Showing posts with label important. Show all posts
Showing posts with label important. Show all posts
Sunday, December 18, 2016
How Important Is It to Wash New Clothes Before Wearing Them
How Important Is It to Wash New Clothes Before Wearing Them
How Important Is It to Wash New Clothes Before Wearing Them?
January 30, 2016 | 250,122 views
By Dr. Mercola
Raise your hand if youre guilty of bringing home a new shirt or pair of pants from the store and wearing them, sans washing. Its very common, maybe even typical, as many fabrics look pristine when theyre fresh off the rack.
You probably assume theyre clean or at least relatively so, but tests conducted by Philip Tierno, Ph.D. director of Microbiology and Immunology at New York University, at the behest of Good Morning America, uncovered some disturbing compounds lurking on clothing.
And this is only one reason to consider washing before wearing. Many clothing items are also contaminated with chemicals and dyes that may lead to irritation or other health issues.
Even insects (like lice) could potentially be transmitted on new clothes. If youre currently not a washer-before-wearing type, you may change your mind by the end of this article.
Feces, Respiratory Secretions, Vaginal Organisms and More
Tierno tested pants, blouses, underwear, jackets and other clothing items purchased from chain clothing stores (including both high-end and low-end options). The tests revealed a number of unsavory compounds lurking on the "new" clothes, including:1
- Respiratory secretions
- Skin flora
- Fecal flora
- Yeast
Perhaps not surprisingly, swimsuits, underwear and other intimate items were the most heavily contaminated. Tierno told ABC News:2
"Some garments were grossly contaminated with many organisms … indicating that either many people tried it or ... someone tried it on with heavy contamination …
In a sense, you are touching somebodys arm pit or groin. So you want to be protected thats all … You may not come down with anything and, most cases you dont, but its potentially possible."
What types of illnesses could you potentially get from trying on contaminated clothes? Organisms that cause hepatitis A, travelers diarrhea, MRSA, salmonella, norovirus, yeast infections and streptococcus are all fair game when it comes to clothing items tried on by multiple people.
Even lice and scabies could potentially be transmitted by trying on clothes. Is it likely? No. Possible? Yes, particularly if your immune system is not functioning up to par. Tierno told The Huffington Post:3
"The good thing is that most people have a very robust immune system, so they can usually fight off the small number of organisms they may get on their body … The fact that you come into contact with one doesnt mean youre going to get sick."
Chemical Contaminants: Another Reason to Wash New Clothes
Depending on what country your new clothes were manufactured in, they may contain multiple chemicals of concern. Among them are azo-aniline dyes, which may cause skin reactions ranging from mild to severe.
If youre sensitive, such dyes may leave your skin red, itchy and dry, especially where the fabric rubs on your skin, such as at your waist, neck, armpits and thighs. The irritants can be mostly washed out, but it might take multiple washings to do so.
Formaldehyde resins are also used in clothing to cut down on wrinkling and mildew. Not only is formaldehyde a known carcinogen, but the resins have been linked to eczema and may cause your skin to become flaky or erupt in a rash.4
Nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE), meanwhile, is a toxic endocrine-disrupting surfactant used to manufacture clothing.
You certainly dont want to be exposed to NPE if you can help it, but when consumers wash their clothes, NPEs are released into local water supplies where wastewater treatment plants are unable to remove them.
When NPEs enter the environment, they break down into nonylphenol (NP), a toxic, endocrine-disrupting chemical that accumulates in sediments and builds up in fish and wildlife.
Chemicals May Lurk in Your Clothing Even After Washing
Unfortunately, washing wont remove all the chemicals in your clothing. For instance, the antimicrobial triclosan is sometimes added to fabrics, including clothing. Research has shown that triclosan can alter hormone regulation and may interfere with fetal development.
Animal studies have also raised concerns about its ability to affect fertility, and bacteria exposed to triclosan may also become resistant to antibiotics. Even an increased cancer risk has been suggested.
Stain-proof clothing, meanwhile, is a common source of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), which are toxic to humans and the environment. Youll most often hear about PFCs in relation to non-stick cookware, but theyre also common in fabrics.
