What we wear changes not only our appearance, but also our long term health especially when what we’re wearing is cotton.
Not as natural as you think
Cotton is a natural fiber derived from the Gossypium spp. plant and grows best in dry tropical and subtropic climates. The world demand for cotton is huge at 56 trillion pounds per year and keeps increasing annually. Although cotton does grow in tropical places well, the large demand for the crop and the fickleness of the cotton plant for ideal growing conditions production in non-tropical places, makes for cotton production using 25% of the worlds insecticides and 10% of the world’s pesticides[1] while using only 2.4% of the world's arable land.[2]
From the beginning to end of cotton textile production, there are impacts on even the healthiest person due to the plethora of pesticides involved. Degradation to health begins in the cotton fields with the health of agricultural workers. Studies have estimated the human impact from pesticides used on cotton to be as high as 20,000 people killed and 3 million poisoned every year[4]. This type of exposure continues from the field to cotton factory mill employees as not only an accumulation of respiratory pollution, but also increasing and persistent pesticide body burden. Pesticide exposure continues into the home with pesticides that arrive on fabric from the clothing manufacturer. In fact the Environmental Working group found that just nine adult volunteers were found to have over 167 pollutants and pesticides in their bodies.[5]
Wearing what you are
So what can you do? You want to be as healthy as you can be. Wear nothing? There is a solution out there and it lies in organic agricultural practices. In organic farming, principles such as crop rotation and an understanding of pest lifecycles are used to eliminate pesticides. You can change your health by committing to buying organic cotton. As your commitment to your health increases along with your individual demand for organic cotton, manufacturers will take notice and increase their use of organic products. In 2004 an estimated 93% increase in manufacture demand for organic cotton. In fact, in 2006, Walmart and Sam’s Club bought the most organic cotton textile products of any retailer.[6] Organic cotton use can not only better your health and wellness, but also improve health and wellness for all inhabitants of the planet.
Resources:
http://www.sustainablecotton.org
http://www.planetearthgreenlabel.com
http://www.pan-uk.org/Projects/Cotton/pdfs/my%20sustainable%20t-shirt.pdf
[1] Allen Woodburn Associates Ltd./Managing Resources Ltd., "Cotton: The Crop and its Agrochemicals Market," 1995.
[2] Clay, Jason. World Agriculture and the Environment A Commodity-By-Commodity Guide To Impacts And Practices. World Wildlife Fund 2004 pp. 283-305
[3] Soth, J., Grasser, C., and
[4] World Wildlife Fund. Agriculture and the Environment: Cotton. http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/agriculture_environment/commodities/cotton/environmental_impacts/agrochemicals_use/index.cfm. 2007.
[5] Houlihan, J. Body Burden: the Pollution in People. Environmental Working Group. http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden1/index.php. 2003.
[6] Volheim, E. “Next to the skin.” In Good Tilth: Organic fibers – Values that you wear. Sept/Oct 2007. p. 4.
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