The unseen danger on your feet
When we think about fossil fuels and climate change, we don’t think about the clothing we wear. But the reality is more than 60% of our clothes are made with synthetic textiles derived from oil — textiles like acrylic, nylon and polyester. Producing these synthetic fibers has a profound impact on our climate. It is a source of global warming.
Big Oil fears that demand for fossil fuels is flattening as the economy moves toward electric vehicles and renewable energy sources. Its plan is to replace some of the profits historically made from selling oil and gas for fuel, with profits made by selling oil and gas as feedstock for increasing amounts of plastics, fertilizers and other petrochemical-based products. As a result, plastics, and their health impacts, are increasingly ubiquitous. Like fish in water, we are surrounded by petrochemicals we cannot see.
Through months of testing, we at the Center for Environmental Health have learned that even small clothing items like socks made for babies, children and adults can be loaded with BPA — up to 31 times the safe limit under California environmental law. Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through your skin. Socks are worn for hours at a time, so it is concerning to find such high levels of BPA, particularly in those made for babies and children.
BPA mimics human hormones, the chemical messengers that tell our bodies what to do. Hormones tell a child when to go into puberty. They can tell a woman to go into menopause at age 25. They can tell cancer cells to grow. Hormone-mimicking chemicals can cause nearly every negative health outcome you can think of.
Research has shown that early life exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals like BPA can increase the risk of infants developing a range of diseases during childhood and later in adulthood. Exposure to these chemicals during critical periods of development can increase the risk of adverse health outcomes such as developmental harm, early onset of puberty, alteration of the development of reproductive organs, harmful effects on immune system function and metabolic disorders.
It is important to note that when CEH tested socks made from different blends of polyester, cotton and spandex, high levels of BPA were found only in the socks made from polyester with spandex. We took those results and initiated litigation against 84 plastic socks brands, including Adidas, Champion, GAP, Hanes, New Balance and Reebok. Already some companies are responding and working collaboratively with us to begin the process of removing BPA from their products. Our intention is to force the entire apparel sector to remove this petrochemical-based toxic substance from our sock drawers.
Where does BPA come from? If you answered “the petrochemical industry,” you are correct. The oil and gas industry is digging 65million-year-old plants and animals out of the ground and turning them into toxic chemicals, which the clothing manufacturers then put in the socks we put on our babies’ feet. This is a shortsighted plan with complete lack of thought about the long-term consequences for our health and the environment. As consumers, most of us have no idea this chemical is in our babies’ socks.
Synthetic fibers like polyester are made from petroleum, and the intermediate steps required to refine petroleum into polyester fibers generates and releases toxic byproducts into the air, water and soil. In the United States, many of these drilling sites, crackers, refineries, ports and intermediary facilities are located in communities of color and low-income communities in places like the gulf states. In the manufacturing of this “plastic clothing,” frontline communities living, working and schooling nearby suffer and are exposed at a disproportionately high rate to toxic chemicals.
More and more of this “plastic clothing”’ is designed to have a short lifespan. Every second, one garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or incinerated. And the damaging effects do not end at the landfill. Microplastics shed from synthetic fibers are released into the environment at every step during the use and disposal of clothing. These microplastics accumulate in the bodies of people and wildlife and endanger the health of all living beings.
Society is allowing petrochemical companies to conduct an unplanned science experiment on ourselves and our planet, including the babies who may be absorbing BPA from their socks. It’s time to hold both the oil and gas sector and their downstream customers in the apparel sector accountable for putting the health of all of our children and our planet at risk. Let’s keep the petroleum in the ground and the petrochemicals out of our homes.