The Dangerous Flammable Fabrics
Burning Ourselves, Our Children and Our Senior Citizens
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Children Wearing Daywear Are Not Adequately Protected By CS 191-53 Burning injuries to children have been greatly reduced by the sleepwear laws but children are still being burned wearing daywear, which needs only to comply with CS 191-53 [CFR (1610)] standard. The children’s two sleepwear laws have prevented morbid and fatal injuries to many children. The sleepwear laws, entitled ‘DOC FF 3-71,’ Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear for Children 1 to 6 years of age, and ‘DOC FF 5-74,’ Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear sizes 7-14, have reduced the morbidity and death of children. It is ironic that the children are not protected from flammable fabrics when wearing daywear. Children continue to be disfigured and crippled due to burn injuries incurred wearing daywear. The argument by the textile industry that the self-extinguishing daywear can not be produced is no longer true. Nylon and polyester are available. At least a warning label should be mandated. Dangerous Children’s Daywear is Being Sold for Sleepwear The Consumer Product Safety Commission is at present preparing a new standard to prevent children’s daywear from being marketed as children’s sleepwear. Children’s daywear remarkably resembling sleepwear, is being manufactured in the United States as well as being imported from abroad. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is attempting to eliminate this practice. The Mail Order Association of America has developed, under the Procedures of the Development of Voluntary Product Standards of the US Department of Commerce, as a revision of CS 191-53, Body Measurements for the Sizing of Apparel for Girls. A possible use of this standard is to prevent the manufacturer of daywear with children’s sleepwear body dimensions.
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About the Book
Historically and persisting to this day, there has been a barbaric attitude toward gruesome and fatal injuries from flammable fabrics. Reliable burn injury data show hundreds of garment burn injury fatalities, annually and morbidly, painfully, and permanently injured victims form flammable fabrics. Industrial representatives argue that the total number of injuries is small and that the cost-benefits to the vast majority preponderantly favor the status quo. The children’s sleepwear laws have dramatically reduced the frightful, destructive injuries to innocent children and safer fabrics are appearing in the stream of commerce. An effective warning label on dangerous garment fabrics would help build a market for safer clothing and enable the consumer to choose safer garments. More importantly, an effective warning label would reduce the number of dangerous flammable fabric victims. This text places an emphasis on the value of a warning label, which should be mandated on all new clothing to reduce the flammable fabric injuries and fatalities each year. It is especially important to alert mothers of flammable fabric risk to protect their children. Currently, the largest fatality groups are children 2-5 years of age and senior citizens over age 65. The author hopes to promote the use of an effective warning label to circumvent fabric burn injuries and to reduce disfiguring and fatal burn injuries.
About the Author
Dr.
Charles S. Beroes is an associate professor emeritus at the University of
Pittsburgh, where he has taught Chemical Engineering for thirty-eight years. He
is a member of twelve professional societies including the Combustion
Institute, the American Society for Testing Materials and the American
Institute of Textile Chemists and Colorists. Dr. Beroes has been researching
the flame retardation of textile fabrics for over seventeen years. He is
conducting a continuing study on the vulnerability of human skin to hot flames.