Leather has become the sign of a luxurious – and durable – choice for practically any product you can think of. As the ads say, “the rich scent, luxurious texture and easygoing attitude” makes it a popular choice. Leather has been around as long as people – ancient peoples used materials that were available, like …
From Alaska to Southern California, sea stars (or as I call them, starfish. But scientists like to point out they’re not fish, ergo: “sea stars”) are dying by the millions. Drew Harvell, a marine epidemiologist at Cornell University, calls it the largest documented marine epidemic in human history. The disease deflates …
We received a comment on one of our blog posts recently in which the reader chastised us for exaggerating issues which they believe are disproportionate to the facts. In their words: For instance formaldehyde… is a volatile chemical…no doubt it is used in the textile industry a great deal…but looking for this chemical in end …
I found a series on the colorful rivers in our world – but not the kind you’d want to raft or kayak on, because the colors are produced by toxins. The fish are dead. These ravaged rivers stand as red flags to the monumental mismanagement of our precious water resources. And though most people think …
Americans live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, yet American children are less likely to live to age 5 than children in comparable nations – and I was shocked to find that America has the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world.[1] Our children are especially vulnerable to the presence of …
A hot topic in the media right now is the toxicity of chemical flame retardants that are in our furniture and are migrating out into our environment. Tests have shown that Americans carry much higher levels of these chemicals in their bodies than anyone else in the world, with children in California containing some of …
I always thought I wouldn’t have to worry about some things – like, oh, incoming missiles, terrorist plots, and chemicals which could destroy me – because I thought my government would have something in place to protect me. But the recent chemical spill in West Virginia changed that: for those of you who don’t know, …
Polyester is the terminal product in a chain of very reactive and toxic precursors. Most are carcinogens; all are poisonous. And even if none of these chemicals remain entrapped in the final polyester structure (I don’t know enough chemistry to figure that one out – can anybody help?), the manufacturing process requires workers and our …
Polyvinyl chloride – PVC – is the most toxic plastic for our health and it’s not so good for the environment either. First, it’s made from petroleum, one of our scarce natural resources. Globally, over 50% of PVC manufactured is used in construction, in products such as pipelines, wiring, siding, flooring and wallpaper – as …
Happy 2014 everybody! This week’s blog was written by Alice Shabecoff, co-author with her husband Philip of Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on our Children. I think she raises some issues that we all should be thinking about – and I agree with her statement that this isn’t all doom and gloom, because once we …
OEcotextiles 