Recall of Children’s Pajamas for Flammability Risk

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

In today’s episode, we’re discussing a product recall that was issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for 26 designs of children’s pajamas by a U.K.-based company named Selfie Craft. From 2017-2022, around 40,000 pairs of the now-recalled pajamas were sold for ages 3 through 12.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the recall was due to a failure of the pajamas to meet U.S. flammability standards, presenting a risk of burns to children wearing them. Although no injuries or incidents have been reported for the pajamas, the Commission urged parents to discontinue using the pajamas and to destroy them.

The safety of products like these children’s pajamas are regulated, in part, by the federal government under what’s called the Flammable Fabrics Act. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1191-1204. The Act controls the manufacture of highly flammable clothing and gives authority to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue mandatory flammability standards. These standards apply to products like clothing, vinyl plastic film (such as the material used in disposable diapers and certain raincoats), carpets and rugs, children’s sleepwear, and mattresses and mattress pads.

The flammability standards for children’s sleepwear are more stringent than those for typical adult and children’s apparel. Under the law, apparel manufacturers have to test their products and determine the relative flammability of the textiles used in the apparel. The average burn time and surface characteristics, such as char, are observed and recorded in testing the clothing. The textiles are put into one of three class designations based on the testing outcomes. A Class 3 textile, for example, is considered dangerously flammable and unsuitable for clothing use because it burns too rapidly and intensely. Examples of common noncomplying Fabrics include sheer 100% rayon, sheer 100% silk, 100% rayon chenille, and 100% cotton terry cloth.

In the 1970s, special regulations were developed regarding the flammability of children’s sleepwear to be more stringent than the regulations already in place since the 1950s for adult and children’s daywear clothing. These more strict rules for children’s sleepwear were designed to protect children from small open-flame source fires—such as matches, candles, stoves, and space heaters–rather than large fires started by flammable liquids like gasoline.

Children’s sleepwear is defined as a clothing product manufactured with the intent to be primarily worn for sleeping and activities related to sleep in sizes 0 – 14 and applied to things like children’s nightgowns, pajamas, and robes. Under the law, the fabric used in children’s sleepwear must be flame resistant and self-extinguish—meaning it must not continue to burn—after removing it from a small, open-flame source.

Manufacturers of children’s sleepwear must test the clothing fabric in its original state and after 50 laundering cycles. The tested samples must be retained and recorded.

Importantly, there are a few exceptio