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Washington, DC ?An FTC
sponsored workshop devoted to
care rule changes brought many
of the country’s
recognized experts
in the field together
to discuss the
consideration
of four specific
changes/ additions
to the Trade Regulation
Rule on Care Labeling of Textile
Wearing Apparel and Certain
Piece Goods, 16 CFR Part 423.
The transcript confirms a genuine
desire to provide consumers with
the care instructions they need.
The main areas covered were as follows:
1... To require that an item that can be safely home laundered must be labeled with washing instructions.
This is a change from the current
requirement that either a washing
OR a dry cleaning instruction must
be provided. If approved, this
modification would require that a
garment labeled “Dry Clean?also
include home laundering
instructions. 
Garments labeled
“Dry Clean Only?will not be
affected since these garments
already require documentation
that the garment would be
harmed if laundered. At the
workshop empirical data was
presented supporting the
proposal. Consumers have
demonstrated a strong
preference for home
laundering over dry
cleaning whenever
possible. They prefer
the convenience and
economy of home laundering.
Over half of the respondents in
the study had even laundered an
item labeled
“Dry Clean?and
62% said that they
were satisfied
with the results.
Several
environmental
groups also
supported the
proposal as a
means of reducing
the incidence of dry cleaning and
the use of associated chemicals.
2... To allow an instruction for “Wet Dry cleaning?
This new technology employs computer-controlled washers and dryers to regulate precisely the mechanical action, fluid levels, temperatures and other factors. There was a general agreement concerning the efficacy of the process and the environmental benefits it poses over the use of less environmentally friendly dry cleaning chemicals. However, because it is such a new technology, there is little established protocol for quantifying the efficacy of the process. The lack of these protocols prohibits the manufacturers of apparel from establishing the “reasonable basis? documentation required by the Rule. The Commission also requested comments on the need for fiber identification on garments labeled for this process to assist the operator in minimizing damage and maximizing results. The Commission delayed further action until the industry develops the testing and evaluation protocols necessary. They will revisit the issue this summer.
3... To clarify what constitutes a “reasonable basis?
Each care instruction provided to
the consumer must be supported
by a reasonable basis of evidence
that the instruction is accurate.
Specifically, a reasonable basis
consists of reliable
evidence that:
The commission proposes to
amend the reasonable basis
definition to clarify that the
reliable evidence must apply to
the complete garment as well as to
the component parts. For example,
there are incidences where the
components may test satisfactorily
for a particular cleaning method,
but when brought together in a
completed
garment
may bleed
across adjacent
colors. Or,
possibly,
components
test well but
the thread used in assembly might
shrink or discolor.
4... To harmonize water temperatures with AATCC standards.
This change would simply redefine the temperatures associated with cold, warm and hot wash water descriptors to bring them into agreement with the testing protocols established by AATCC. The new upper ranges would be:
They can be found
on the Textile Industry Affairs
web site, www.textileaffairs.com,
or directly from ASTM. Call
ASTM at (610) 832-9500 and
request the most recent Annual
Book of ASTM Standards,
Volume 07.02. The symbols are
listed in the index as Standard
D5489-96c under “Fabrics?
sub-category “Guides for?
The ASTM symbols are
accepted in NAFTA countries,
ISO/GINETEX symbols are
accepted in most of Europe and
Asia, and Japan has their own
symbol system. Negotiations are
under way to harmonize the two
major systems, ASTM and
GINETEX, into a truly universal
symbol system for care
procedures.
You may continue
to use words with appropriate
translations.
Those instructions that are not
provided for in symbols must
be provided in words.
1) U.S. consumers perform
over 660,000,000 wash loads
every week! In general, these
wash loads are performed by
women who do 88% of the home
laundry. The types of washers
used for all this home laundry
may show some variance in the
future as high efficiency front-loading
washers enter the market.2) As a rule of thumb, manufacturers of washable apparel anticipate a life expectancy of 50 washings for their products. The time span covered by these 50 laundering varies widely from less than a year for products that get washed regularly like under-wear and socks, to several years for items that are worn seasonally or only for special occasions. Many laboratories use testing protocols that mimic results for up to 50 washings to predict garment life cycle performance. Testing beyond 50 washing cycle is usually considered "stress" conditions.
3) Consumers, on average, have 8 laundry products in the laundry room: 3 types of detergent, 1 regular sodium hypochlorite bleach, 1 oxygen color- safe bleach, 2 fabric softeners (a liquid and dryer sheets), and 1 stain remover. Virtually every household has some type of detergent on hand (99%). 87% of households have a sodium hypochlorite bleach on hand and 76% have an oxygen, color- safe bleach.
4) Colored items are the most frequent type of wash load (36% of all loads) followed by whites (18%) and mixed colors loads (18%). All-colored loads are driving the increase in the overall number of wash loads. All/mostly cotton loads show a similar increase. Combined, the obvious driver for increased wash loads is colored cotton apparel. This reflects the rise in consumer demand for this type of apparel.
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