Clothing Chemistry

Finally putting my BA in chemistry to use

Quick note, the 100% made and grown merino wool baselayer from my last newsletter are now available for pre-order here!

As part of my BA in chemistry and environmental studies, I had to take a class called environmental chemistry for obvious reasons. The class focused on all the ways chemicals interact with our environment and bodies. For example, we traced what happens when you put on sunscreen– how sunscreen contains chemicals that do not break down when exposed to UV, protecting your skin from the sun. Then we looked at what other effects these chemicals have when interacting with skin. Can they be absorbed through the skin membrane? If so, can they bond to your DNA or mimic a hormone? How long does it take for these compounds to break down in your body, waterways, and soils? My main takeaway from the class was that chemical innovation creates compounds that are really good at their intended function, but most come with unforeseen and often negative side effects.

My senior year, after visiting natural textile dyers in Oaxaca, I realized just how much chemistry is in making our clothing. Clothing starts as a raw material and undergoes a series of mechanical and chemical interventions to become a functional garment. It’s basic synthesis. Some clothing involves a ton of chemistry. For example, Gore-Tex is a synthetic material that has a waterproof and breathable membrane. Goretex is another name for fabric made with Teflon, which is another name for Polytetrafluoroethylene. To make this fabric, you take fluorspar, hydrofluoric acid, chloroform, and water and synthesize them into a solution called TFE. Then you use some kind of acid to polymerize it– i.e., turn it into plastic. Then you stretch the polymer to create a fabric. Some clothing, on the other hand, involves little to no chemistry. You can shear a sheep, twist, pull, and comb its fiber into yarn, and hand-knit that yarn into a sweater.

Skiing this winter with an undyed handknit sweater under my Gore-Tex shell. What a juxtaposition!

Both the sweater and the Gore-Tex jacket are good at what they’re intended to do. However, the high level of chemical intervention with Gore-Tex results in unintended consequences, especially since it contains polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs), also known as Forever Chemicals. PFAs are the most persistent human-made chemicals known to date, and they are known to be harmful to ourselves and our environment.

Known is a very common word when talking about toxicity ( i.e. there are no known toxins in your t-shirt). That is because the rate of chemical advancement is much faster than the rate of studying how the chemicals act when they’re out in the world. Gore-Tex became ubiquitous as a shell for outdoor activities long before we understood the negative effects of PFAs. Now, all of us, including myself, with Gore-Tex in our closets, have to decide whether to continue wearing chemicals known to cause issues such as high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, cancers, and reproductive problems. While also shedding microplastics into the environments we spend time in, where it is known to negatively affect wildlife, such as changing the immune system of otters. Or, we can dispose of the Gore-Tex, a non-recyclable material that will sit in the landfill for the next few hundred years, leaching toxins into the soil.

Wool fiber, which consists of protein chains, naturally breaks down and becomes soil carbon within a few weeks. But most sweaters are not 100% wool by weight, even ones that the tag says so. At the minimum, industrially processed wool yarns have some kind of wax coating, often made with synthetic chemicals. A majority of wool sweaters are dyed and finished with synthetic chemicals, some of which are also PFAs. The resulting material has a much different chemistry, toxicity, and biodegradability than the raw material.

The formula for Gore-Tex on the right and wool on the left. All you need to know is that it's way harder to break the bonds between the C + F in the Gore-Tex than the bonds in the wool fiber.

An easy analogy to understand the chemistry in clothing is to compare it to various orange drinks. Something like Gore-Tex or other 100% synthetic materials is like an orange Fanta. Nothing natural about it, pure man-made stuff that we know is bad for our health. A synthetic material made with recycled plastic is like a diet orange Fanta. Still unnatural, but they eliminated one of the negative inputs. Most natural fiber clothing on the market is like an orange soda made with real fruit juice. It’s still heavily processed and has a lot of random chemicals mixed in, but there is a natural starting ingredient. Some brands commit to natural fibers, but are mindful about which and limit the amount of chemicals that go into their clothing. They’re like the orange juice you buy at the grocery store– pretty natural, but there are still a few preservatives and other chemicals to make it a commercial product. Finally, you have the artisan-made, hand-spun, hand-woven, naturally dyed pieces that never entered a factory. That’s the freshly squeezed orange juice from the tree in your backyard.

The toxicity of clothing is under-researched. It’s also tricky to quantify, because the dose makes the poison. We do know that a majority of chemical processing for clothing happens in countries with lax chemical regulations, and known toxic chemicals are used in the dyeing and processing of clothing. But, most of us are changing our clothing daily, getting small doses of the cocktail of different chemicals used in making clothing.

Consumer and brand knowledge and understanding of toxicity and harmful chemicals in clothing are starting to shift. Lululemon legging give people butt pimples, period underwear have PFAs, airline employees are getting rashes and respiratory issues from their uniform, and 35% of micro plastics in the ocean come from synthetic clothing are just a few examples of about toxic clothing in the news. There are more conscious conversations around wearing natural fibers and avoiding plastics. Brands, like my own, are committing to using natural fibers and avoiding synthetic dyes and finishers. Other brands are developing ways to create technical clothing with natural fibers, such as cotton shells for skiing or merino wool board shorts (both products are no longer available, which is somewhat concerning). Unfortunately, toxic and synthetic clothing is cheap, easy to produce, ubiquitous, and easy to turn a blind eye to. A combination of more research, brand and consumer education, willingness to pay more for cleaner products, and stricter regulations around chemicals in clothing will hopefully inspire people to move away from synthetic and chemical-intensive clothing.

Notes:

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/problem-forever-chemicals-waterproof-clothing