China's first mandatory national standard for infants and children textile products, GB31701-2015 "Safety Technical Code for Infants and Children Textile Products” will come into effect on June 1, 2016. To ensure a smooth transition of the market, the standard sets a two-year implementation transition period, from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2018. During the transition period, products produced before June 1, 2016 and meet the relevant standard are allowed to be sold in the market. The testing agencies will perform testing of the products in accordance with the claimed standard. Starting from June 1, 2018, all related products selling in the market must comply with this standard.

Scope:  

Textile products for infants —Textile products that are worn or used by infants at and below 36 months of age.

Textile products for children— Textile products that are worn or used by children of 3 years to 14 years of age. Cloth and plush toys, cloth crafts, disposable hygiene products, bags, back packs, umbrellas, carpets and professional sports wear, are not within the scope of this standard.

Major Change with GB 18401:  

(1) More detail of Technical Specifications. For mechanical hazards, the standard requires that there should not be any cords and drawstrings around the neck for garments worn by children under 7 years of age; for attachments on textile products, it should have enough tensile strength, and also should not have accessible sharp points and sharp edges. For chemical properties, the standard adds 6 phthalates, Lead, Cadmium requirements. It also adds flammability requirement.

(2) In line with international standards: As china’s mandatory standard forinfants and children’s textiles product, new standard adopted some developed countries’ technical specifications for safety of infants and children’s textile. The strictness is equal to, even more than the standards of developed countries. Once it comes into force, it will improve quality of infants and children’s textile.

(3) Specific Scope: Before this standards comes into force, the standards applicable to infants and children’s textile products is GB 18401-2010: national basic technical code for textile products, which is applicable to textile products for adult, infant and children. Compared to both standards, new standard is specially applicable to infants and children’s textile product selling in the Chinese markets, the scope is more specific and clear. The new standard focuses more on children’s safety. It divides infants and children textile products into class A, Class B and Class C, each class is corresponding to that specified in GB18401. The infant textile products should meet Class A requirements, while children's textile products that have direct contact with the skin should at least meet Class B requirements. The children textile products without direct contact with the skin should at least meet Class C requirements.