California banned forever chemicals from your closet
On January 1, 2025, California made it illegal to sell new clothing made with PFAS. These are the chemicals brands use to make fabric shrug off water, stains and sweat. You know them as the reason a jacket beads up in the rain.
Scientists call them forever chemicals because they barely break down. The US Environmental Protection Agency says many PFAS "break down very slowly and can build up in people, animals, and the environment over time," and that peer-reviewed studies link exposure to certain PFAS to lower fertility, some cancers and interference with the body's natural hormones.
A Made in California tag can feel like a promise. It's a good sign, and it's narrower than most shoppers assume.
What California's PFAS law bans
The law is AB 1817, signed in September 2022. It covers almost every fabric thing you'd buy for a home or a body: clothing, underwear, scarves, bags, bedding, towels, curtains and table linens. A separate state program covers carpets and rugs.
A product breaks the law in one of two ways:
- The brand added PFAS on purpose, to make the fabric do something like repel water or stains.
- A lab finds too much fluorine. PFAS are built on fluorine, so testers measure all of it in the fabric. Above 100 parts per million, no one can sell the product in California. In January 2027 that line drops to 50.
Brands that remove PFAS have to replace them with the least toxic alternative, which rules out swapping in a close chemical cousin. And every manufacturer has to give the stores selling its products a written certificate saying the product complies.
There's one exception. Heavy-duty rain gear made for severe wet conditions has until 2028. Until then, it has to carry a plain warning: "Made with PFAS chemicals."
The Prop 65 tag, explained
California voters passed Proposition 65 in 1986. It makes the state keep a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. That list now holds about 900 chemicals.
If a product can expose you to one of them above a set level, the business has to warn you. That's the small "WARNING" tag you've seen on everything from garden hoses to leggings. A warning isn't a ban. It's information, so you can decide.
Anyone can enforce it. Along with the state Attorney General, any person or group acting in the public interest can take a company to task.
In October 2022, the Center for Environmental Health, an Oakland nonprofit, tested sports bras and athletic shirts and found they could expose the wearer to up to 22 times California's safe limit for BPA, a chemical that copies the hormone estrogen. A 2023 round of testing found leggings and shorts at up to 40 times the limit. The group has found BPA in polyester clothing with spandex, and it has pushed more than 90 companies to remove bisphenols from their products.
Read the Prop 65 tag on clothing when you see one. A missing tag doesn't prove a garment is clean.
The fine print: these rules follow the sale, not the sewing
California's PFAS ban and Prop 65 apply to everything sold in California, no matter where it was made. A legging sewn overseas and sold in Los Angeles has to meet the same PFAS rule as one sewn downtown.
On what's inside the fabric, a Made in California tag guarantees what buying anything in California guarantees. The difference is the factory.
- The water. Prop 65 also bars California businesses from knowingly releasing significant amounts of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water. That rule applies where the dyeing and finishing happen.
- The workers. Since 2022, California's Garment Worker Protection Act has banned paying garment workers by the piece. Factories pay them by the hour, and brands that hire a factory share responsibility for any unpaid wages.
- The distance. Los Angeles is home to the largest cut-and-sew apparel base in the country, according to the UCLA Labor Center. A local factory is one that inspectors, journalists and customers can reach.
The rules don't make every factory clean. When the UCLA Labor Center surveyed 307 Los Angeles garment workers, 72 percent said their workplaces were full of dust and 42 percent said exits were regularly blocked. Look for LA brands that show you their factory floor.
How to read a Made in California tag
Before you buy
- Look for where it was sewn, not designed. "Designed in LA" says nothing about the factory. Federal law makes every garment label name the country it was made in, so check the inside tag.
- Check the fiber first. Where something was sewn doesn't change what it's made of. Polyester sewn in Los Angeles is still polyester.
- Ask about PFAS on performance pieces. Anything sold as water-, stain- or sweat-resistant is where PFAS used to live. A brand selling in California should have its compliance certificate.
- Read the Prop 65 tag if there is one. It names the chemical. Look it up before you wear the piece for hours.
Why we flag it
The clothes you wear are a health choice, the same way food is. Where something is made tells you who was watching while it was made: whose water rules the dye house followed, and whose labor laws the sewers worked under.
We show the badge for that reason. It never changes a Toxome Score, which comes from the fabric itself. It's one more fact to have before you get dressed.
Keep reading
Sources
- California Legislature. (2022). AB 1817, Product safety: textile articles: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Chapter 762.
- US Environmental Protection Agency. Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS.
- California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). About Proposition 65.
- Center for Environmental Health. (2022, updated 2023). New Testing Shows High Levels of BPA in Sports Bras and Athletic Shirts.
- California Labor Commissioner's Office. Garment Worker Protection Act (SB 62) FAQs.
- UCLA Labor Center, Garment Worker Center & UCLA LOSH. (2016). Dirty Threads, Dangerous Factories: Health and Safety in Los Angeles' Fashion Industry.
- Federal Trade Commission. Threading Your Way Through the Labeling Requirements Under the Textile and Wool Acts.
FAQ
Not automatically. California bans PFAS in textiles and requires Prop 65 warnings, but those rules apply to everything sold in the state, imports included. What California manufacturing adds is a factory run under the state's water and worker rules. For what's in the garment, check the fiber and the Toxome Score.
Yes. Since January 1, 2025, AB 1817 bans PFAS added on purpose and PFAS above 100 parts per million of total organic fluorine in most textiles sold in California, including clothing. The limit drops to 50 parts per million on January 1, 2027. Heavy-duty rain gear has until 2028 but must be labeled "Made with PFAS chemicals" until then.
It means the product can expose you to a chemical on California's list of about 900 substances linked to cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm, above a set level. Prop 65 doesn't ban the chemical. It requires the warning so you can decide.
No. "Designed in" tells you where the office is. Federal law requires every garment's label to name the country where it was made, so check the inside tag for where it was sewn.
No. Origin and process badges come from what the brand states about each product. We don't audit factories, so these badges are information, not verification. They never change a Toxome score, which comes from what the garment is made of.
