The Dangers of Synthetic Fabrics

As individulas we like to explore on what is the best products to use for our body, hair, skin, and even makeup. We try to avoid any things that can harm our skin or health. We are always cautious about the foods we put into our bodies and try to be careful about ourselves. The largest external human organ is known as our skin, the skin that covers our entire bodies. That already puts our skin as the most visible organ which will obviously be prone to outside influences. The clothing we choose to wear will enevitably affect our skin, hair, and overall health. Something as simple as as a piece of fabric can harm our overall health in ways you can't imagine. From the bedding we sleep in to the undergarments we wear on a daily basis has a huge impact on us. Being aware of this can better help your choice of fabric to your healthy lifestyle. So the question is what is so bad about certain fabrics? well, if we take a look at the most common found fabric in our clothing it will be synthetic farbics. "Currently, synthetics make up about 60% of our clothes. Unfortunately for our most important fashion icon (Earth), demand for synthetics is growing faster than the demand for natural fibers like organic cotton, hemp fabric, cork fabric, and ethical wool."

What are synthetic fabrics?

Synthetic fibres include Nylon, Polyester, Lycra and Spandex.According to Merriam-Webster, synthetic fibers are “any of various man-made textile fibers including usually those made from natural materials (such as rayon and acetate from cellulose or regenerated protein fibers from zein or casein) as well as fully synthetic fibers (such as nylon or acrylic fibers).” Essentially synethetic fabrics are synonyms for plastic. Plastic never sounds so good so why are they used in our clothing? If you start reading your clothing tag 9 times out of 10 you will find that it's made of 100% polyester. Synthetics are extremely popular and are common in many of our clothes because it is durable and not very expensive to make and that makes it a bargain for fast fashion. But do you really want to wear a dress that is basically made out of oil? Polyester factories are responsible for massive amounts of air pollution and water pollution, and may cause human health problems. Polyester doesn’t breathe like natural textiles. This is the worst choice if you live in warm climates.  "This textile is Petroleum based (using millions of barrels of oil every year). PET, plastic which is also used to make bottles. It is hard to recycle and take up to 200 years to biodegrade, which means that the skirt you bought will most likely end up in a landfill and stay there for centuries. It is often added as a blend to the natural fabric which makes it even harder for us to avoid. Harmful toxins are disposed in the water during production and the air is being polluted. Polyester can cause many different health issues, so your body is expose to the danger of potential skin irritation as itching, redness or rashes. Different studies exist that link plastic as a possible contributor to breast cancer."

Biodegradable

Synthetics are not biodegradable, or it takes hundreds of years. Fabrics release microfibers into water when washed and up to 40% enter lakes, rivers, and oceans. Fishes eat them and then they comes back to us, and this is happening over and over again. Synthetics can also produce significantly more greenhouse gases than CO2 and the chemicals used during the manufacturing process, remain in the material and wearing them exposes us to multiple health hazards like skin rashes, nausea, headaches and many more. Plus, the clothes usually smell bad after we sweat just a little.

 https://luxiders.com/5-toxic-textiles-to-avoid/

What happens when you wear synthetic clothes?

When creating synthetic clothing there is a lot of chemicals involved in the dying process and the entire production. According to reports, these toxins can be absorbed through the skin and some of the side effects include infertility, respiratory diseases, cancer, and contact dermatitis (skin irritations). And the more you wear them, the greater the risk. Synthetic clothes cannot absorb sweat from our body which is why we shouldn’t wear synthetic clothes during summer time