Beth von Gunten
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NY Times, "Observatory," March 30, 1999
Rugged Jeans
Disposable synthetic clothing designed to protect the skin
from hazardous chemicals is no one's idea of casual wear. The same
qualities that keep harmful compounds away from the body can keep
heat and moisture in, making such garments uncomfortable at best.
Now, researchers at the University of California at Davis have
developed a process that could make protective clothing as
comfortable as an old pair of blue jeans. In fact, with their
process, protective clothing might even be an old pair of blue
jeans.
The research, reported at a meeting last week of the American
Chemical Society, is intended to protect farm workers from the
pesticides they encounter in the field. Rather than trying to block
the chemicals, the goal is to destroy them, by incorporating into
the surface of ordinary cotton-polyester fabric a compound that
breaks down the harmful chemicals on contact. By wearing clothes
made from the treated fabric, a farm worker would become a walking
detoxification plant, rendering a pesticide harmless before it
reached the skin.
The compound used, called a hydantoin, needs to be activated
by the addition of a chlorine atom. And that leads to another
advantage of the process: simply by washing the clothes in bleach,
their pesticide -destroying capabilities are renewed.
The researchers found that the fabric destroyed up to 99
percent of some kinds of pesticides. They caution, however, that
the treatment has not been tested with organophosphates like
malathion, which account for a large portion of total pesticides
in use.
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