Are organic cotton sheets necessary for living without chemicals in my sheets.?
July 15, 2011 by Power Maven
Filed under organic living
I am reading the book Green Chic. The author talks about a number of chemicals used to treat sheets prior to packaging. She recommends using organic sheets only. She swears you can’t wash the chemicals out of the sheets.
I hate being sold fear. And I don’t have the money to go change all my sheets over to organic (or listen to most of the advice she gives).
Do you think organic cotton is safer? Is there a way to wash traditional cotton sheets to get the chemicals out?
try using 1 cupp of vinager to your washload of sheets it will bring back the luster and clean them very well and get any residue of any kind off them they will look brand knew.you should use 1 cup of vinager to every wash you do it helps get all the junk off of your clothing and keeps them looking brand knew like they were just bought takes out all the extra fabric softner build up.so try the vinager i am sure it will help they don’t tell you that in the book they want you to go buy the sheets.
Yes, what you read is true, I too have been reading allot of articles and information on organic materials, Cotton sheets are full of pesticides and chemicals such as formaldehyde etc and this can not be washed out or removed in any way, but it does seep into the air in your home and cause health problems especially if you are sensitive to chemicals, knowing all this had made me very health conscious and have been health conscious for years I do see a big difference in my health these days have been healthy for thirteen years straight without even a cold or flu to worry about so you see it makes a big difference to go organic when you can, it may cost more to begin with but in the end you will be ahead by keeping healthy because of a healthy lifestyle Good Luck !
Green Chic is correct in saying that traditional sheets are treated before packaging. Most of those chemicals, however, can be removed from the sheets with proper laundering. The vinegar suggestions above is a good one and I would recommend always laundering new clothes and linens this way. Unless you are one of the most chemical sensitive people, this should do the trick.
An option to keep from having to use detergents and fabric softeners is to use a system to treat the laundry water. There is a good one that runs around $750. It cleans the fabric using cold water only and infuses the water with silver ions to kill bacteria. Since there are no detergents, the fabric is naturally soft and subtle. I have been using this product for about 1 1/2 years and LOVE it. If you can’t locate one, email me and I’ll get you some more information.
organic cotton is safer but the chemicals do eventually wash out/off gas so if you have sheets that are several years old they are probably free of chemicals by now. What you should plan on doing is replacing your sheets slowly with organic cotton sheets over time and hit sales to do so.