A few days ago, China’s first mandatory national standard GB31701-2015 "Safety Technical Specifications for Infant and Children’s Textile Products" (hereinafter referred to as the "new standard") for infant and children’s textile products was officially promulgated, and will be published on June 1, 2016 From the formal implementation. The new standard fully takes into account the particularity of the infant and child group, and the technical requirements and management indicators are fully in line with international standards, filling the gaps in the domestic standards for infant and child products. The new standard sets a two-year implementation transition period. Products produced before June 1, 2016 and meet the requirements of the relevant standards are allowed to continue to be sold in the market. From June 1, 2018, all relevant products on the market must comply with The standard requires.
The new standard has the following characteristics:
Further standardize safety technical requirements. In terms of fabrics, the fabrics, linings, and accessories of baby textile products must meet the requirements of formaldehyde content, pH value, color fastness, peculiar smell, decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amine dyes, and color fastness to wet rubbing. New safety technology items including heavy metal lead and cadmium content, phthalate (6 plasticizers) content and combustion performance. In terms of fillers, the technical requirements for fiber fillers, down and feather fillers and other fillers have been specified in detail. In terms of accessories, it is stipulated that the accessories used in infant textile products should not have sharp points and sharp edges that can be touched, and the tensile strength of various accessories that may be picked up by infants and young children should meet the relevant technical indicators. Regarding ropes, detailed regulations have been made for the ropes of different parts of baby clothing such as the head, neck, shoulders and waist. In addition to the above requirements, the new standard also stipulates that sharp objects such as metal needles should not be used or left in the packaging of infant textile products; the durable label of infant clothing that can be worn next to the body should be placed in a location that does not directly contact the skin; Other requirements for textile accessories must comply with relevant national regulations and mandatory standards.
All requirements are fully in line with international standards. The formulation of the new standard lasted for 8 years. As the first domestic mandatory standard specifically for infant and child textile products, it has fully absorbed and borrowed from the technical and regulatory requirements of developed countries on the safety of infant and child textile products. Its strictness has been equal to or even exceeded The standards of developed countries. Among them, the regulations on unreasonable design of safety hazards such as ropes, machinery, etc. have filled the gaps in my country's standards; in terms of chemical safety, six plasticizers and limit requirements for two heavy metals, lead and cadmium, have been added, which are already stricter than the relevant American standards; The requirements for rope and chemical safety also exceed the relevant national standards of Japan and South Korea. It can be seen that once the new regulations are implemented, the overall quality of my country's infant and child textile products will be greatly improved.
The scope of application is specifically for baby products. Before the implementation of the new standard, the main applicable standard for my country’s textile products was the "National Basic Safety Technical Specifications for Textile Products" (GB18401-2010). This standard is applicable to textile products for clothing, decoration and household use produced and sold in my country, including adults , Infant and children textile products. In contrast, the new standard specifically targets infants and children’s textile products sold in my country, with more specific targets and clearer definitions. The new standard's assessment classification index requirements also focus more on the safety of infants and children. For example, the safety technology category is divided into three categories: A, B, and C, and infant textile products are required to meet the requirements of Category A, and requirements are set for labeling.
The promulgation of the new standards will greatly increase the technical threshold of my country's infant and child textile products, and bring about a significant increase in the cost of product design and development, raw material procurement, and laboratory testing. After the transition period, China's infant and child textile industry may face a reshuffle. If small and micro apparel companies do not update and respond in time, they are likely to be eliminated by the market. From the perspective of the long-term development of the infant and child textile product market, the introduction of the new standards will help improve the overall production safety technical standards of the textile industry in my country, and will help force companies to carry out technological innovation and product upgrades, which is more in line with international standards and market demand. The fit is of great significance to the development of the entire children's clothing market.
In order to adapt to the requirements of the new regulations as soon as possible, the inspection and quarantine department recommends that the raw and auxiliary materials be strictly controlled, and suppliers are required to provide qualified test reports or entrust qualified laboratories to conduct tests to ensure the quality and safety of raw and auxiliary materials; Children’s clothing is designed to be safe. Before putting into mass production, conduct design safety reviews of baby and children’s clothing to ensure that cords and accessories meet the standard requirements; focus on key processes such as printing and dyeing and finishing to ensure that plasticizers and heavy metals do not exceed the limit requirements; four It is to make full use of the period before the implementation of the standard and the transition period to speed up technological transformation and upgrading to ensure that the baby and children textile products produced meet the mandatory standard requirements.