more importantly, what it does not cover.

Why Pet Product Buyers Ask for SVHC First

A pet seat cover is not a decorative textile. It sits in a closed cabin, it takes claw contact, drool, food residue and repeated wiping, and in many households the dog rides on it several times a week. Importers in the EU and UK have learned to open the material conversation with one question: what does the SVHC screen say?

The reason is structural. Under REACH, substances on the Candidate List at or above 0.1% by weight in an article trigger information obligations along the supply chain. That threshold — 0.1% by weight, which is 1,000 mg/kg — is the number that matters in every conversation about a coated fabric.

So the document buyers want is not a certificate. It is a screening report that names the substances, states the reporting limit, and gives a result for each.

What "250 SVHC" Actually Covers

The scope of a report like this is usually four separate screens, and they are not the same thing:

• The Candidate List substances — the published SVHC list as it stood on the test date. In this report that is 250 substances.
• Proposed substances — entries proposed but not yet formally added.
• "Potential intentional" substances — a watch list of substances that could plausibly be used deliberately in the process.
• A substance-specific screen — here, resorcinol, tested with reference to G/TBT/N/EU/803.

That structure matters because the number 250 is a snapshot, not a permanent standard. The Candidate List grows every year. A report issued in July 2025 covers the list as it existed then, which is exactly why the issue date on the first page is as important as the result on the second.

The Result on This 600D PVC

The sample is the reference fabric behind our pet range: 4 × 4 603# in medium grey — a coated cloth with a soft grey PVC sheet, which is what "600D PVC" looks like when a lab describes it rather than a salesperson.

Testing ran from 18 to 24 July 2025 and the report was issued on 24 July 2025 by HCT (Waltek Testing Group), reference WTH25H07191029C. All four screens returned PASS.

The result that actually deserves attention is this: two substances were detected, both below the threshold.

Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate — DEHP, CAS 117-81-7 — came back at 0.0114%, which is 114 mg/kg against a 0.1% line at 1,000 mg/kg. Melamine, CAS 108-78-1, came back at 0.0741%, or 741 mg/kg against the same 1,000 mg/kg line.

Everything else was not detected: the remaining 248 Candidate List substances, the proposed substance, the four potential intentional substances, and resorcinol — each below a reporting limit of 0.01%.

Both detections sit comfortably under the limit — DEHP at roughly one-ninth of it, melamine at roughly three-quarters. The report's conclusion of PASS is correct on its own terms, and the two figures are worth publishing rather than hiding, because a buyer who receives the full document will find them anyway.

The Three Numbers Buyers Confuse

Most of the arguments about these reports come from reading one number as another.

0.1% is the regulatory line. It equals 1,000 mg/kg. Above it, the substance has to be declared.

0.01% is the reporting limit, not the legal limit. This report states it explicitly: "RL is not regulatory limit." It simply means results are shown once a substance reaches 100 mg/kg. A result at 0.0114% is above the reporting limit — so it gets printed — and far below the regulatory threshold.

ND means not detected, not zero. "Not detected" means below the method's reporting limit. It is the honest description of a screening result, and it is not the same as a guarantee of absence.

Once those three are separated, a report stops looking like a pass/fail stamp and starts reading like a measurement.

Why DEHP and Melamine Are the Two to Watch in PVC

A 600D PVC is a composite: a woven polyester base cloth plus a PVC coating. That construction has two characteristic low-level signals.

Phthalates are part of the plasticiser vocabulary of PVC. DEHP is the one that appears on the Candidate List, which is why it is the phthalate most often reported at trace level in coated fabric. Melamine is the other recurring signal in coated and finished textile systems.

Seeing either at trace level is not evidence of intent — it is what the material chemistry looks like. What matters is whether the number sits below 0.1%, whether it is stable across lots, and whether the supplier can explain the source. A supplier who says "ND" for everything on a PVC-coated fabric without a reporting limit printed next to it has told you nothing verifiable.

What This Report Does Not Prove

This is the part most marketing pages leave out, and it is the part that decides whether a claim survives an audit.

It covers one sample, one colour. Medium grey, one reference lot. A different colour or a different coating batch is a different sample.

It is a screening test, not a confirmation. The report itself notes that an identified SVHC result is based on a worst-case scenario and that further investigation is required to confirm presence. Screening narrows the field; it does not close it.

It is not a migration or extraction study. Content in the material is not the same as what transfers to a dog's coat, a child's hand or a wipe. If your market requires that question answered, you need a different test.

It is not full REACH Annex XVII compliance. Restricted substances, azo dyes, nickel release, flammability — none of that is inside this document.

It does not cover the finished sewn product. The sample is fabric with coating, not a stitched cover with straps, buckles, zips and thread. Each of those is its own material with its own obligations — thread included, which is why we separately track how UV exposure degrades the stitching long before the shell gives up.

A report is a measurement of a sample. Treating it as a certificate for a product range is exactly the mistake that turns a good test result into a compliance problem.

What to Ask Your Supplier

Five questions separate a real document from a decorative one:

1. What is the list date? Which version of the Candidate List does the report reflect, and when was it issued?
2. What was the sample? Fabric only, or fabric plus coating? Which colour, which lot?
3. What was the reporting limit? A result without an RL cannot be interpreted.
4. What was detected, and at what level? "All ND" on a PVC-coated fabric deserves a second look.
5. What is out of scope? Migration, Annex XVII, finished-product assembly — ask what the report deliberately does not cover.

If a supplier cannot answer the fifth question, they have not read their own report.

FAQ

Does PASS mean there is nothing in the fabric? No. It means nothing reached 0.1%. This report shows two substances present below that line.

Is 0.0741% melamine a problem? It is roughly three-quarters of the 0.1% threshold and does not trigger a declaration on its own. It is worth monitoring across lots rather than treating as a one-off number.

Why does the report say 250 substances when the list keeps growing? Because it is a snapshot of the Candidate List on the test date. A newer report tests a longer list; an older one is not retroactively wrong, but it is older.

Can I get the full report? Yes. The complete document, including the mill's details and the lab's statements, is available on request through our contact address — we send the original rather than a partial copy.

Report reference WTH25H07191029C, issued 24 July 2025 by HCT (Waltek Testing Group, Shenzhen). The fabric is the 600D PVC reference sample used for our pet seat cover range, including the hammock-style back seat cover the quilted barrel-shaped pad the waterproof animal-print cargo seat cover and the padded SUV cargo liner. If you need the material specification or the full test document, ask before you specify.