Chemicals in our uniforms are bad for our health and the environment
Wastewater from dyeing factory in Gurao, China, 2010.
Lu Guang/Greenpeace
Our uniforms are dyed with chemicals, which can include lead, chromium, phthalates, chlorine bleach, and azo dyes.
The fabrics that our uniforms are made from are frequently sprayed with chemical finishes to make them stain and wrinkle-resistant. They may contain PFAS or PFOS, also known as "forever chemicals," because they don't break down. In other words, once they get in your body, they stay there.
Dye factory in the Binhai Industrial Zone, Shaoxing China, 2012. Lu Gang/Greenpeace
65% of school uniforms contain "high" levels of PFAS
according to the first study of PFAS in school uniforms, which were bought in Canada and the US.
[The study's co-author Graham] Peaslee said the only textile in which he had found higher levels of PFAS than school uniforms was turnout gear used to protect firefighters.
Tom Perkins, "'What are they thinking?': toxic 'forever chemicals' found in school uniforms," The Guardian, 21 September 2022
We absorb chemical dyes and sprays in our uniforms through our skin when we wear them. We breathe in the microfibres they release when we move around, and ingest them when we touch our mouths.
Chemical dyes and PFAS have been linked to a whole bunch of health problems: hormonal disorders, cancers, reproductive issues, eczema, obesity and a weaker immune system.
...children wearing stain-resistant school uniforms would be exposed to 1.03 parts per billion of PFAS per kilogram of their body weight per day through their skin... When it accumulates in the blood, PFAS are considered toxic at the parts-per-billion level.
...a 2018 Harvard study found that after the introduction of the uniforms, the number of [Alaska Airlines flight] attendants with multiple chemical sensitivity, sore throats, cough, shortness of breath, itchy skin, rashes and hives, itchy eyes, loss of voice and blurred vision had all more or less doubled.
Alden Wicker, "Are your clothes making you sick? The opaque world of chemicals in fashion," The Guardian, 3 July 2023.
We first contacted the uniform supplier to find out what chemicals are used in my school's uniform in 2020. It has been difficult to get any information. We sent the blazer to a lab, and no PFAS chemicals were detected. We did not have it tested for any other chemicals. Chemical testing is expensive.
Your uniform supplier may not know what chemicals are used in your uniform: supply chains in the textile industry are long, complicated and not really transparent. However, they should know, and they should provide it to you. Really, they should publish it on their websites.
Dye factory, Binhai Industrial Zone, China, 2012. Lu Guang/Greenpeace
Dye factory, Binhai Industrial Zone, China, 2012. Lu Guang/Greenpeace
Most clothes that we buy in the UK are produced in Asia, where it is common for workers to be paid low wages and to work in conditions that are not healthy or safe. Textile workers absorb chemical dyes and finishes through their skin and by inhaling them. Long-term exposure can lead to respiratory issues, skin irritations, cancers, and other health problems.
Exposure to chemicals is a major issue for workers in textile mills, with production operatives exposed to a number of chemicals, especially those engaged in dyeing, printing and finishing.
Brett Mathews, "Chemical exposure for workers a 'global health crisis' says UN briefing," Apparel Insider, 13 September 2018
Workers work long hours, often far beyond legal limits, for poverty wages and in conditions that breach Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) standards.
"Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability," UK Parliament, Sixteenth Report of Session 2017-2019
The exposure of workers to toxics and resulting exploitation is a global health issue, in which we are all to some degree complicit, whether as policy makers, employers or consumers.
Baskut Tuncak, Opening remarks, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Toxics 39th Session of the Human Rights Council, United Nations, 12 September 2018
The chemicals used to make our clothes also damage the health of the communities where the factories are located. It takes a lot of water to dye our clothes, and it has very often been dumped into local rivers and lakes, polluting water for drinking, bathing and irrigating crops. Gastrointestinal and skin diseases are common in these communities.
Workers wash plastic tarp in black waters of Xiao Xi river in Gurao, a textile manufacturing center, 2010. Greenpeace found high levels of industrial pollution, and severe effects on the community. Lu Guang/Greenpeace
The kids get sick if they stay here...because of the water.
A resident of Savar, a district in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Helen Regan, "Asian rivers are turning black. And our colourful closets are to blame," CNN Style, 28 September 2020.
Chemicals used to make our clothes are very harmful for the environment. They can kill fish directly. They also prevent light from entering water, thus inhibiting photosynthesis and causing aquatic plants to die.
Local river in Shaoxing, China, 2012
Lu Guang/Greenpeace
Where governments have taken action to regulate chemical pollution from the textile industry, the environment has improved. Some brands have also committed to taking chemicals out of clothes with positive results. But school uniforms continue to be advertised as easy-care, non-iron, or stain and wrinkle-resistant. The chemicals used to make our clothes are still not listed.