Fashion comes with a price, not just the price tag of an apparel, but also at the cost of human health.
There is a new found awareness among people on the harmful effects of agrochemicals in food, which has created a market demand for organically or biodynamically cultivated farm products. Especially, in the recent days, we see supermarkets selling certified organic grains and pulses, also farm fresh fruits, vegetables, and greens. While common people would love to be beneficiaries of the evolving organic trend, the premium price attached to it makes them settle for the usual 'chemical laden' grains and veggies. The producers and marketers of organic products say that in the initial run it is a price we have to pay for the relatively low yield, but safer food crops. In the long run, with the rise in demand and widespread cultivation through organic and biodynamic methods, the price of these products could see a dip.
The 'Agrochemical problem' is a serious one, but not limited only to food crops. It is a problem we also carry on our shoulders, in clothes that we wear. Clothes made of cotton and other synthetic fibers, carry in them harmful chemicals, which can disrupt the normal functioning of many human systems, like thyroid and hormone secreting glands. Some of them are even carcinogenic in nature. The pores of the human skin are the via medium for these chemicals to enter the body. When we sweat or after we have a bath, there are times when the pores of the skin remain exposed and receptive. In the same way, how some cosmetic products expose women to hazardous chemicals, apparels or clothing, exposes men, women, and children to residual agrochemicals and industrial chemicals used in textile processing (like bleaching, conditioning and dying of fabric), which these fabrics carry in them inherently.
The problem indeed originates from our farm fields, where cotton is cultivated. Cotton is a cash crop, and in attempts to survive the crop from pests as well to raise the yield, farmers use large quantities of pesticides. Either due to lack of awareness in them over the trail of destruction exorbitant amount of fertilizers and pesticides can leave behind or due to the inevitable loop of 'financial crisis' they are wound within, the practice remains widely prevalent among cotton farmers.
On one side, it is threatening the life and livelihood of cotton farmers, as prolonged use of agrochemicals has consumed the fertility of their lands and put them in deeper turmoil.
On another side textile laborers, who are being constantly exposed to cotton thus produced, and all the other chemicals used in textile manufacturing, also are facing potential damage to their health. The environment too is at stake. The residual agrochemicals and industrial discharges entering food and water sources eventually are entering human platter and fodder consumed by cattle and other beings. So, from origin to end, it is harming everyone in the supply chain.
Some NGOs fighting this problem, cite that in addition to all the hazardous chemicals conventional cotton farming involves, textile manufacturing of cotton clothing and also synthetic fibers made from petroleum by-products and plastic derivatives, use as many as 8000 different industrial chemicals like softeners, silicone waxes, petroleum scours, soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde resins. While the numbers they quote is debatable, the presence of harmful chemicals in clothing is a fact that we cannot rule out.
Safer textile alternative in the form of organic cotton clothing is coming up, but for the larger benefit of consumers and all the stakeholders in production (farmers to textile laborers), Government should address this issue with a stringent regulatory mechanism.
There is a new found awareness among people on the harmful effects of agrochemicals in food, which has created a market demand for organically or biodynamically cultivated farm products. Especially, in the recent days, we see supermarkets selling certified organic grains and pulses, also farm fresh fruits, vegetables, and greens. While common people would love to be beneficiaries of the evolving organic trend, the premium price attached to it makes them settle for the usual 'chemical laden' grains and veggies. The producers and marketers of organic products say that in the initial run it is a price we have to pay for the relatively low yield, but safer food crops. In the long run, with the rise in demand and widespread cultivation through organic and biodynamic methods, the price of these products could see a dip.
The 'Agrochemical problem' is a serious one, but not limited only to food crops. It is a problem we also carry on our shoulders, in clothes that we wear. Clothes made of cotton and other synthetic fibers, carry in them harmful chemicals, which can disrupt the normal functioning of many human systems, like thyroid and hormone secreting glands. Some of them are even carcinogenic in nature. The pores of the human skin are the via medium for these chemicals to enter the body. When we sweat or after we have a bath, there are times when the pores of the skin remain exposed and receptive. In the same way, how some cosmetic products expose women to hazardous chemicals, apparels or clothing, exposes men, women, and children to residual agrochemicals and industrial chemicals used in textile processing (like bleaching, conditioning and dying of fabric), which these fabrics carry in them inherently.
The problem indeed originates from our farm fields, where cotton is cultivated. Cotton is a cash crop, and in attempts to survive the crop from pests as well to raise the yield, farmers use large quantities of pesticides. Either due to lack of awareness in them over the trail of destruction exorbitant amount of fertilizers and pesticides can leave behind or due to the inevitable loop of 'financial crisis' they are wound within, the practice remains widely prevalent among cotton farmers.
On one side, it is threatening the life and livelihood of cotton farmers, as prolonged use of agrochemicals has consumed the fertility of their lands and put them in deeper turmoil.
On another side textile laborers, who are being constantly exposed to cotton thus produced, and all the other chemicals used in textile manufacturing, also are facing potential damage to their health. The environment too is at stake. The residual agrochemicals and industrial discharges entering food and water sources eventually are entering human platter and fodder consumed by cattle and other beings. So, from origin to end, it is harming everyone in the supply chain.
Some NGOs fighting this problem, cite that in addition to all the hazardous chemicals conventional cotton farming involves, textile manufacturing of cotton clothing and also synthetic fibers made from petroleum by-products and plastic derivatives, use as many as 8000 different industrial chemicals like softeners, silicone waxes, petroleum scours, soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde resins. While the numbers they quote is debatable, the presence of harmful chemicals in clothing is a fact that we cannot rule out.
Safer textile alternative in the form of organic cotton clothing is coming up, but for the larger benefit of consumers and all the stakeholders in production (farmers to textile laborers), Government should address this issue with a stringent regulatory mechanism.