Traces of banned Chinese cotton were found in 19% of a sample of merchandise sold at US and global retailers last year, a study found, highlighting the challenges of complying with US law aimed at blocking of cotton imports linked to forced labor in the United States. China.
In the study published Tuesday, researchers from Natural Resource Analytics, isotope testing company Stratum Reservoir and DNA lab Applied DNA Sciences analyzed clothing samples, cotton swabs and shoes from major retailers and e-commerce platforms. The companies declined to name the retailers whose merchandise they tested.
The scientists used isotope tests, which can link cotton to specific geographic areas by analyzing the concentration of stable elements such as carbon and hydrogen present in both the crop and the environment in which it was grown, experts say. They tested the goods for traces of cotton from Xinjiang, the far west of China.
