Jaclyn is a former fashion production manager in New York City. She told me about her experience opening boxes of samples from Asia and South America every day and being hit in the face with the pungent smell of synthetic chemicals. After years of touching this freshly made clothing, she developed rashes on her hands and arms. When her dermatologist tested her for allergies, she found out she was allergic to several chemicals typically used in fashion production, including a blue disperse dye used to dye polyester. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to protect herself – all those allergens are perfectly legal to put on and in clothing. Even if she quit her job, she has to wear clothing to live.
Her health spiraled after that, a result, she believes, of the stress of her job combined with touching and breathing in fashion chemicals day in and day out.
Chemicals in clothing are a complex, opaque and an under-researched area. “There’s not necessarily a lot of evidence that goes into deciding what is a safe limit of a chemical,” Mordukhovich said. “Even if each chemical is below thresholds that would be considered a direct safety issue, what we don’t know is if you have hundreds of chemicals interacting together, what effects does that have?”
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