NEW CPSIA LEAD AND PTHALATE LAWS CREATE CONFUSION

I have received at least a dozen calls from concerned customers about the new law passed by the Consumer Products Safety Commission in response to high lead and pthalate content in childrens products. I will try to cover. to the best of my understanding, how this new law affects childrens apparel.

- the law requires a product to be certified by the selling agent as having less than 600ppm of lead content. Verification of this must be performed by a third party testing laboratory, which would issue a conformance certificate. Although products made of raw fiber may eventually be excluded from the provision, they are currently in it.
- any textile going through processes that impart color, change the hand or involve a wet process will have to be certified. Unfortunately, there is no clarity as to whether certification by each supplier is adequate or whether there needs to be redundant testing as a fabric, or piece of apparel is processed. There is no definition for sample size or frequency of testing.
-The law, as currently written, also requires any product that exceeds the limit be removed from shelves and inventories. How a store might determine how many dyelots or sewn lots are represented in order to properly test them is unaddressed. The reality is that it is impractical and unfeasible to expect the wholesale liquidation of product. or the back testing of product, that may be in inventories. It is also unlikely there is enough laboratory capacity to test all product within a reasonable time.
It is my belief that there will be amendments to this law as the backlash of repercussions is felt. Already , a federal ruling on Friday announced that consignment and resale shops are exempt. This is likely the first of many "clarifications" the government will issue. ( go to http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html to see the latest). Note that the CPSC cleary is targeting childrens toys and jewelry and items that pose a greater lead or pthalate hazard. Clothing would not typically fall in that catagory unless embellished with painted or plastic items.

Also, Kathleen Fasanella has been blogging about this for some time. You may want to see what she has to say at http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/new-product-safety-regulations-that-affect-all-manufacturers/ . Follow her blog string, as she covers allot of ground. If you want to read the act in entirety follow this link (pdf)

In the meantime, we are working with our supply chain to organize certifications throughout so that the final product will be backed by previous certificates of all componantry and processes (which may not be adequate). For instance, a garment made from dyed fabric with gripper snap attachments and a zipper would have certificates issued for the zippers, snaps, each chemical and dye used in the processing of the fabric, and possibly even testing of the water itself, if necessary. Hopefully, that will cover a finished garment without requiring the garment itself to be tested.

For those of you in the crafts market that hand embellish , dye, marbelize, hand paint, etc, you may have more to worry about. At the least you should ask for certification of the dyes, chemicals , paints and componants. Whether you will need to worry about testing the water in which you dye or wash the goods is yet to be answered.

For our import customers, it has been a bit more progressive overseas in that our suppliers have agreed to test the garments and forward the test resuts to us along with a blank certificate of compliance for you to sign upon reviewing the test results. It is the responsibility of the company selling at retail to sign the compliance certificate.

I will update you with any new information as soon as I hear it. In the meantime feel free to contact your state congressman and let them know what it means to you to have such a sweeping law passed without solicitation of public or industry comment. We know the intentions are good, but knee jerk reactions without consideration of the implications should not be modus operandi for government.