Formaldehyde in clothes

Across the country, worried parents are checking their kids' clothes to see if they are made in China, and potentially contain a dangerous chemical.

It is skin reactions to Chinese-made clothes that have worried parents across the country.

Maddy Line had bought her son Milo a new set of clothes. How could she possibly know the 100 per cent cotton clothes allegedly contained formaldehyde?

Milo broke out in a shocking rash all over his body within 20 minutes of putting on new clothes.

His mother believes contains the chemical formaldehyde.

"He put the clothes on and by the time I got home the middle of his face had swollen up," Milo's mother Maddy said.

"The bridge of his nose, his top lip was so swollen it was touching his nose and his chin but not his throat," she said.

Sally has been constantly rubbing moisturising cream into her baby's body since it broke into an itchy scaly rash. She worries it could be formaldehyde from her kids clothes.

"Because such a large amount of clothing in our household is made in China - it does make me concerned because it's just the unknown isn't it," she said.

It was Today Tonight's expose that lifted the lid on formaldehyde in clothes imported from China.

The same chemical has already been found in food and Chinese made blankets have been pulled off our shelves.

New Zealand's Target program tested common items of clothing made in China but New Zealand, like Australia, has no safe levels for formaldehyde, a known cancer cause.

At just 20 parts per million, the chemical can induce rashes, headaches, dizziness, joint pain, fatigue, asthma and in the extreme case - cancer.

Remember 20 parts per million is considered high, but the test results from New Zealand were incredible.

Women's corduroys: 290 parts per million.
A spiderman T-shirt: 1,400 parts per million.
Pyjamas: 3,400.
Kids pants: 16,000 parts per million.
White stain resistant pants: 18,000 parts per million.

That's nearly 900 times a reasonable safe level.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, Peter McGauran, ordered authorities to find out what's going on.

"(It's) totally unacceptable. Australian authorities have been caught unprepared," he said.

Until the ACCC tests are finished, it will adopt the European safe levels for formaldehyde.

For many parents, that's simply not enough and clothes will go in the bin until they get the all clear.