Us Revised "Flammable Fabrics Act" Must Pay Attention To American Textile Enterprises

Recently, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) revised the American Flammable Fabrics Act (FFA). The new law will come into effect in September 22, 2008.

The United States adopted the flammable fabric act as early as l953, and revised it two times in 1954 and 1967.

The combustion performance of textiles entering the United States must meet the requirements of the act, otherwise it will be fined up to 1 million 250 thousand dollars.

The Flammable Fabrics Act includes 6 sub regulations: 16CFR1610 regulations for general textiles, 16CFR1615 and 16CFR1616 requirements for children's pajamas, 16CFR1630 and 16CFR1631 requirements for carpet and 16CFR1632 for mattress.

The revision has mainly done in 4 aspects: first, the definition of some confusing terms has been added; two, more advanced combustion testing instruments have been introduced; three, a more scientific pre test dry cleaning and cleaning process has been specified, and the testing of textile samples, test volume, combustion process and experimental report has been refined. Four, a clearer provision has been put forward for the calculation of fabric burning time and the judgement of ignition and combustion at the bottom of the fabric.

At present, the countries around the world pay more attention to the combustion properties of textiles. The textile technology regulations of the United States have a special emphasis on the flame-retardant properties of the products. The AQSIQ also requires all the entry exit inspection and quarantine institutions to conduct sampling inspection on the flame retardancy of the exported garments.

China's textile exports to the United States are huge. In 2007 alone, China exported 21 billion 400 million square meters of textiles to the United States, valued at $32 billion 300 million, an increase of 19.4% over the same period last year.

The inspection and quarantine department recommends that the relevant enterprises should familiarize themselves with the contents of the new combustion act, adjust the technical parameters of the textiles exported to the United States in time, and do the corresponding product testing work so as to avoid the obstruction of textile exports due to the lack of timely technical updates.