Hello readers! Today’s topic will be covering the adverse effects of working in the garment and textile industry, namely the dyeing process.
Synthetic dyes are cheap and commonly used today. While I’ve covered the harmful impacts of dyes on water bodies, the direct impacts on garment workers involved in dyeing and printing are just as appalling. Bleaching, dyeing or preparing solvent for dyes exposes workers to acids, dyes, solvents and fragrances which contain toxic compounds. These workplace hazards result in skin diseases and cancers such as bladder cancer and navel cavity cancer.
Fabric dyes (Source)
Dyeing stages also produce air pollutants such as aniline vapours which is harmful when inhaled or ingested. Furthermore, the dusty environment consisting of fibre dust and grain dust from raw materials as well as coal dust from the burning of fossil fuels all contribute to chronic or even acute respiratory ailments. As previously mentioned, groundwater pollution reduces soil fertility. However, it also breeds diseases like cholera, water-bourne diseases and bladder cancer.
Reading about all the harmful effects of synthetic dyes used in our clothes makes me think about whether are any long term effects of wearing them. Perhaps I will switch to neutral coloured clothes after this…
That’s all from me today. In my next post, I will be elaborating more on the dire long term health and social impacts. Thank you for reading!
♡, Qystina
Sources:
Henry, B., Laitala, K., & Klepp, I. G. (2019). Microfibres from apparel and home textiles: Prospects for including microplastics in environmental sustainability assessment. Science of the Total Environment, (652), 483-494.
Mukherjee, S. (2015). Environmental and Social Impact of Fashion: Towards an Eco-friendly, Ethical Fashion. International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS), 2(3), 22-35.
Niinimäki, K., Peters, G., Dahlbo, H., Perry, P., Rissanen, T., & Gwilt, A. (2020). The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature Reviews, 1, 189-200.