A Toronto retailer has recalled a winter hat after at least one customer discovered a label inside warning that it contained chemicals that could cause cancer and birth defects.

One woman who bought the toque discovered the label after purchasing the item at M Boutique’s Vaughan Mills location sometime last week.

After taking the hat home and preparing to pre-wash it, Tara Lawless discovered a label inside that warned: “This product may contain chemicals considered by the state of California to lead to cancer, birth defects or other harms.”

“Being a mom of two young boys, ages eight and two, I immediately put it back into the bag, tied it and placed it outside of our apartment,” the woman told CP24 in an email.

She said an email exchange then followed with a store spokesperson who explained that labelling guidelines are much stricter in California, the district that the Chinese-made hat was imported from.

The store representative reassured her that they would not sell something that they wouldn’t wear themselves.

Lawless told CP24 that when she returned to the store to exchange the hat for a Canadian-made product, she noticed that the labels had been removed from the remaining inventory.

She said the experience left her feeling angry and violated.

“If you see that tag that is clearly identifiable that warns people about the harm, why are you then still agreeing to purchase it and resell it?” Lawless said.

The boutique told CP24 Tuesday that the hats have now been completely removed from store shelves.

“M Boutique does not manufacture our own product and would never knowingly purchase or sell a product that would cause harm to our customers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “As such, M Boutique has recalled all of these hats and is offering a full refund to those customers who have purchased them.”

The store said about 20 of the hats were sold, mainly in the GTA.

The company blamed a problem at its warehouse and said if the label had been discovered before it hit store shelves, the hats would have been returned to California.

The hats are apparently made from acrylic with a faux fur trim. The label does not specify which chemical in particular triggered the warning label by authorities in California, where a 1986 law requires items to be labelled if they contain chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other sorts of reproductive harm.

Lawless said it feels wrong that items that are required to carry a health warning in California don’t need one if sold here.

“I was very, very upset that it’s ok by our government and by retailers and just by us as a whole,” Lawless said. “It’s so wrong. It’s so wrong to be exposing us and children and elderly people and unborn babies to such toxic, life-changing things. It’s not right.”

Health Canada told CP24 Tuesday that while removing labels on imported clothes sold in Canada is not illegal, under the general prohibition of the Consumer Product Safety Act, stores are bound to stop selling a product if they have information that it has negative health impacts.

While Health Canada does not actively inspect all imports, they do follow up with retailers if they receive a complaint about a product, the agency said.

In a further statement, Health Canada said the following:

“Consumer products sold in Canada are subject to stringent health and safety requirements. The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act includes a general prohibition on the manufacture, importation, advertisement or sale of any consumer product that poses an unreasonable danger to human health or safety,” the statement read. “This means that industry has an obligation to identify existing or potential hazards in the consumer chemical products they market and properly mitigate them. Hazards that are not covered by specific regulations may be addressed by the general prohibition.”

Health Canada said that California’s Proposition 65 law requires that products sold in the state carry a label, even if the product's amount of the chemical deemed by the state to cause cancer or reproductive problems is quite low.

“The labels do not provide information on how much of the chemical the product contains, how an individual might be exposed to any of the chemical in the product, and how likely it is that exposure to harmful levels of the chemical could occur,” Health Canada said in its statement. “Manufacturers and distributors may choose to add the warning label on a precautionary basis to all products that might contain any of the chemical, as the easiest way of ensuring compliance with Proposition 65 requirements.

“This is why some products bought in Canada sometimes carry a warning label only required by the State of California.”