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Solution for toxic China-made clothes difficult task
Following concerns of consumers about toxic China-made products, the Standard Measurement and Quality Department (STAMEQ) on June 2 took samples of children’s clothes for testing. However, experts believe that it will be not so easy to deal with questionable products since Vietnam still does not have regulations about product quality standards.
Tran Quoc Tuan, Deputy Head of the Goods Quality Control and Measurement Agency under STAMEQ, said that if formaldehyde is found to be present in clothes sourced from China, it will still be difficult to come up with a solution for the problem because Vietnam still does not have its own standards on allowed thresholds of toxic substances, including formaldehyde, in imported children’s clothes.
A representative from the Goods Quality Control Division No 1 under the agency said that it can test to find the chemical content levels in the imported products, but it still does not know what it can conclude as a result.
“We will have to consult with STAMEQ when releasing a conclusion,” the representative said.
Not only clothes, imported fabric and garment materials also still have no technical standards stipulating safety limits for consumers.
Dr Nguyen Van Thong, Head of the Textile and Garment Institute, said that textiles and garments is a production field which uses big volumes of chemical substances.
Besides formaldehyde, which can cause dermatitis and allergies, fabric dye also contains aezo, a substance that can cause cancer in excessive quantities in fabric; nickel, which is in metal buttons, is also a toxic substance.
While Vietnam still has not installed a technical barrier to prevent the import of toxic products, other countries in the world, including China, have regulations on this and keep strict control over products in circulation.
Thong from Textile and Garment Institute said: “Chinese agencies have a foundation to inspect the implementation of regulations on the standards, and they have found that the garment products in Guangdong do not meet the standards. It is Chinese newspapers which made public the information about the toxic substances in products,” he said.
Analysts say that Guangdong is among the biggest garment product providers in Asia, and can provide products with different quality levels demanded by importers. It is really a worrying thing that many garment products available in Vietnam are sourced from China and come to Vietnam through illegal import channels. The products do not show clear origins and do not have clear labels.
Vu Kim Hanh, Director of the Business Research and Support Centre, while talking to Thanh Nien local newspaper recently, emphasised that the signing of a bilateral trade agreement between Vietnam and China is a necessary thing in the time to come in order to limit illegal imports.
Nguyen Nga
vietnamnet
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