Sweat it out: could your sportswear be toxic?
It might be hard to imagine that exercise could be harming your health. It turns out that even while you are doing something healthy, what you are wearing while doing it could be cause for concern. Public health advocates, including Greenpeace and European regulatory bodies that oversee chemical safety, are becoming increasingly concerned by evidence that shows a possible link between sportswear and health issues such as cancer, obesity and developmental disabilities. While toxic chemicals are a longstanding issue in various types of apparel, sportswear presents a particular problem because sweat and friction can prompt more rapid absorption of toxins into the body.
Greenpeace released a report last month cataloguing how apparel companies are failing to regulate the chemicals in the sportswear they manufacture.The Greenpeace report comes after a slew of research over the past few years highlighting the potential health risks of various chemicals used in sportswear- primarily dyes, solvents, and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), which make items water, grease and stain-proof.
In Greenpeace’s report it promoted Adidas from “greenwasher” to “trendsetter” and bestowed the less complimentary “greenwasher” title on Nike. Following earlier findings by Greenpeace about Adidas’s previous poor performance, the company sat down with Greenpeace and committed to eliminating hazardous chemicals by 2020 and being 99% PFC-free by 2017. Manfred Santen, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International in Germany, called this “a big step in the right direction”. Nike spokesperson Greg Rossiter responded to the report by saying their own greenwasher title is undeserved. He said that the company phased out long-chain PFCs at the beginning of this year, requiring that all materials meet the standards laid out in Nike’s Restricted Substances List.
绿色和平组织的报告推动了阿迪达斯从“漂绿者”成为了“潮人”的进程,却未授予尼克“漂绿者”的称号。绿色和平组织早期研究发现,阿迪达斯的前期表现不佳。该公司与绿色组织的谈判中,同意致力于到2020年止减少有害化学物质的使用,到2017年止99%不含氟化合物。德国国际绿色和平组织污染防治项目主任曼弗雷德参天,称这是“一个大方向正确的步骤”。耐克发言人格雷戈罗斯特回应说自己命名为漂绿者的的标题不当。他说,在今年年初公司淘汰长链氟化合物,要求所有材质均符合耐克的受限物质清单的标准。
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