American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) released the 17th edition of Restricted Substance List (RSL), the industry's chemical management resource for banned or restricted chemicals and substances in finished home textile, apparel, and footwear products around the world. According to Rick Helfenbein, AAFA's president and CEO the organisation supplies the industry with valuable tools that are needed to manage a responsible and compliant supply chain, and to mitigate the associated risk. AAFA continues to develop the RSL to update international and national regulations restricting the use of certain chemicals in product manufacturing, he added.

RSL’s 17th edition covers 12 chemical categories with more than 250 chemicals and is updated to reflect additions or changes to regulations and laws that restrict or ban certain chemicals in apparel, footwear, and finished home textile products. AAFA's Environmental Taskforce and Peer Review teams review and update the RSL every six months.

AAFA's RSL has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. With its commitment to supporting responsible production throughout the supply chain, AAFA offers access to the RSL for free to the entire apparel and footwear industry.

Representing more than 1,000 world famous name brands, AAFA is the trusted public policy and political voice of the apparel and footwear industry, its management and shareholders, its four million U.S. workers, and its contribution of $361 billion in annual U.S. retail sales.