Unless the clothing you buy is organic, it also is likely made from genetically engineered (GE) cotton that is heavily treated with pesticides and other chemicals during production. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) explained:5
"The chemicals used in cotton production dont end with cultivation. As an aid in harvesting, herbicides are used to defoliate the plants, making picking easier.
Producing a textile from the plants involves more chemicals in the process of bleaching, sizing, dying, straightening, shrink reduction, stain and odor resistance, fireproofing, mothproofing, and static- and wrinkle-reduction.
Some of these chemicals are applied with heat, thus bonding them to the cotton fibers. Several washings are done throughout the process, but some of the softeners and detergents leave a residue that will not totally be removed from the final product.
Chemicals often used for finishing include formaldehyde, caustic soda, sulfuric acid, bromines, urea resins, sulfonamides, halogens, and bromines.
Some imported clothes are now impregnated with long-lasting disinfectants which are very hard to remove, and whose smell gives them away. These and the other chemical residues affect people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.
Also, people have developed allergic reactions, such as hives, to formaldehyde through skin contact with solutions on durable-press clothing containing formaldehyde."
Conventionally Grown GE Cotton Is the Worlds Dirtiest Crop
You might be surprised to learn that cotton is considered the worlds dirtiest crop due to the cotton industrys heavy use of hazardous herbicides and insecticides, including some of the most hazardous insecticides on the market. According to the Organic Trade Association:6
"Cotton is considered the worlds dirtiest crop due to its heavy use of insecticides, the most hazardous pesticide to human and animal health. Cotton covers 2.5% of the worlds cultivated land yet uses 16% of the worlds insecticides, more than any other single major crop.
Aldicarb, parathion, and methamidopho, three of the most acutely hazardous insecticides to human health as determined by the World Health Organization, rank in the top ten most commonly used in cotton production.
All but one of the remaining seven most commonly used are classified as moderately to highly hazardous.
Aldicarb, cottons second best selling insecticide and most acutely poisonous to humans, can kill a man with just one drop absorbed through the skin, yet it is still used in 25 countries and the US, where 16 states have reported it in their groundwater."
As you might suspect, this is hazardous on multiple levels — for the farmers working with these chemicals, the people living nearby, the consumers buying the cotton and virtually everyone else, who will eventually be impacted by this widespread environmental pollution.
This is one reason why I strongly encourage you to choose organic cotton clothing whenever possible — it will not be genetically engineered and subject to this onslaught of toxic exposures.
Top Tips for Safer Clothing
Looking for clothing made from organic cotton is an excellent start to finding safe, non-toxic clothing (for you and the environment). You can also look for the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 label, which is indicative that it has been tested by an independent laboratory and found to be free of harmful levels of more than 100 substances, including:
- Azo dyes
- Phthalates
- Heavy metals
- Pesticides
- Allergenic dyes
Finally, many experts do recommend washing new clothes when you bring them home from the store, maybe even twice. If the article of clothing cannot be machine washed, consider running it through a cycle in a hot dryer before wearing it.
You may also want to keep on some clothes while trying on new clothing at a store (at least leave on your undergarments, and then wash those too when you get home). Washing your hands after shopping is also a good idea, as youve been handling clothing that could have any number of chemicals and other contaminants on them.
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Thursday, November 3, 2016
Two of the Most Important Firsts in my Assistance Dog Journey to Date
Two of the Most Important Firsts in my Assistance Dog Journey to Date
Ive decided to participate in an Assistance Dog Blog Carnival developed by Sharon Wachsler at her blog, After Gadget (http://aftergadget.wordpress.com), with this post being my first entry.
According to Wikipedia, "... a blog carnival is similar to a magazine, in that it it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule ..."
According to Sharon, the plan for the Assistance Dog Blog Carnival is to hold it quarterly, guest hosted by a different AD-related blog each time with After Gadget the official home/principle organizer. There are hosts arranged for the next three carnival editions but I have volunteered From Puppy to Public Access for some time after that.
Anyway, the theme for this first carnival is "The First" and what jumped out at me were two of the most important firsts that have occurred in my assistance dog journey so far - the first time I realized that Laurel was alerting me to a medical condition (when she was about 6 months old) and the first time Hardy alerted me on his own (when he was about 3 1/2 months old).
