Blog/Opinion: Does "all-cotton" mean all-safe?

All-cotton refers to stuffing or fabric consisting of 100%-cotton fibers. However, this term doesn’t always mean such items are "all-natural" or "nontoxic". Because of conventional American farming practices, cotton production uses tremendous quantities of pesticides, herbicides, and other toxic agricultural chemicals. Inevitably, some residues from these compounds get on cotton fibers.

 

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In addition to chemical contamination acquired through cultivation, wrinkle-resisting chemicals (which can be formaldehyde-based resins), synthetic dyes, stain-resistant treatments, and other compounds are often added to cotton fibers during the milling process. As a result, all-cotton fabric can be, in many cases, very chemically laden. And, be careful about purchasing items labeled “made with organic cotton.” They might not be 100% organic cotton.

 

(The material above is from our archives and was believed to be accurate at the time of writing.)

 

 

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