Fabric warnings wanted

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 28

Fabric warnings wanted

While it might be too radical to ban the sale of molleton cloth altogether, the sale of ready-made garments in the cloth was illegal under the Children’s Night Clothes Act, Mr David Russell, assistant director of the Consumers’ Institute, has said.

“Shops selling this fabric, or any other fabric intended for children’s nightwear, should have some point-of-sale notice as to the degree of flammability of the fabric,” he said. “With molleton cloth there should be a requirement that shops put up a notice warning customers that the material is highly flammable and should not be used for children’s dressing gowns or nightwear.”

Such warning notices were hot required under the Act, but shops should have a “moral obligation” to do so, he said.

Of as much concern to the institute was the inadequate labelling of children’s nightwear on flammability which the survey revealed, he said. The Consumers Institute feels there should be a labelling requirement for all children’s nightwear. The laws does not adequately cover the question of labelling about the flammability of a garment.” The act divided the labelling of children’s nightwear into two section. The first concerned flame-resistant fabric. If it was flame resistant, synthetic, and melted when ignited, it had to be

a labelled. If it lost its flame resistance after washing it had to be.labelled to that effect. But all other flame-re-sistant fabrics did not re-

quire a label. “The trouble with this is that if a garment for sale in a shop has no label it could either be flame-resistant or it could be old stock that has not been labelled. It could easily lead to misunderstanding.” Mr Russell said. “Manufacturers should have a moral obligation to label children’s nightwear as to its flammability. As the law stands, such labelling is not required in all cases, but it would be no skin off a manufacturer’s nose to make sure that all children’s night attire is labelled.”