27102010
http://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/tag/heavy-metals/
We published a
post about lead in fabrics about a year ago, but I thought it was important
enough to remind you of the dangers
of lead in fabrics, because we’re starting to see claims of “heavy
metal free” dyestuffs used in fabrics. What does that mean?
Lead is
considered one of those “heavy metals’ , along with mercury, cadmium, copper
and others – all highly toxic to
humans. “Heavy metal” is defined as any metallic element that has a relatively high density and is
toxic or poisonous at low concentrations.
Heavy metals are natural components of the Earth’s crust.
They cannot be degraded or destroyed.
Interestingly, small amounts of these elements are common in our environment
and diet and are actually necessary for good health. Lead can even be found in
natural fibers, such as cotton, flax and hemp, which can absorb it from
the environment.
It’s when our bodies have to deal with large amounts of these heavy
metals that we get into trouble. Heavy metal poisoning could result,
for instance, from drinking-water
contamination (e.g. lead pipes), high ambient air concentrations near emission sources, intake
via the food chain or through
skin absorption – and in the
case of crawling children,
from inhaling carpet particles or
other abraded textiles in dust. For some heavy metals, toxic levels can
be just above the background concentrations naturally found in nature.
Therefore, it is important for us to inform ourselves about the heavy metals
and to take protective measures against excessive exposure. Lead accounts for most of the cases of
pediatric heavy metal poisoning, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
Lead is a neurotoxin – it affects the human brain and cognitive development,
as well as the reproductive system. Some of the kinds of neurological
damage caused by lead are not
reversible. Specifically, it affects reading and reasoning
abilities in children, and is also linked to hearing loss, speech delay,
balance difficulties and violent tendencies. (1)
A hundred years
ago we were wearing lead right on our
skin. I found this article funny and disturbing at the same time:
“Miss P. Belle
Kessinger of Pennsylvania State College pulled a rat out of a warm, leaded-silk
sack, noted that it had died of lead
poisoning, and proceeded to Manhattan. There last week she told the
American Home Economics Association that leaded
silk garments seem to her potentially poisonous. Her report alarmed silk
manufacturers who during the past decade have sold more than 100,000,000 yards
of leaded silk without a single report
of anyone’s being poisoned by their goods. Miss Kessinger’s report also
embarrassed Professor Lawrence Turner Fairhall, Harvard chemist, who only two
years ago said: ‘No absorption of lead occurs even under extreme conditions as
a result of wearing this material in direct contact with the skin’. “
This was
published in Time magazine, in 1934. (Read the full article here. )
According to
Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Coalition to End
Childhood Lead Poisoning, “There are
kids who are disruptive, then there are ‘lead’ kids – very disruptive, very low
levels of concentration.”
Children with a
lead concentration of less than 10 micrograms ( µ) per deciliter (dl = one
tenth of a liter) of blood scored an average of 11.1 points lower than the mean
on the Stanford-Binet IQ test. (2) Consistent and reproducible behavioral effects have been seen with
blood levels as low as 7 µ/dl (micrograms of lead per tenth liter of blood),
which is below the Federal standard of 10 µ/dl. The image depicts what happens
to human beings at the various levels of lead in blood. Scientists are
generally in agreement that there is no
“safe” level of blood lead. Lead is a uniquely
cumulative poison: the daily intake of lead is not as important a
determinant of ultimate harm as is the duration of exposure and the total lead
ingested over time.
Lead is widely used in consumer products, from
dyestuffs made with lead (leading to lead poisoning in seamstresses at the
turn of the century, who were in the habit of biting off their threads) (3), to
lead in gasoline, which is widely
credited for reduced IQ scores for
all children born in industrialized countries between 1960 and 1980 (when lead
in gasoline was banned). Read more about this here.
