Do you feel scratchy and uncomfortable the moment you wear brand new unwashed clothes and leave them on for some time? Researchers of a study say, that the chemicals that are used during the manufacture of garments and cloth, are left on as toxin residue on them, and can be harmful for health.
Harmful chemicals that are used during the manufacturing of clothes remain embedded in them and even after washing the article of clothing, traces of these toxins remain, says a new study done at Stockholm University.
The researchers have identified that even organic cotton and many other substances like polyester have showed the presence of toxic elements and there was no guarantee that the clothes could be categorized as “non-toxic textiles”.
The researchers carried out a thesis in which they gathered data from 60 outfits of International and Swedish clothing brands. After an initial analysis of these garments, they discovered that the clothes were loaded on toxins and they could classify about 100 chemicals, where as there was a presence of thousands of chemicals in the clothes.
Giovanna Luongo , PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Stockholm University, “Exposure to these chemicals increases risk of allergic dermatitis, but more severe health effect for humans and the environment could possibly be related to these chemicals. Some of them are suspected or proved carcinogens and some have aquatic toxicity.”
They noted high concentrations of aromatic amines, quinolines in the polyester cloth and cotton had high levels of benzothiazoles.The clothes were washed and the researchers then calculated the chemical levels. Some of the chemicals were washed away but posed a threat to the aquatic environment but the other toxic chemicals stayed put and can be categorized as an impending health hazard for the skin of the wearer.
Conny Ostman, Professor in Analytical Chemistry “We have only scratched the surface; this is something that has to be dealt with. Clothes are worn day and night during our entire life .We must find out if textile chemicals go into our skin and what it means to our health. It is very difficult to assess and requires considerably more research.”
