One of the presenters at the 2011 Living Building Challenge (whose name I’ve been trying to find, but cannot – so apologies to the presenter who remains unnamed), inspired by writer Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, shared a list of ways to choose products that remove the worst of the chemical contamination that plagues many products. …
Why do we say we want to change the textile industry? Why do we say we want to produce fabrics in ways that are non-toxic, ethical and sustainable? What could be so bad about the fabrics we live with? The textile industry is enormous, and because of its size its impacts are profound. It uses …
We live in an environment that is full of chemicals – some which are bad for us and yet are completely natural. We don’t subscribe to the notion that man-made is absolutely bad and natural is absolutely good – botulism is completely natural and can kill you just as dead. But sometimes we adopt products …
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 …
We have all heard the stories of our “growing obesity epidemic” – especially in western nations. It’s an important national problem, and is partly responsible for our soaring health care costs. We often point to obesity as being caused by overeating, fast food, and/or sedentary lifestyles for those having a genetic predisposition to the disease. …
Let’s begin our review of chemicals used in textile processing with the one chemical that is used most often and in far greater quantity than any other: salt. That’s right. Common table salt, the kind you probably use every day. But in the quantities used by this industry it becomes a monster – we’ll get …
In my last post I explained that polyurethane foam (polyfoam) has a plethora of problems associated with it: The chemicals used to manufacture the foam have been formally identified as carcinogens; and the flame retardant chemicals added to almost all foams increase the chemical toxicity. These chemicals evaporate (VOCs) and pollute our indoor air and …
In light of the recent Chicago Tribune series, “Playing with Fire” about the deceptive campaigns waged by manufacturers of flame retardants, it seems that with each call we get, we end up talking about flame retardants. We think that’s skewed, because flame retardants, though certainly something we wouldn’t want to live with, are not the only monsters in the …
I love lists – you know, all those “best of” lists – movies, books, toxic chemicals. Having a list makes it easy for us to tick off those bad chemicals that nobody wants to live with. And in the building industry there have been a proliferation of lists which identify chemicals of concern: the Perkins & …
Design decisions influence our health. Our children start life with umbilical cords infused with chemicals that affect the essence of human life itself – the ability to learn, reason and reproduce. Google’s project coordinator for real estate, Anthony Ravitz, said that Google is trying to use safe building materials because: By focusing on the “health …
OEcotextiles 