Wash BEFORE You Wear

After COVID, I’ve been feeling uneasy about buying new clothes that an infected person may have tried on. One way to feel safer is to wash it before I wear it. It turns out that if you wear new clothes without washing them first, there’s a chance you may pay another price for it a few days later. That price may be red, itchy and painful.

Allergic contact dermatitis is an immune-system-related reaction to an allergen that has touched your skin. It causes a delayed reaction: a rash that appears a few days after exposure and can last for weeks at a time.

Dr. Susan Nedorost, director of the dermatitis program at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center says it’s usually from disperse dyes that are primarily used in synthetic clothing materials like polyester and nylon. These dyes may be present at higher levels in a new, unwashed article of clothing.

Sweating and friction can cause the disperse dye to leak out of clothing. Synthetic workout gear, made out of shiny, stretchy water-repelling materials is often the culprit. This is most often seen as a rash around the back of the neck and along the sides around the armpits.

It’s not clear how common disperse-dye allergies are among the general public. But the way to limit your risk for a bad reaction is by washing new clothing before you wear it. Even so, you might just remove a little extra dye and just have lower exposure.

Nitroanilines and Benzothiazoles are two more chemical compounds that turn up in clothing and that lab and animal evidence have linked to potential adverse health effects, including cancer. While some of these chemicals may remain “locked away” in the fibers of your clothing, others may slowly work their way out onto your skin or even into the air as your clothing ages and degrades.

It’s not clear whether exposure to these chemicals in your clothing could make you sick. Investigations in chemical usage in the textile industry have revealed that clothing is often treated with stain repellents, color fasteners, anti-wrinkle agents, softness enhancers and other chemical treatments.

Clothing manufacturers don’t have to disclose any of these to customers, and what’s more, many of the compounds, including the popular waterproofing chemical called fluorosurfactants (often referred to as PFAS), have little or no research backing their safety. These chemicals may not only pose health risks to the general public but also tend to end up in the air and water supplies where they can do further harm.

Experts say it’s always in your best interest to wash clothing before wearing. Washing new clothes reduces the content of chemicals, especially residual chemicals that may remain after manufacturing.

Further research on clothing suggests that synthetic materials may be treated with more chemicals than natural fibers like cotton. But there’s no label indicator or certification that ensures a garment is chemical-free.