Good to know.
Whenever we buy clothes the natural thing to do is to wear it straight from the shop and then wash it once you’ve worn it. Well, you might want to swap that process around.
It’s always very tempting to have that fresh ‘off the hanger’ feel to the clothes but it turns out there’s a very important reason for washing your clothes after you buy them.
According to Refinery 69, Donald Belsito, a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, said that new clothes often have harmful chemicals that can result in rashes and itchiness. It depends where the clothes have come from but as they can be made in a one country and then sold in another there could be differing laws for the chemicals used in both countries.
Skin iritation could be caused by chemicals such as azo-aniline dyes and formaldehyde resin which can be found in some clothes.
If that wasn’t enough of a concern it gets worse. Donald says that the dressing rooms and the shop floor are a breeding ground for bacteria, lice and fungus.
He said, “I have seen cases of lice that were possibly transmitted from trying on in the store, and there are certain infectious diseases that can be passed on through clothing.”
He suggests that you wash it twice after purchasing it to be extra sure that you rid the clothes of chemicals and bacteria.
