Several hundred hazardous chemicals found in clothes

To protect both human health and the environment, hazardous chemicals should be minimized in the textile production processes. A pilot study within the Mistra SafeChem programme, indicates which types of compounds should be prioritized for further studies of the chemical exposure from clothing textiles.

To identify hitherto unknown chemicals as well as substances that are suspected to be present in clothing, advanced mass spectrometry and data treatment were used. The methodology was applied to analyses of imported clothing garments on the Swedish market.

Several hundred chemicals were identified in the garments. The most frequent were benzothiazole and the human carcinogen quinoline. Several of the identified compounds have hazardous properties and can be absorbed by human skin if released and migrating from skin-close garments.

This pilot study indicates which types of compounds should be prioritized for further studies of the chemical exposure from clothing textiles. To protect both human health and the environment, the use of these hazardous chemicals should be minimized in the textile production processes.

Mistra SafeChem scientist Ulrika Nilsson, Stockholm University, is among those who have done the study.

The paper has the title Suspect and non-target screening of chemicals in clothing textiles by reversed-phase liquid chromatography/hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry and is published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

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