Textile Dermatitis, a Growing Phenomena
By Be Quality | Comments: 0 | February 25, 2019Textile Dermatitis is a form of contact dermatitis. Contact dermatitis origins when a substance the body ‘reads’ as toxic. At that point the immune system gets the message ‘danger’ and sends antibodies to help fight the invader: the allergen.
Increasing number of people having rashes or itching when wearing a garment confirms this phenomena. Every day millions of people around the world have symptoms of skin allergies. Some occur at random, whereas others may be a sign of a bigger problem.
On the Textile Dermatitis the skin is reacting to the chemicals on the garments. It can be fibres in clothes, on the dyestuff, resins, and/or other chemicals used to treat textiles.
The skin is in contact with textiles for long hours. And is easy its chemical components could create a negative effect on the skin. Specially on the Low Cost Fashion products.
Symptoms could be redness, scaly skin, itchy areas or even blisters. Sometimes they pop up within hours after you put on your clothes. Or they may take days or weeks to appear. Some people can wear the same item for years before a rash breaks out. They often begin in the folds of your skin or other areas, like the waist, the underarms, the crotch or groin, behind the knees or any other place where the garment is tight.
The origin for Textile Dermatitis can be:
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Low Transpirant chemical fibres.
Synthetic fibres as polyester, polyamide/ nylon, acrylic, spandex/ elastane/ rubber, etc. have a low rate of water absorbance (1-4% over their weight). This means that they don’t breath, and keep the natural sweat of our bodies over the skin, causing irritation. Natural fibres instead have a higher absorbance rate (12-18% over their weight). For this reason they allow the natural body transpiration to flow through the garment, keeping the skin dry and healthier.
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The Dyestuff or other Chemicals in the production process
In many parts of the world the norms for using polluting and toxic chemicals is little or not controlled. Specially Low Cost Fashion uses on their industrial process chemicals which are not healthy not only for our skins, like cancerous dyes, etc. which in Europe and many other countries are forbidden. This is causing always more allergic cases. Today there are people that cannot wear black colour, for they had developed an allergy to the black dye.
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Formaldehyde
As you know, it is one of the most spread toxic chemical found in many textiles. We may find Formaldehyde on Wrinkle-free or Dirt Repellent fabrics. It can also be found on glues used to bond 2 different materials, as well as on the treatment of leather.
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Nickel on Metal accessories
Many metal buttons and metal accessories contain nickel that for many people causes an allergy. There is a big campaign now to control all metal accessories that are in contact with the skin to be Nickel-free.
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Tight garments
The irritation due to tight garments, is because this condition creates pressure over certain areas of the body, and when the body natural moves, it creates higher friction on those areas. In addition, this may eliminate the first layer of skin cells and allow the chemical components to get into the body system, accelerating the allergy effect. Apart of the fact that in many cases it may obstacle the blood natural flow.
How to reduce the risk:
- Choose natural fibres in contact with the skin
- Better if you use organic clothing
- Reduce the use of synthetic fabrics in general
- Avoid garments that are too tight
- Try not to use garments with antiwrinkle or antistain finishing
At the first small sign of allergy, stop using that garment, before you become more intollerant to those substances. We always suggest to contact your doctor for further understanding the origin and eventually receive the correct treatment.