Why did you test your son’s pants, Tamara?!

I decided to test my son’s cotton pants from The Gap because I had an interesting discussion recently on social media with one of my readers, who was asserting that all modern fabric had the potential to contain some types of carcinogen or other heavy metal toxicants (and that they could not be avoided).

I explained that, based on more than a decade of extensive testing that I have done, I had not found that to be the case;  to the contrary — (in general) the fabric of modern clothing I have tested has generally (more-often-than-not) been free of Antimony and other heavy metal toxicants (regardless of the fabric type – cotton or synthetic). This is in contrast to my consistent findings of Antimony in the fabric and stuffing of mass-produced bedding (mattresses and pillows), upholstery and stuffed animals (including stuffed animals intended for use by babies).

Note: interestingly, the stuffed animals and other upholstered or stuffed items from the1980s or earlier which I have tested actually have all been free of any traces of Antimony – so this exceptional presence of Antimony in those specific modern fabric (and stuffed) items is really just a concern for items made post 1990s. However, I have not yet pinned down a specific year  – based on the items I have tested so far – when this shift happened [if I had to make an educated guess, I would say it was possibly as late as 1995 when industry started selling products with Antimony-contaminated synthetic fabrics and stuffings]. 

Tamara what do you use in your home
(when it comes to fabrics)?

Almost all of our clothing is cotton. We have some wool items and some synthetics in outwear (like jackets) but the stuff that touches our skin is predominantly cotton (with the exception being wool socks or wool-blend socks.) I also try to purchase organic cotton garments and fabric items whenever possible – like all of our sheets are organic cotton. With the few synthetic bedding items we have I have also confirmed that they are Antimony-free (and will try to do some follow up posts with more specifics about that.)

If the argument “on the other side” is that you cannot avoid Antimony in your life (that it is everywhere and resistance is futile) I beg to differ – you can avoid toxicants in every area of your home and your life… and it’s actually not too complicated if you go back to basics. My golden rule on this is “What would my grandmother do?” Since my grandmother was born in 1914 I can be fairly certain that most of the products she used as a child (and as a young woman) were simple and less toxic than many of the offerings today. Many of my readers are quite a bit younger than me so you might have to ask “What would your great-grandmother do?”

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XRF test results for my son’s cotton pants:

60 seconds – on blue fabric:

• Copper (Cu): 134 +/- 34 ppm
• no other metals detected – just Copper!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions!

In the interest of getting a bunch of XRF test results up online for my readers quickly, this post does not have too much information (just the test results) – but please click through to the related posts using the keywords at the top of the page for more discussion about related products.

Science!

All readings reported on this blog were for tests done for at least 60 seconds, unless otherwise noted. Tests on each component were repeated multiple times, to confirm that the results reported are accurate, science-based, and replicable.

Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama