3 ways your clothing is slowly killing you and how to stop it

The truth about today’s industrial society is, everything you buy was produced as cheap as possible, in order to (obviously) make more money (including your clothing).

Now, that shouldn’t be a problem, after all, it’s cheaper for you too, right? Yes, right. But the price you don’t pay with your money, you pay with your health.

In today’s article, we will cover how modern clothing is poisoning you, and what you can do about it.

There are 3 ways your clothing is killing you.

1. The material
2. The coloring
3. The fire retardants

We will cover all 3 in today’s article.

Imagine this, you are walking down the store aisle, looking for a beautiful T-shirt in the store, looking and looking, before you finally find your match.

“Good.” you say to yourself before paying and walking out the store with your brand-new T-shirt. You come home, wash your new T-shirt, and the next day you put it on.

The next thing you know, your tits start itching. You scratch your tits and think nothing of it, before your stomach starts itching. “Damn, since I put on this T-shirt, my whole upper body is itching, why is that?”

You come home, throw the shirt onto the couch, and then you see a label.

30% Acrylic
20% Polyester
30% Nylon
20% cotton

Well, no wonder your body was itching after you put on THAT.

Now, you may be asking, Well, what is the problem with that. Surely there is nothing wrong with Polyester and cotton?

There is nothing wrong with cotton. On the other hand, there is a lot of wrong with the other materials.

What is wrong with plastic in your clothing? Well, plastic fibers (Acrylic, Nylon, Polyester, Elastane, and other synthetic fabrics) all have a few things in common.

They are made from materials that are toxic to your body, like for example: Petroleum, BPA (that’s right BPA is in your clothing), phthalates, PFAs (which are chemicals that NEVER leave your body hence their name “forever chemicals”) and even formaldehyde (that’s right a LITERAL carcinogen in your clothing).

So after knowing all of that, what can you do about it? Simple, time for an action step (since you actually want this article to help you, right?)

ACTION STEP: Check ALL of your clothing (ESPECIALLY underwear) for Synthetic fibers like Polyester, Acrylic, Polyamide, Elastane, Nylon, and all the other synthetic fibers. (But don't be neurotic about it, 5% Elastane is not going to kill you.)

What you do with your Underwear after you see it is 70% Polyester and all the endocrine disruptors (basically things that fuck up your hormones), Forever chemicals, and carcinogens are touching your precious balls is up to you.

Now, maybe you’re wondering how chemicals on your skin will impact your health. Simple, your skin has 2 million micro holes in it, and you absorb these chemicals through your skin.

Now that we got that covered, let’s move on.

After changing your synthetic clothing for “all natural” clothing, you probably feel pretty good (as you should, since you improved your health) but what if I told you that the fight is not over.

If you’re like me, you have probably wondered why your 100% cotton T-shirt is blue when the cotton fiber itself is white? What about the giant logo or text plastered through half of your T-shirt.

We will be covering that in this section.

First, 2 things need to happen

1. The color needs to be synthesized or “made” (or in the case of non-synthetic colors, just put on the fiber)
2. Then the fiber needs to be colored

We will be covering the first one here, since the second one does not pose any risk to your health (unless it’s synthetic)

The first issue with these synthetic dyes, is that most of them (up to 70%) are Azo dyes, which are banned in Some (but definitely not all) countries.

The issue with Azo dyes, is that it includes compounds that break down into carcinogenic amines, which can, obviously, give you cancer.

And if that wasn’t enough, synthetic dyes include a variety of yummy and healthy chemicals, including.

1. Formaldehyde: Which is used as a preservative in some dyes. And that would be all good and dandy if (as I said earlier) it wasn’t a known human carcinogen, and wouldn’t cause skin irritation (remember your tits itching?), and other health problems.
2. Heavy metals: For example: lead, mercury, arsenic AND MORE. The issue with these I think is self-explanatory, but, since I love you dear reader, I will give you a short list of health hazards that heavy metals pose: Reduced IQ, increased risk of dementia and other brain defects, and once again, cancer.
3. chlorine: Used to bleach the fiber before putting on the dyes themselves. Can cause skin irritation (AGAIN), and respiratory issues.
4. VOCs or volatile organic compounds: Don’t get fooled by the organic in their name, though these compounds are responsible for a lot of health issues including: Headaches, damage to your liver, kidney, and central nervous system, and of course cancer (no wonder cancer is getting more and more wide-spread).

So, now that you know all the issues with synthetic dyes on your 100% cotton boxers, the question is: What can you do about it? Well, to be honest, not that much. But the good news is that not that much does not mean NOTHING. Here comes my favorite part.

Just a warning though, this is only for the people who want to take this thing called health REALLY, REALLY, seriously.

ACTION STEP: From now on when you shop for clothing, ONLY look for OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 (or just search 100% toxin free natural clothing), That means it is 100% free of harmful chemicals. Now, as I said earlier, this is only for the people who take this VERY seriously. You probably won't find OEKO-TEX certified clothing in your local clothes shop. Even as I'm writing this article, I'm sitting on my chair while I have my non OEKO-TEX certified clothing on (but I made sure it's made from the non-synthetic fiber cotton).

Let’s start by asking ourselves this question: Why the actual FUCK would someone put fire retardants in clothing? I’ll tell you why, because the materials used in producing the synthetic fibers used for making the piece of clothing, have FLAMMABLE chemicals in them. That’s right, the reason you even need these fire retardants inside your clothing, is because it is made of flammable garbage in the first place.

Nice one, am I right? Now, since I already covered most of the problems with modern clothing, and if you follow the action step I already gave you in the previous part of this article, (ONLY look for OEKO-TEX certified clothing) I will try to make this part more concise.

Now, as I said earlier, I will try to make this one concise since you already know everything you need to make sure your clothing is toxin-free.

Now, with that said, let’s get into the (concise) hazards of fire retardants.

So, firstly, flame retardants have been linked with the following health concerns.

1. neurological damage
2. disruption of the endocrine system (in other words, your hormones)
3. and the list wouldn’t be complete without of course CANCER

So what can you do to defend yourself from these harmful chemicals?

Easy, you either look for the OEKO-TEX certification, or, some pieces of clothing have a “flame retardant free” on the label so you can also look for that.

Here is an (actionable) summary of all that we covered in this article:

• Only look for natural materials, and don’t buy any piece of clothing with less than 95% natural materials.
• Only look for OEKO-TEX certified clothing.
• Most pieces of clothing have harmful, endocrine disrupting, carcinogenic, and forever chemicals that can harm your health.
• Look for “flame retardant free” on the labels of your clothing.
• Flame retardants in clothing are needed, because flammable chemicals are put into your clothing in the first place
• If you can, make your own clothing from your own sheep. (this wasn’t in the article, just thought I would add it :D)