The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) released the fourteenth edition of the AAFA Restricted Substances List (RSL), covering apparel, footwear, travel goods, home textiles, and other fashion accessories in conjunction with its International Product Safety and Environmental Compliance Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which took place May 13. 


The list, which has become a go-to industry resource, together with a growing set of other chemical management tools, can be downloaded for free at the AAFA Web site.

“In a complex global supply chain, the U.S. apparel and footwear industry will find the updated AAFA Restricted Substances List to be a helpful tool as part of an overall robust chemical management program,” said AAFA Environmental Committee Chairman John Eapen, Vice President of Environmental, Health & Safety/Sustainability at American & Efird, Inc. “We extend our gratitude to the AAFA Environmental Committee, the members of the RSL Task Force, and our RSL peer review group for their time and significant contributions to update this important list.”


“As the U.S. apparel and footwear industry continues to confront challenges posed by state, federal, and international chemical management and product safety requirements, the AAFA Restricted Substances List is just one of several tools AAFA offers to facilitate compliance,” said AAFA Executive Vice President Steve Lamar.  “The AAFA RSL can be a helpful resource for the industry as we pursue collaboration and harmonization of complicated rules and restrictions. We are delighted to offer this tool to the industry for free.”


As part of AAFA's continuing efforts to improve and expand the tools AAFA provides its members, and the industry, AAFA recently launched the AAFA mobile app for the AAFA RSL. The AAFA mobile app, which can be downloaded on any smartphone, turns the AAFA RSL into an interactive tool designed to help users navigate the over 200 chemicals listed in the RSL. The AAFA mobile app allows users to filter, search, and sort by categories such as chemical name, CAS number, country, regulation, or any other identifying factor.  The additional features contained in the AAFA mobile app will increase the functionality and usability of what has already become the apparel and footwear industry's RSL.


The link to the RSL as it is on our website is www.wewear.org/rsl. To view it by itself on a phone or tablet, the url is http://aafa.knackhq.com/rsl