Lead is used in the textile industry in a variety
of ways and under a variety of names:
- Lead acetate dyeing of textiles
- Lead chloride preparation of lead salts
- Lead molybdate pigments used in dyestuffs
- Lead nitrate mordant in dyeing; oxidizer in dyeing(4)
Fabrics sold in
the United States, which are used to make our clothing, bedding and many other
products which come into intimate contact with our bodies, are totally unregulated – except in terms of required labeling of
percentage of fiber content and country of manufacture. There are NO laws which
pertain to the chemicals used as dyestuffs, in processing, in printing, or as
finishes applied to textiles, except those that come under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, which is woefully inadequate in terms of addressing
the chemicals used by industry. With regard to lead, products cannot contain
more than 100 ppm – despite many studies that show there is no safe level for lead. In fact,
the Government Accounting Office (GAO) has announced that the 32 year old TSCA needs
a complete overhaul (5), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was
quick to agree! (6). Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, said on September 29, 2009
that the EPA lacks the tools it needs to
protect people and the environment from dangerous chemicals.
Fabrics are treated with a wide range of substances
that have been proven not to be good for us. That’s why we feel it’s
important to buy third party certified FABRICS, not just certified organic fibers (which do nothing to guarantee the
dyestuffs or finish chemicals used in the fabric) such as GOTS (Global Organic
Textile Standard) or Oeko Tex, both of which prohibit the use of lead in textile processing.
The United
States has new legislation which lowers the amount of lead allowed in children’s products – and only
children’s products. (This ignores the question of how lead in products used by
pregnant women may affect their fetus. Research shows that as the brains of
fetuses develop, lead exposure from the mother’s blood can result in significant learning disabilities.) The
new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
had requirements to limit lead content in children’s products (to be phased in
over three years) so that by August 14, 2011, lead content must be 100 ppm
(parts per million) or less.
However there was an outcry
from manufacturers of children’s bedding and clothing, who argued that the
testing for lead in their products did not make sense, because:
- it placed an unproductive burden on them, and
- it required their already safe products to undergo costly or
unnecessary testing.
The Consumer Product Safety
Commission voted to exempt textiles from the lead testing and certification
requirements of the CPSIA, despite the fact that lead accounts for most of the
cases of pediatric heavy metal poisoning, according to the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
So let me repeat here: the
daily intake of lead is not as important a determinant of ultimate harm as is
the duration of exposure and the total lead ingested over time.
Children are uniquely
susceptible to lead exposure over time, and neural damage occurring during the
period from 1 to 3 years of age is not likely to be reversible. It’s also
important to be aware that lead available from tested products would not be the
only source of exposure in a child’s environment. Although substantial and very
successful efforts have been made in the past twenty years to reduce
environmental lead, children are still exposed to lead in products other than
toys or fabrics. Even though it was eliminated from most gasoline in the
United States starting in the 1970s, lead continues to be used in aviation and
other specialty fuels. And from all those years of leaded gasoline, the stuff
that came out of cars as fuel exhaust still pollutes soil along our roadways,
becoming readily airborne and easily inhaled. All lead exposure is cumulative –
so it’s important to eliminate any source that’s within our power to do so.
(1) “ ‘Safe’ levels of lead still harm IQ”,
Associated Press, 2001
(2) Ibid.
(3) Thompson, William Gilmsn,
The Occupational Diseases, 1914, Cornell University Library, p. 215
[4] “Pollution of Soil by Agricultural and
Industrial Waste”, Centre for Soil and Agroclimate Research and Development,
Bogor, Indonesia, 2002. http://www.agnet.org/library/eb/521/
(4)
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13-c5.pdf
(5) http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/January/29010901.asp
(6) http://www.bdlaw.com/news-730.html
Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Coalition to End Childhool Lead Poisoning, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, environment, GOTS, heavy metals, lead, Lead poisoning, national textile association, Oeko-Tex, Toxic Substances Control Act, Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, United States, United States Environmental Protection Agency
Categories : babies, Chemicals, dyes, Health issues, lead
Tags: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Coalition to End Childhool Lead Poisoning, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, environment, GOTS, heavy metals, lead, Lead poisoning, national textile association, Oeko-Tex, Toxic Substances Control Act, Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, United States, United States Environmental Protection Agency
Categories : babies, Chemicals, dyes, Health issues, lead
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