Greening your textile choices

Who could have guessed that the textiles can have serious implications for your health and the health of the planet? Until very recently, the thinking around "natural and healthy" fabric choices has been pretty simplistic...fabrics made from cotton, linen and other natural fibers were considered safe choices. But the truth may surprise you. "Natural" fiber fabrics are not a green choice. Not unless the fiber used was raised organically-that is, without chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, defoliants...you get the picture. But here's the important and little understood point: The fabric is only a good choice if those organic fibers are then turned into fabric without the use of harmful chemicals at each step of the production process: fiber prep, carding, retting, scouring, spinning, bleaching, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing. All of these fabric production steps use tremendous amounts of water and chemicals-many of them unsavory chemicals-unless the processing is organic. Think of turning organic apples into applesauce: If the manufacturer mixes the organic apples with Red Dye #2, preservatives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, then the final product is far from organic. The same is true of fabrics. You might be surprised to learn that the production of the 25 yards of fabric in your draperies may have included the use of 25 pounds of chemicals and 500 gallons of water. Neil Gordon is the owner of Decorating with Fabric, New York, N.Y.