Ironing out the contaminants

I’m wondering about “no-iron” clothes. What are they exactly, and are they harmful?

Ever since the ancients evolved the urge to dress to impress, we’ve been manufacturing devices to rid our clothes of creases. Then wrinkle-resistant duds swept in to free battalions of housewives from ironing duty (notwithstanding those wacky moms still ironing underwear and sheets).

So what magical substance, pray tell, makes a shirt stay mysteriously crinkle-?free? Formaldehyde resins were the original wrinkle reducer (beginning around the mid-1920s) and are still commonly used. Everything from rayon and wool to cotton and corduroy is regularly treated with the stuff.

But while it keeps your sheets and shirts pretty, problem is, formaldehyde has been classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and it’s also quite the allergen.

Some people have worse reactions to formaldehyde than others. (Picture burning, watery eyes, wheezing and, most commonly, contact dermatitis.) It’s especially bad news for the chemically sensitive.

Washing said item doesn’t help matters much, since permanent-press finishes are designed to be, well, permanent (though levels are reduced the more you wash). In fact, the amount of formaldehyde released from clothing kicks up a notch in humid conditions or if you’re sweating.

Wouldn’t you know it, North America allows over three times more formaldehyde on clothing than Japan does.

At least the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pushed manufacturing giant 3M to phase out the super-bioaccumulative carcinogen PFOS from popular wrinkle and stain protector Scotchgard. (If you have pre-?2002 textiles treated with the stuff, I’d consider nixing them in a hurry.)

Still, you can purchase plenty of stain-repellent khakis, button-?downs, even motorcycle jackets made with a dodgy relative of PFOS – namely Teflon. The key ingredient that goes into the Teflon finish, PFOA, has been deemed a probable cancer-?causer and has until 2015 to be phased out.

Kind of unnerving considering many researchers argue that coated textiles might be one of the largest environmental sources of the chemical.

These days, you’ll find more and more companies claiming to be free of all of the above now that they’re going high-tech to keep creases and ketchup blobs at bay. That’s right, kids, the new and highly untested world of nanotechnology (where scientists play with molecules, oh, 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair) is coming to fashion.

Gone are the stiff coatings of latter days. Thanks to nanotechnology, these treatments are infinitesimally tiny enough to attach to individual fibres without anyone noticing a change. It’s the same tech that lets you put today’s zinc oxide sunscreen on your nose without making you look like a goofy 50s lifeguard.

The headache here stems from the spanking newness of the field. A recent report by the UK’s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution flagged serious concerns about nanomaterials used in consumer products. Experts warned that it could take several decades before we have the capacity to understand the environmental and health repercussions of releasing these materials.

But Nano-?Tex, which supplies a stain, static and stink-resistent fabric protection to the Gap, Old Navy, Sears, Tilleys, New Balance, Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, says it’s free of the loose nano molecules that could get out and cause problems like nano silver and carbon nanofibres. Their Duroblock finish for home textiles is even certified by the green Cradle to Cradle gurus at MBSD. Still, reps admit some of their older clothing finishes do contain PFOA (though those should be phased out by all their brands by the end of the year.)

In general though, you’d be, ahem, hard pressed to find a “self-?maintaining” shirt that gets the green thumbs-up from enviros.

Go the old-fashioned route and get out that ironing board when creases have you frowning (though, since these little appliances are big energy hogs, be sure to shake and hang-dry freshly washed and/or dried duds ASAP to minimize ironing).

And if you’re really stain-prone, tuck a funky lobster bib in your bag for sloppy meals or just do what I do and get yourself a top-?notch natural stain-?buster like Pink Solution’s laundry bar or Biokleen’s Bac-?Out Stain Eliminator. Because face it – clothes aren’t meant to be life-?proof.

Got a question? Send your queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com [rssbreak]