Posts tagged "Synthetic chemicals"
The history of organic clothing goes back centuries, with the earliest examples of natural fibers being used for clothing dating back to ancient civilizations. However, it wasn't until the 20th century that the concept of organic clothing began to gain momentum as a sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional, synthetic fabrics.
Fast fashion is the mass production of cheap, disposable clothing. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, the fashion industry churns out over 80 billion garments a year - that's over 10 a year for every person on earth.
Perhaps the most egregiously understated threat to widespread public health is that of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) on the human hormone system. There’s no way to really measure how common these chemicals are because they’re essentially found in everything from baby products to the clothes on your back.
The reason that we started Opok was because we learned that these synthetic materials can be detrimental to our health, let alone devastate our environment. We have heard feedback that people are unaware that polyester, the most widely used material in clothing, can be toxic given that it’s in everything. So we did our research and here are our findings.
We took 2 years exploring different natural and sustainable fabrics to determine which materials we would consider using for our products. We ultimately decided on organic cotton because of its soft texture, the lack of chemicals that go into processing, and the sustainability aspect. Below are some of the materials we evaluated and reasons why we passed on them.
We had a chance to sit down with Marc Richard, M.D., and Mike Richard, M.D., and get their take on the link between pesticides, synthetic chemicals, and human health. Not only are they prestigious doctors with a lot to say— they’re also identical twins like us!
