Philadelphia Uni to establish institute for textile & apparel product safety
23 Oct '07
3 min read
Amid growing government and public concerns about the safety of imported items, Philadelphia University is planning to establish the Institute for Textile and Apparel Product Safety to help ensure the safety of clothing made overseas.
As part of its mission, the Institute will conduct research to determine if potentially toxic chemicals are present in imported clothing, identify which toxic chemicals and agents are being used and the extent of their use and help establish protocols for testing and evaluating imported apparel items.
In a related development, David Brookstein, dean of Philadelphia University's School of Engineering and Textiles, addressed the issue of the safety of imported apparel at a public hearing Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C, before the federal Interagency Working Group on Import Safety.
"With concerns growing about the safety of imported toys and toiletries coming into this country, we recognized that imported textile and apparel items might also contain various levels of toxic chemicals," Brookstein said.
"As one of the nation's leading textiles schools, we feel it is important to use our expertise to investigate the possibility of unsafe exposure to potentially toxic textile chemicals and dyes."
For the year that ended July 31, more than $93 billion in textiles and apparel were imported to the U.S. from around the globe, according to data from the Office of Textiles and Apparel of the U.S. Department of Commerce. That year, China accounted for more than 32 percent of all imported textiles and apparel.
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