FIFTEEN out of 130 batches of children’s clothing were found to be substandard during a recent inspection conducted by the city’s quality watchdog. Three batches of shoes for children also failed the quality inspection.

The inspection, conducted by the municipal market supervision bureau ahead of International Children’s Day that falls on Thursday, targeted 52 companies engaged in clothing manufacturing and circulation and 16 shoes sellers.

The clothes that failed the inspection were found to contain excessive amounts of formaldehyde, have high pH values and poor color fastness, or use accessories that could pose safety hazards to children.

Excessive exposure to formaldehyde can be harmful, causing children to suffer from bronchitis, insomnia and low natural resistance to diseases, while high pH values could damage children’s skin, an official of the bureau said.

Clothing designers like to use accessories such as buttons, bowknots, ropes, straps and small beads to make clothes look nice, but these accessories, once detached, could be potential safety hazards, strangling, tripping or even choking children, the official said.

Industry experts have suggested that parents buy children’s clothes made from soft, permeable materials, such as cotton and silk. They also advised against buying clothes without labels or with incomplete information on labels. It’s better for infants or children younger than 7 to wear clothing without any ropes or straps around their heads and necks, the experts said.

Of the 30 batches of children’s shoes examined by the quality watchdog, three were not up to standard. They were found to have excessive amounts of lead and formaldehyde and their accessories were found to have poor stretching resistance.

Excessive amounts of the heavy metal lead can potentially harm the brain, bureau officials said.

(SD News)