I have written about these firsts in this blog before and I talk about them all the time. In fact, Laurel and I are part of an article in a local magazine in which I talk about how much her alerting has changed my life.
After being on the waiting list for a national service dog program for about 12 years, out of desperation, my husband and I decided to try raising and training my own service dog. Since I use a power chair and have difficulty picking things up and making various body parts work, I planned to train the typical mobility-related tasks. The only types of alert dogs I knew about were for epilepsy and diabetes. July 28th, 2006, we brought home an 8 week old female, yellow English Lab from a very small breeder in Delaware-on-Shawnee, PA, who has since retired. From the very beginning, it was obvious that Laurel was a very intelligent, talented, energetic, enthusiastic (read challenging) service dog prospect who didnt have tons of natural self control. She was our first Lab and we worked on teaching her self control from the start. So, one day when Laurel was about 6 months old, when she threw herself on top of my abdomen and kept me pinned down, I just thought she was being more obnoxious than usual and put her in her crate. Once in there, she started screaming ... making a sound wed never heard before and havent heard since. My husband came racing from upstairs and it made quite an impact on us so that when I started having very severe abdominal spasms about 45 minutes later, we wondered aloud whether there was a relationship between Laurels behavior and my spasms. I noted it in her training journal and did some research, where I was able to find a small amount of information regarding dogs who did alert to peoples severe muscle spasms. Also, in thinking back, I realized that there had been two other incidents when Laurel may have tried to alert me to spasms. I have no doubt that if I had continued to ignore or punish Laurel for trying to tell me what was going to happen, she would have stopped. Im grateful that she was very dramatic and persistent and that I was able to recognize her efforts. She has proven that she not only knows about 45 minutes to an hour before I am going to have spasms but she also knows what muscles will be involved. As anyone who has severe muscle spasms knows, the ability to know and take my pain medications and muscle relaxants before they start is huge - now they tend to last hours instead of days or even weeks! By tracking her alerts and the outcomes, I determined that they were predictive and reliable. And then I trained her to be somewhat more subtle about it. If she can reach the body part that is going to spasm, she can nudge it and if not, she nudges my hand. Laurel also developed alerts for rheumatoid in my chest wall (which feels like a heart attack) and knew last summer, before I or my doctors did, that I had developed steroid-induced diabetes. Although Laurel is only 4, because she wakes me at night, interrupts whatever she is doing during the day to alert and generally keeps track of how Im doing; that, combined with her other tasks, time for training and time to just be a dog keep her very busy.
Seeing how hard Laurel works and how responsible she feels along with the belief that the best chance for my next service dog to do the alerts is to learn from Laurel encouraged me to consider getting my next service dog prospect sooner rather than later.
At the beginning of June, my service dog trainer, Sue Alexander, temperament tested some Lab puppies for me and although I was looking for another yellow, I brought home a handsome 8 week old chocolate boy we named Hardy. Coincidentally, this summer I had a flair of the rheumatoid in my chest wall so Laurel was alerting quite a bit. One time when she was alerting, Hardy came running up to play at which point, Laurel made it very clear that she was doing something serious and it wasnt playtime! That really got Hardys attention and he began carefully watching what she was doing; by the time he was about 3 months old, he started mimicking her alerts. Then one morning, Laurel alerted while Hardy was outside in the yard and when he came back in, he asked to come up on the bed with me and immediately alerted on his own. The next day, he actually alerted before Laurel did so I had some confidence it hadnt just been a fluke before. Although the flair stopped (for which Im grateful), Hardy has alerted appropriately several other times and just recently joined Laurel in alerting for muscle spasms. Obviously, weve also worked very hard on socialization and basic obedience and he demonstrates a lovely temperament that should allow him to become a public access service dog. There isnt much known about dogs that alert to less common medical problems so I am very grateful: that Laurel not only knows something is going to happen but chooses to share that with me; for the first time I realized what she was doing and that she is teaching Hardy the same skills.
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Friday, August 19, 2016
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