Safer Clothes and Textiles Act — California Health and Safety Code §§ 108970-108971
- Citation
- California Health and Safety Code, added by AB 1817 (2022)
- Jurisdiction
- US-CA
- Made by
- California Department of Toxic Substances Control
- Instrument
- Statute
- Status
- In force
What it requires (6 obligations)
From 1 January 2025 no person may manufacture, distribute, sell or offer for sale in California any new, not previously used, textile article containing regulated perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, clothing accessories, leather
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2025-01-01
The verbs reach manufacture, distribution, sale AND offering for sale, so a listing is inside it before a transaction happens. It applies to NEW articles only — not previously used — which leaves resale of existing stock outside. Two definitions do the work here. "Regulated PFAS" means either PFAS intentionally added with a functional or technical effect, or presence at or above a total organic fluorine threshold of 100 ppm from 1 January 2025 and 50 ppm from 1 January 2027. "Textile" expressly includes leather, cotton, silk, jute, hemp, wool, viscose, nylon and polyester, and "textile articles" covers apparel, accessories, handbags, backpacks, draperies, shower curtains, furnishings, upholstery, bedding, towels, napkins and tablecloths.
Quoted from Health and Safety Code § 108971(a)(1), with the definitions read from § 108970.
Outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions is exempt from the prohibition until 1 January 2028. But from 1 January 2025 such apparel may not be distributed, sold or offered for sale in California unless accompanied by a legible and easily discernible disclosure stating "Made with PFAS chemicals", including for online listings.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Apparel, textiles
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2025-01-01
This is a deferral with a condition attached, not a clean exemption — and the condition starts on the SAME date the general ban does. The statute prescribes the wording. It also names online listings expressly, so a compliant physical hangtag with a silent product page does not discharge it. Note the verbs here omit "manufacture", unlike (a)(1).
Quoted from § 108971(a)(2).
A manufacturer must use the least toxic alternative, including alternative design, when removing regulated PFAS from textile articles to comply with this chapter.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, leather
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2025-01-01
A substitution duty, and it is easy to miss because it constrains HOW compliance is reached rather than what the product must contain. Removing PFAS by swapping in a different problem chemistry is not compliance with this subdivision. It expressly contemplates alternative DESIGN, not only alternative chemistry.
Quoted from § 108971(b).
A manufacturer of a textile article must provide persons who offer the product for sale or distribution in California with a certificate of compliance stating that the article complies with this chapter and does not contain any regulated PFAS.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, leather
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2025-01-01
A document duty running from the manufacturer to everyone downstream who offers the goods, which makes it the practical mechanism a retailer uses to discharge its own exposure. Because the threshold in the definition drops to 50 ppm on 1 January 2027, a certificate issued against the 100 ppm figure does not carry forward — the statement is that the article complies with the chapter, and the chapter moves.
Quoted from § 108971(c).
From 1 January 2027 the total organic fluorine threshold in the definition of "regulated PFAS" falls from 100 ppm to 50 ppm, so a textile article at or above 50 ppm total organic fluorine is inside the prohibition and the certificate-of-compliance duty.
No date set Scheduled Adopted, dates set, not yet in force
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, clothing accessories, leather
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2027-01-01
The step sits in the definition, not in the prohibition, which is why it is easy to miss: § 108971 is unchanged, but what it prohibits widens. A certificate of compliance issued against the 100 ppm figure states compliance with a chapter that has since moved.
Quoted from Health and Safety Code § 108970(g)(2)(B): "Commencing January 1, 2027, 50 parts per million."
From 1 January 2028 the deferral for outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions ends, and the prohibition on regulated PFAS applies to that apparel as well.
No date set Scheduled Adopted, dates set, not yet in force
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Apparel
- Markets
- US-CA
- Entry into force
- 2028-01-01
Until that date the same apparel carries the "Made with PFAS chemicals" disclosure required since 1 January 2025.
Quoted from § 108971(a)(2): "Paragraph (1) does not apply to outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions until January 1, 2028."
This is a register, not advice. It records what an instrument says and when it applies. Whether it applies to a particular company, product or shipment is a question for somebody who knows that business, and the answer is frequently not what the summary above would suggest.
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