The "Change" of Accessories: The Hidden Troubles in the Quality of Textile and Garment Products (II)

It was also in early 2011 that Zhejiang's garment company received an order from the EU for a number of children's nylon jackets. This company is small in scale, but it has been engaged in the export of textile and apparel products since the mid-1990s. It has a long history and rich experience. Prior to the production of a batch of products, whether it is fabric or zipper, buttons and other small parts must be checked according to customer requirements. In fact, it is because of a certain sense of product quality that the apparel company's reputation in the industry is still relatively good.

After receiving the order, the company is still in step-by-step arrangement as before. However, the export of these children's nylon jackets has brought the extermination to this clothing company. The relevant European Union found 69.9ppm of tetraaminoazobenzene in the gray sewing thread of these jackets and immediately notified the clothing company in Zhejiang of exceeding the EU's ban on the limit of azodyesin dyes.

It is understood that tetraaminoazobenzene is a harmful aromatic amine. The tetraaminoazobenzenes produced by decomposition in textiles are generally derived from dyes synthesized with it as intermediates. These dyes are mainly acid dyes and disperse dyes. The decomposable aromatic amine dyes are banned by the state compulsory standards. After textiles use azo dyes containing carcinogenic aromatic amines, in the long-term contact with the human body, the dyes may be absorbed by the skin and spread in the human body. Subsequently, under the conditions of biochemical reactions that occur in the human body's normal metabolism, a reduction reaction may occur to decompose carcinogenic aromatic amines, and after activation, changes in the structure of human DNA, causing human lesions and inducing cancer. In 2009, the European Union included tetraaminoazobenzene dyes on the list of banned azo dyes.

Next, EU customers who placed orders with the company also offered huge compensation to them. The apparel company, which was originally of such a small size, simply cannot afford such a huge amount of compensation and can only be bankrupt. In fact, even if this garment company did not go bankrupt in the end, it has not been given the opportunity to receive foreign trade orders from the European Union because it has been notified by relevant parties in the EU. On the surface, this company in Zhejiang is due to the neglect of a very "easy" neglected examination of the sewing thread. In fact, due to the slow recovery of foreign finances, China's exports of textile and apparel products have low profits. Some garment factories have adopted clothing accessories that are cheap and not guaranteed to reduce production costs. The final result is that the Zhejiang garment company went bankrupt, and it can be said that doing a bad job is not conducive to foolishness.

Excessive heavy metal content and residual chemical substances in textile and garment accessories have not attracted the attention of relevant parties in the industry for a long time. Thus it has caused a series of export of textile and apparel products that have been returned in recent years, or have encountered customer claims many times. Considering the long-term development of the entire industry, textile and garment companies must strengthen the inspection of auxiliary materials.

The physical "accidents" of accessories have been hard to prevent. When it comes to physical accidents of textile and garment accessories, it is by no means confined to the phenomenon of zipper breaks, zipper bursts, and lace breaks. The accidents caused by textile and garment accessories far exceeded our imagination.

At about 6:30 p.m. on January 4, 2012, a temporary escalator at Guangzhou Railway Station on Guangzhou Metro Line 2 suddenly broke down. Fortunately, the fracture site was located at the end of the escalator, and the accident did not cause any casualties. Now that our urban construction is getting better and better, public facilities are getting more and more, it is reasonable to say that there is an accident. However, the investigation of the cause of the accident almost surprised all the people. According to the Guangzhou Metro, the cause of the accident was that the escalator comb plate was jammed by a zipper head of a suitcase when the escalator comb plate was subjected to excessive force, causing the comb plate to tilt until it broke. Although a small zipper hasn’t dealt with a “money case”, the lesson is worth pondering.

Of course, the Guangzhou Metro accident is only an incident caused by accessories. However, accidental accessories on the flight suits that we often see on TV are the inevitable events. The flight suits of all countries in the world now use a zipper connection, but in the early flight suits, all buttons were used. Why does such a change occur? Things have to start from scratch.

In 1931, the world's fighter jets and bombers all used piston engines. At the same time, the engine compartment is just below the cockpit, subject to objective technical conditions. Some transmission control mechanisms make the cabin and cockpit not completely blocked. In May of this year, France held a massive joint air, navy and air force exercise. During the exercise, the button on the pilot’s flight suit accidentally fell. Although in the end it was not able to determine where it slipped into the plane along the gap, the consequence was that it caused the plane to crash. Fortunately, pilots were able to survive the parachuting in time.

After the accident, the flight suits of all countries in the world were replaced by zippers from the French Air Force. This small button was also written into the textbook of world aviation history because of this incident. It can be said that the quality of garment accessories has brought about a revolutionary change in human flight suits.

In fact, certain textile and apparel products are more likely to cause greater harm to consumers because of the quality of the accessories because of their specific use population. For example, children's clothing, infants and young children's safety has always been the focus of attention of all parties. However, due to the quality of garment accessories, or the lack of sewing fastness between accessories and fabrics and unreasonable design, buttons, sequins, hot drilling and rivets and other small accessories do not meet the requirements of tests such as tension or bite diagnosis. Form small parts. There are hidden dangers such as suffocation caused by swallowing by children. In addition, there is also a risk of injury to children due to the formation of a pointed or sharp edge of a clothing accessory. Due to the poor processing quality of accessories or the damage after use, various plastics and metal fasteners and zippers are extremely prone to sharp or sharp edges, causing children to be stabbed or cut.

In the quality of textile and garment accessories, our companies, especially export-oriented trade and manufacturing companies, have suffered a lot. Although there is no specific statistical data on the economic losses suffered as a result, it is certainly huge. And there are some textile and garment companies that went bankrupt for this reason. However, the quality of textile and apparel accessories as a whole has not received enough attention from our companies.

Needless to say, Europe and other developed countries and regions will continue to be the major markets for textile and apparel products for export for a long time to come. The various types of technology and trade barriers that they promulgate will, to some extent, indicate the direction of the development of related industries in the future. In order to further enhance the international reputation of our export garments, we will enhance the competitiveness of our textile and apparel products. On the one hand, relevant trade and production enterprises should strengthen their understanding of foreign technical regulations, and on the other hand, they should strengthen the quality control of apparel accessories from the level of self-discipline, deepen the standards for product quality requirements, and then be able to gradually reverse our textile and apparel exports. Product testing and quality assurance are relatively passive.