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TPR | Rights & Justice
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into Hanes and Fruit of the Loom over the potential presence of chemicals in materials used for children’s undergarments.
What the state has not announced is just as important: no specific contaminated product has been identified, no laboratory results or measured concentrations have been made public, and the Attorney General has not announced that either company violated the law.
The investigation is now underway. The evidence behind it remains largely outside public view.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office announced the investigation Oct. 6 and said Paxton issued civil investigative demands to Hanes and Fruit of the Loom.
Civil investigative demands are information-gathering tools. The announcement of a demand does not itself establish that a company committed a violation.
The Attorney General’s public announcement does not include copies of the demands, identify their response deadlines or disclose precisely which records, products or manufacturing practices the state is seeking to examine.
The office says its concerns involve materials used in children’s undergarments.
According to the announcement, synthetic materials such as polyester, rayon and spandex can involve plastic-derived materials or chemical-intensive manufacturing processes. The Attorney General also cited concerns involving microplastics and chemicals including bisphenols, phthalates, PFAS, parabens and fluorine used in textile manufacturing.
The office said research has associated some of those substances with health concerns and said questions remain about possible exposure through prolonged skin contact.
Those general concerns are not evidence that a particular Hanes or Fruit of the Loom product contains one of those substances at a harmful concentration.
The distinction is critical for parents trying to understand what the investigation means.
The Attorney General’s announcement does not identify a particular style, product number, fabric, manufacturing facility or production lot under investigation.
It does not publish laboratory testing showing that a particular children’s garment contains one of the substances identified by the state.
It does not disclose measured concentrations.
And it does not establish that children have been exposed to a harmful level of any substance through either company’s products.
The investigation may eventually produce evidence answering some of those questions. The public announcement does not answer them now.
Hanes is owned by Gildan Activewear.
Gildan told Reuters it would cooperate with the Texas investigation and said it maintains manufacturing and sourcing standards addressing harmful chemicals.
Fruit of the Loom is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Reuters reported that Fruit of the Loom and Berkshire had not immediately responded to requests for comment.
That leaves the public record uneven: Texas has announced its investigation and Hanes’ owner has said it will cooperate, but the underlying investigative demands and product-specific evidence have not been made public.
The next meaningful records could change the story substantially.
Publication of the civil investigative demands could establish exactly what information Texas is seeking and what legal theories are being examined.
Product-specific laboratory results could establish whether particular garments contain substances identified by investigators and at what concentrations.
Responses from the companies could provide additional information about manufacturing, testing and chemical-safety standards.
And an enforcement filing, if one occurs, could move the matter from an investigation into a formal allegation of unlawful conduct.
None of those developments should be presumed.
For Texas families, the record currently establishes something narrower: the Attorney General is investigating Hanes and Fruit of the Loom and says civil investigative demands have been issued.
It does not establish that children’s clothing sold by either company is contaminated or unsafe.
The Texas Public Record will continue following the underlying records as the investigation develops.
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