Some Interesting Little Tidbits…
• Each year, 275 million pounds of pesticides are used on the conventional cotton crop alone, not to mention millions and millions more pounds of chemicals that are used to process the cotton fiber and manufacture conventional cotton products. And bad as conventional cotton is, synthetic fibers (nylon, micro fiber, etc..) are even worse! Hemp on the other hand, grows easily without chemicals or pesticides in almost any climate and soil. The hemp fiber is easily processed with just water and machine combing and is also at least three times stronger than the cotton fiber.
• It takes one quarter of a pound of chemicals to produce one conventional cotton T-shirt. Conventional cotton fabric is processed with formaldehyde and chlorine bleach, which give rise to dioxin, a known carcinogen.
• What’s so bad about vinyl shower curtains & Bamboo Shower Curtain? According to the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (which recommended removing vinyl shower curtains from store shelves in 2009), PVC shower curtains off gas 108 different chemicals within the first 28 days of use and continue to do so
for a very long time: that “new” smell is the telltale sign of all those chemicals going into your lungs and skin when you are most vulnerable: while taking a hot shower and breathing deeply. It’s bad enough having to deal with chlorine and possible lead and mercury contamination in municipal water; the last thing you’d want to add to your list of daily exposure to chemicals is PVC-anything. PVC has been linked to many serious human ailments. Even conservative organizations have started to caution people against vinyl / PVC products.
There are two particularly harmful and unavoidable by-products of PVC: Dioxin and PCBs. Dioxin is created during all phases of PVC production, as well as in its disposal by incineration or accidental fire. There is no “threshold” dose for dioxin. For dioxin, the lowest dose that causes hormonal action has not been found yet. It currently stands at about 1 part per trillion, but researchers have been unable to find the threshold using the most up-to-date advanced systems. It is thought to be the most toxic human-made chemical. We quote from the study: “Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic shower curtains purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart all contain avoidable toxic chemicals including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), phthalates, organotins and metals.
Some of these chemicals are volatile, so they are released into the air inside our homes… Some of these chemicals cause developmental damage as well as damage to the liver and central nervous, respiratory, and reproductive systems. This investigation shows that PVC shower curtains are significant contributors to indoor air pollution.” News: The Federal Trade Commission in the US and the Competition Bureau in Canada have begun to file charges against manufacturers of bamboo fiber products for making false claims. “The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently charged four sellers of clothing and other textile products with deceptively labeling and advertising these items as made of bamboo fiber, when they are made of rayon.” And in Canada: “Identification of man-made fibers must conform to a list of generic fibres. Under the Textile Labeling Act and Regulations “bamboo” is not listed as a generic fibre name, and as a result it is not legal to identify the fibre content on a label as “bamboo”. Because of the processing involved, “rayon” must be used.”
• George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew Cannabis on their plantations. Jefferson, while envoy to France, went to great cost and even much risk to himself and his agents to procure particularly good hemp seeds smuggled illegally into Turkey from China. The Chinese Mandarins (political rulers) so valued their hemp that they made exporting the seeds a capital offence. The American Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. And in the 15th century, the Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp paper. –from Hemp: From Food to Fiber (Paul Benhaim)
• The deep green color of hemp foods comes from their high chlorophyll content, which is widely acknowledged as one of the most healing substances in nature; chlorophyll is incidentally also the main ingredient in the composition of wheat grass, another highly healing plant food.
