ALLERGY TO CLOTHING: IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO FABRIC RESINS
If you are exceptionally sensitive to resins, wear wool, pure silk or pure synthetics if possible. You can buy resin-free cotton clothes -usually called ‘formaldehyde-free’ – for babies, children and adults. Sources are given below.
You can also find certain kinds of cotton clothes that are much less highly treated than others. These are often well tolerated even if you are sensitive to resins. If you are unable to wear wool, silk or synthetics, and want to have a wider choice of cotton clothing, choose relatively untreated cotton clothing as follows:
Try
Avoid
Take care with
Cotton jersey
Cotton poplin
Brushed cotton
Cotton fleece
Cotton drill
Cotton lawns
Cotton corduroy
Denim
Cotton voiles
Cotton towelling
Easy-care
Knitted cotton sweaters
Permanent Press
Indian cottons
Sanforised
Third World cottons
Wash New Clothes
Resins wash out readily, but not all fabrics or clothes are washed during manufacture, and new clothes can have very high levels of fumes. You can reduce the level to tolerable amounts by washing new clothes before wearing them. If you add a dessertspoonful of sodium bicarbonate to the water, this also helps to neutralise the resins. You may have to wash new clothes several times before you can wear them, but, for virtually everyone, this is sufficient to avoid any major problems. Unless you are extremely sensitive washing clothes well will make resins tolerable.
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