American Canvas' decision on printing Children's items

On Friday February 27, 2009 I attended a seminar held for those of us in the garment decorating industry. This seminar provided up to date information regarding and interpreting the Consumer Safety Protection Information Act.

Until now American Canvas has halted the printing of all items intended for children 12 and under. The seminar covered the following section of the act concerning the use of phthalates in inks and other components of children's items:

The term "childcare article" means a consumer product designed or intended by the manufacturer to facilitate sleep or feeding of children 3 or under or to help children with sucking or teething.


So from here on out American Canvas will return to printing and embroidering on all children's items with the exclusion of only the following items:
*children's bibs
*Childrens sleep wear
*Children's one piece garments (to date we have not found a snap on these garments that meets the new federal regulations on lead ppm.)

Thank you all so much for bearing with us while we considered how to continue doing business with in the laws of our federal government.

Those of you familiar with American Canvas's work the past 3 years know we have researched and tested many inks that are phthalate free, phthalate compliant, and to date are in the process of narrowing down our decision of which we will choose to transition our studio into for full time use. We have been working with numerous options because we started our company based on our own environmental activism and workers rights activism. However our industry has not had the exact options that we were looking for but fortunately over the past 1 1/2- 2 years our industry is catching up with our concerns! We will be SO happy when we can announce that 100% of our inks meet our standards but for now we are delighted that so many companies are getting on board to provide us the best technology can provide to date!

Bring 'em on children's designers, we're back in the business of printing our fab organic and sweatshop free kids clothing for you!

For printers and consumers wondering about screen printing ink

About plastisol

Health, Safety, and Environmental Concerns
Plastisol inks are innocuous when used with reasonable care. A true plastisol ink contains no air-polluting solvents or volatile organic compounds. The manufacture, transportation, storage, use, and disposal of plastisol inks do not cause injury, illness, or environmental contamination as long as the appropriate safety and environmental protection procedures are followed. Most plastisol inks have a Health Rating of 1 (hazard - slight), a Flammability Rating of 1 (hazard - slight), a Reactivity Rating of 0 (hazard - minimal) and a Personal Protection Rating of B (wear safety glasses and gloves).

Water-based inks

Health, Safety, and the Environment - Water-Based Inks - The Green Factor

Many textile screenprinters use water-base inks because they, or their customers, believe that waterbased textile inks are safe in the shop and do not damage the environment. What they do not realize is that water-based inks, like all other inks, are industrial chemicals. Screen printers who buy and use water- based inks are required to obey exactly the same local, regional, and federal laws and regulations pertaining to employee training, storage, handling, and disposal as screen printers using any other kind of textile ink.

What can honestly and accurately be said about water-based inks, shop safety, and the environment?

* Water-based inks can be cleaned up with water. most screen printers use mineral spirits or something similar for cleaning up plastisol inks. American Canvas note: We use all earth friendlier soy based reclaiming products and along with many printers activly encourage other printers to stop using harmful reclaiming chemicals that are no longer needed thanks to technological break throughs.
* The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Right to Know (RTK) regulations apply to water-base inks just as much as to any other kind of ink.
* You must have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS Sheets) on all the water- based inks and ink additives in your plant.
* You must make sure your employees read and understand the MSDS Sheets.
* You must train your employees to handle, store, and clean up water-base inks safely and make sure that they do so.
* Some water-base inks contain volatile organic compounds (VOC's), chemicals that evaporate as the ink dries and, unless you have an excellent ventilation system, get mixed into the air everyone in the plant breathes.
* Until recently, some water-base inks or ink additives contained chemicals that were suspected or known to be human carcinogens; that is, they could cause cancer in people exposed to them. Review the MSDS sheets on the inks in your plant carefully to determine if this is the case with any of the inks you use.
* Do not assume that you can dispose of water-based inks, or waste water used to clean waterbased inks off screens and squeegees by dumping it down the drain. Only your local waste water treatment facility can determine if the ink you are using can be disposed of in this manner, and if they do permit it, they will certainly put limits on how much you can dump down the drain.
* If your waste water is not processed by a wastewater treatment plant (if you have a private septic system) you should consult with the nearest health department before you start dumping your waste ink and wash water down the drain.

I am unaware of any research or scientific reports that indicate that the chemicals used in water- based inks are safer to manufacture, use, or dispose of than the chemicals used in plastisol inks, assuming that in both cases the chemicals are processed in accordance with applicable health, safety and environmental protection regulations.

On the other hand, water- based inks, like all other kinds of screen printing inks may be hazardous to your health and damaging to the environment if handled illegally or carelessly.

Leo Belik

More Universities standing up against sweatshop clothes!

More universities ending contracts with sweatshop clothing manufacturers!

acebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy STEVEN GREENHOUSPublished: February 23, 2009The University of Michigan announced on Monday that it was ending its apparel licensing agreement with the Russell Corporation, becoming the 12th university to do so in response to the company’s decision to close a unionized factory in Honduras. writePost(); University of Michigan officials said an agreement under which Russell made T-shirts, sweatshirts and fleeces with university logos would end as of March 31 because Russell had violated the university’s code of conduct calling on licensees to guarantee the basic rights of workers.Michigan joined Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Purdue, Rutgers and several other universities that curtailed agreements with Russell, a subsidiary of Fruit of the Loom, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.On Jan. 31, Russell closed its Jerzees de Honduras plant, where 750 of the 1,800 employees had joined a union, and the management and the union were in a contract dispute.The Worker Rights Consortium, a factory monitoring group sponsored by 185 universities, condemned the closing, saying it had been done partly because of antiunion animus. Another monitoring group, the Fair Labor Association, also found labor violations. In a report issued Feb. 16, Russell said the closing was the result of “economic considerations and was not caused by the presence of the union at the factory.”John Shivel, senior vice president for marketing, advertising and communications at Fruit of the Loom, said the company could not grant an interview about the universities’ decisions.Kelly Cunningham, a University of Michigan spokeswoman, said the school ended Russell’s license on the recommendation of the university president’s Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights.“The committee found that the company had not respected the employees’ right to association and had not adhered to the company’s own standards of conduct,” Ms. Cunningham said. “We do not feel that continuing the license is appropriate.”Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said, “Over a period of two years, Russell engaged in the systematic abuse of the associational rights of its workers in Honduras, thereby gravely and repeatedly violating the universities’ codes of conduct.” His consortium, an independent labor rights monitoring group, and the Fair Labor Association had previously found that Russell’s Honduras operation improperly fired 145 union supporters in 2007. After numerous universities and student groups protested, the company reinstated the workers, paid back wages and granted union recognition.The consortium also found that factory supervisors had harassed and intimidated union supporters and had denied union officials and government inspectors access to the plant.“This is a toxic company,” said Leigh Wedenoja, a University of Michigan senior who is a member of the president’s advisory committee as well as Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality. “We feel that if the university is serious about encouraging human rights, then we could not keep Russell as a licensee.”Last Friday, Cornell announced it was ending its agreement with Russell. A University spokesman, Mike Powers, said “Cornell is committed to respecting the rights of workers around the world, and we expect the companies that are licensed to produce Cornell apparel to share that commitment.”In its report last week, Russell wrote, “We acknowledge that management mistakes were made that led to a failure to adhere” to “standards on freedom of association.”The company vowed to improve its compliance and enhance what it called its “overall corporate social responsibility process,” includes having third-party monitors inspect factories.

Why we are here for you

Thanks for visiting!
American Canvas is a screen printing studio committed to printing on sweatshop free and Eco friendly apparel. We're willing to take the time to educate our customers on the fact that there are many companies that are sweatshop free and cutting edge in the design world.We make it our priority to provide as many options as possible to create the perfect fashion statement for your needs!
We are proud to carry the following lines:

Alo

Alstyle

Alternative Apparel

Anvil

Article 1

American Apparel

Bella

Canvas

Chroma

Continental

Earth Positive

Eco Apparel

Edun Live

Royal Apparel

Econsious

We provide options in Bamboo, organic cotton, recycled textile cotton and recycled plastic for polyester blends and sweatshop free cottons and high performance blends.

We currently specialize in assisting companies to create their own retail lines of branded high end, fashion forward clothes. We also print for special occasion, annual event promotions and souvenirs as well as creating logo wear for businesses. We provide soft hand printing.

Drop us a line, let us know what your looking for and we'll gladly send you a quote complete with photos of apparel options.

The gals of American Canvas Screen Printing Sweat Shop Free and Eco Friendly Apparel For All Your Promo Needs

Our clients ROCK our world! Visit them and see why we love them!

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The problem with the CSPIA

If your wondering why so many awesom, responsible, eco friendly crafters and business owners are up in arms about a law meant to protect kids from dangerous toys and clothes please browse through the links provided @ the web site www.Nationalbankruptcyday.com

So many people have invested an amazing amount of time away from their businesses to fight against and educated government officials on how protecting kids could be done responsibly.

Following this information packed link you will see our next blog entry gives you, the consumer, the small business owner, the indi designer the opportunity to have your voice heard with a simple vote.

Together we can all bring the world to a calmer more sensible and honest place, let's not forget the WE in YES WE CAN...