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Eco-Fashion May 1, 2008
Do You Know How Many Pounds of Pesticide It Takes to Make One Pair of Jeans?
One Clothing Company -- Loomstate Organic -- Shuts Pesticides Down
Loomstate Organic Clothing was launched in New York City in 2004 by designer Rogan Gregory and Scott Hahn. They, along with many clothing companies advertised through RiverWired, have emerged out of the growing demand for clothing that is produced in socially and environmentally responsible ways.
In a recent ad in GOOD Magazine, Loomstate presents these arresting facts about pesticides quite clear:
- Two-thirds of a pound of pesticides is used to grow the cotton for one pair of non-organic jeans.
- 1,500,000 children were examined in an Indiana University study that concluded that children born in spring perform worse in math in English because they were conceived in summer, when pesticide use and exposure is highest.
- Mothers living within 500 meters of California fields sprayed with pesticides are six times more likely to have children born with autism, when compared to the rate of autism births nationwide.
- 245,000 fish were killed in Alabama in 1995, when a heavy rainstorm caused a runoff from cotton fields into a nearby creek.
- It is estimated that 75 percent of pesticides that are sprayed from a crop duster, blow away rather than actualyl reach the ground
- Five out of the nine most common pesticides used on cotton have been classified by the EPA as "known carcinogens."
- It takes 8-10 years to develop a new pesticide for use on cotton, at a cost of $100 million.
- It takes 5-6 years for weevils to become immune to a new pesticide.
- 23 elementary-school children, in an Emory University study, were said to have had the presence of pesticides in their urine.
- 1 of those children in the above study still had traces of pesticide after only eating organic food for four days.
- 10,400 people dies in the U.S. each year from cancer related to pesticide exposure.
- 250 people in the U.S. are killed each year by assault rifles.
- 14,000,000 people in the U.S. routinely drink water contaminated with carcinogenic herbicides.
- 90 percent of municipal water treatment facilities are lacking the equipment to remove these chemicals from the drinking water.
...Just something to think about next time you're in the mood to shop for some new clothes!
Keep it organic, keep it green -- it's the only way!
