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Lead in Children's Products

Lead in Children's Products

 

Updated on 2/17/2010
Congress unanimously passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) aimed at protecting children 12 years of age and under from all products containing lead and pthalates, and we get numerous calls about it. You can read all about it here: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html It was to take effect 2/10/09, then was postponed until 2/10/10, but testing and Certificate of Compliance (GCC) requirements have been postponed for yet another year, to 2/10/11. Basically, the part that effects this business is that as of 2/10/09, you may not legally sell products for children 12 and under that contain more than 600 ppm lead, and that amount went down last August to 300 pm, then will go down to 100 ppm under their schedule. So basically, if you go by the less than 100 ppm, you should be safe.
While originally aimed at toys, but now apparently all inclusive, it appears to be a very poorly written law (though well intentioned) which has already created much fear, confusion, and concern. Contrary to what other websites might be telling you, it is not just for "durable goods" or things with paint. You must read the whole thing, not just parts of it, to see that. What is clear already is that there ar already exemptions being made and in fact it may be totally rewritten before they start enforcing it in 2011. Here are some links which provide additional information.
Understand that we are all still trying to understand this law and do whatever we are supposed to do to be in compliance by the deadlines. For now, here is some information we think is useful and correct but we are not lawyers, nor do we have a "legal dept.", and so we encourage you to do your own research:
The law will apply only to products that are intended to be sold for use by children 12 years and under. If you are not selling products like that, it should not apply to you. You can forget about it. For example, we don't think a hand painted silk scarf or an adult tie dyed T-shirt is covered.
For us, we are going through our products, determining which might be used on children's products, and doing research. As we get more information, we will post it here. Those products, if any, which we determine to contain lead will be labeled: "Not for use on products for children 12 years and under". But basically, we are finding out that none of our products contain lead, with the exception of Swarovski Crystals (see below their statement about this) and the color Black in Jacquard Acid Dye, which is not normally used for children anyway, is minimal, and does not rub off on you from the dyed silk.
FABRICS
Un-dyed natural fabrics like cotton, silk, wool, etc. have been made exempt, as is clothing made with those fabrics and sewn with those threads. They have also now exempted dyed fabrics from the lab testing and Certificates of Compliance requirements, as they have finally figured out that dyes do not contain lead, so that is very good news for all of our customers who use our dyes. Our dye manufacturers have basically told us that since they do not market their dye to be used by children, they do not intend to have it tested for lead, as they have already gone to the expense of having it all tested to provide the MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets). However, the MSDS for dyes, or paints, or chemicals, have to indicate whether lead is present, so since they don't (with the one exception of Black Jacquard Acid Dye), and since dyed clothing is now exempt anyway, customers do not have to worry about the dye they use on children's clothing.
CLOTHING
Clothing for those over 12 years is not involved.
Children's clothing which includes snaps and zippers have to use lead free ones. We have been assured by most of our manufacturers that the snaps or zippers in our infant and children's clothing are lead-free. We are waiting for documentation from each manufacturer to confirm that. We will post the documents here as we receive them, and also soon hope to post them on the appropriate product pages.
UPDATE: We have been assured by our Chinese manufacturer that the snaps in our baby clothing (one piece rompers etc) contain no lead. To further allay our concerns, we initially had the snaps informally tested locally and received the following report:
"I tested the snaps you sent me. According to our X-ray fluorescence analyzer, there was no lead detected."
Going further, we then sent samples of the snaps to be tested at a CPSIA approved lab that runs more sophisticated chemical testing, they passed with flying colors the other day, and we are waiting for the official GCC form. We will link the form here when we get it.
DYES
Our Fiber Reactive "Procion" Dyes, to the best of our knowledge, do not contain any lead. The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) do not indicate the presence of any lead. Our manufacturer has told us that if lead is not listed on an MSDS, it means that if it is even present at all, it would be way under 100 ppm and more like a few ppb (parts per billion!). The CPSC has now made dyed fabrics exempt anyway. The really important thing to feel assured about is that once you have dyed something with Fiber Reactive dye, the dye is permanently bonded and does not come off, which actually makes it extra safe for children's clothing over other dyes.
Some of our other dyes already have the Non-Toxic certification which would indicate they are lead-free or also have such low levels that they are in total compliance with the new law. This is shown on the label, in the catalog, and on our web-site. NONE of the MSDS for ANY of our dyes indicate the presence of lead with the exception of one as mentioned above, black Jacquard brand Acid Dye for wool & silk. As we find more out about the dyes, we will post it here.
MARKERS
Most of our markers are also certified non-toxic. The MSDS on the markers also do not indicate the presence of lead. Those that are not certified non-toxic do not necessarily contain lead either. We are looking into them all. Below is what we have so far.
PAINTS
Again, almost all are Certified Non-Toxic. Those which are not, we are asking if they are lead free, but again, NO presence of lead is indicated on any of the MSDS for any of our Fabric Paints. As the paint manufacturers respond to our inquiries, we will report the responses below.
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