Hanzhi Chen and colleagues measured total arsenic, cobalt, copper, lead, cadmium, zinc, nickel, and chromium in 82 preschool clothing items collected in October 2016. The items were manufactured for retail in China (n = 26), India (n = 18), South Korea (n = 18), and a Southeast Asia group (n = 20; Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines). This is not the peanut study that shares the author surname and year. The closest existing product page is infant clothing. The samples are preschool garments, not only infant garments.
Key numbers
Table 1 is milligrams per kilogram of dry textile after acid digestion of 0.5000 g. It is total content, not a migration test. Arsenic is total arsenic. Chromium is total chromium. Cobalt, copper, and chromium were detected in every sample. Overall lead detection frequency was 42.7%.
| Region | n | tAs median | Pb median | Cd median | Ni median | Cr median | Cu maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 26 | 0.097 | 0.562 | 0.0021 | 9.57 | 15.5 | 481 |
| India | 18 | 0.025 | <0.004 | 0.009 | 3.71 | 6.86 | 184 |
| South Korea | 18 | 0.021 | <0.004 | 0.0002 | 4.63 | 8.82 | 98.0 |
| Southeast Asia | 20 | 0.092 | <0.004 | 0.003 | 13.2 | 13.5 | 73.2 |
| All items | 82 | 0.065 | <0.004 | 0.0028 | 5.83 | 11.8 | 481 |
The pooled maxima are arsenic 0.621, cobalt 4.64, copper 481, lead 4.38, cadmium 0.114, zinc 467, nickel 33.0, and chromium 49.9 mg/kg. The pooled cobalt minimum is 0.0176 mg/kg. The authors state that no result exceeded OEKO-TEX Standard 100 (2022 edition) or the Chinese textile standard they cite (GAQSIQC and SAC, 2015). The numeric ceilings of those instruments are not printed in the text used here, so they are not entered as limits.
Methods (brief)
Dry sample, 0.5000 g, nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide digestion. Limits of quantification are given as 0.20 to 4.00 µg/kg across the metals. Results below the detection limit were replaced with half the detection limit for the authors’ statistics. Item types were short-sleeve shirts (24), shorts (12), long-sleeve shirts (12), trousers (12), briefs (12), and socks (10). Eighteen items were coated and 64 were uncoated. Sampling was in triplicate.
Evidence fitness
The table supports total-content distributions by manufacturing region. It does not support a skin-migration concentration, an inorganic-arsenic concentration, or a hexavalent-chromium concentration.
Limitations
Preschool scope is broader than infant clothing. Censoring is handled inside the authors’ medians. Recovery percentages are printed, but the metal order of that recovery list is split across columns in this copy and is not assigned to individual metals here.
Related evidence
Update history
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