Infant Clothing Standards Difficult To Implement Worrying

Since October 1st, China's first industry standard, specifically formulated for infants and young children (24 months and under age), has been formally implemented in the "infant clothing standard" (FZ/T81014-2008).

This is the first national industrial standard formulated specifically for infants and young children's clothing safety, and all clauses concerning infant and young children's clothing safety are mandatory.

The implementation of this standard will standardize the production and sales market of infant clothing, and better protect children's health and safety.

Many mandatory provisions stipulate the terms and definitions, sizes, requirements, inspection methods, inspection classification rules, and technical features such as marking, packaging, pportation and storage of infant clothing products. The main assessment items are: external quality, washing size change rate, color fastness to washing, color fastness to saliva, color fastness to perspiration, color fastness to water, fastness to rubbing, sewing strength, buttons and other non removable accessories pulling force, which can extract heavy metal content, fiber content deviation, formaldehyde content, pH value, decomposable aromatic amine dye and odor.

The new standard specifies the specific standards of arsenic, copper and formaldehyde in clothing, which is a compulsory clause to protect infants' physique.

For example, the arsenic content should not exceed 0.2 mg / kg, copper content should not exceed 25 mg / kg, formaldehyde content must be less than or equal to 20 mg / kg.

In addition, considering the infant skin is more delicate than adults, the national standard limits the pH value between 4 and 7.5, and prohibits the decomposition of aromatic amine dyes, and there is no smell.

Because infants like to pull clothes and bite clothes, the new standard clearly stipulates that the neckline and hat side of infant clothing should not be allowed to use rope, and the length of the rope must not exceed 14 cm. The embroidery or hand-made sewing decoration does not allow flashing chips and granular beads or accessible substances.

The market pass rate is worrying. Although the "infant clothing standard" has been formally implemented since October 1st, it is embarrassing that few people understand this new standard, and the quality and safety of children's clothing is still worrying.

In 11 months, the Wuhan industrial and commercial department conducted a spot check on the infant clothing market in Hanzheng Street, the largest clothing wholesale market in Central China. A total of 46 infant clothing stores were inspected. According to the "infant clothing standard", only 4 infants and young children's clothing were in line with the new standard, with a pass rate of less than 10%.

However, spot checks on children's clothing market in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Liaoning also showed a low pass rate.

Especially in the rural wholesale market, the lower pass rate is worrying.

It is difficult to implement the standards, such as raising production costs, not linking up the upstream and downstream industries, the temporary popularization of new standards, and the lack of knowledge about the quality and safety of people.

The implementation of standards requires the joint efforts of the upstream and downstream manufacturers such as fabrics, printing and dyeing, accessories, etc., for example, prohibition of the decomposition of aromatic amine dyes, we need strict requirements for dyeing factories to be carried out in dyeing process, and the accessories provided by accessories manufacturers must meet the requirements of the new standards.

Most shopping malls, operators, consumers, and enterprises are not aware of the standards of infant clothing. This is also an embarrassment that is commonly faced after the introduction of industry standards.

In many children's clothing sales centers in Beijing, most of the operators said that they only saw the introduction of the "infant clothing standard" in the media, and did not receive any notice from the official or factory.

It is suggested that positive measures should be taken to improve the passing rate of infant clothing, and suggest that enterprises should strengthen their training for relevant personnel, promote their correct understanding of standards and correct use of new standards, avoid the color fastness and pH value of human factors, and adopt green dye and advanced finishing technology as well as new technologies, new processes and new methods. At the same time, it is necessary to equip with necessary testing instruments and equipment to strengthen the training of inspectors. Suppliers should be required to produce test reports for raw and auxiliary materials, and samples of raw materials and auxiliary materials purchased at regular intervals or irregularly should be sent to the authorities for testing and verification to ensure that infant clothing meets the requirements of the new standard.

Yang Jing: editor in charge