Initial Tests Find Lead in Children’s Fast-Fashion Clothing

ATLANTA, March 23, 2026 — Fast fashion is an inexpensive way to dress rapidly growing kids. But preliminary research has found that the fabric in some of these items contains an unwanted, toxic ingredient: lead. After testing several shirts from different retailers, undergraduate researchers found that all samples exceeded U.S. federal regulatory lead limits. They also estimate that even briefly chewing these fabrics (which young kids tend to do) could expose children to dangerous lead levels.

The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2026 is being held March 22-26; it features nearly 11,000 presentations on a range of science topics.

Kamila Deavers, the principal investigator of the project, began studying lead contamination after her young daughter briefly showed elevated levels of lead in her blood from toy coatings, which happened before today’s strict federal lead limits were in place. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission currently has a 100-parts-per-million (ppm) lead limit for children’s products like toys and clothing. So now, Deavers and undergraduate researchers in her chemistry lab at Marian University focus on identifying heavy-metal-exposure risks in everyday life and sharing the results with the local community.

“I started to see many articles about lead in clothing from fast fashion,” says Deavers. “And I realized not too many parents knew about the issue.”