To Dye For

April 17, 2023
Journalist Wicker urges consumers to think twice before picking up a piece of fast fashion in her incisive debut. Following up on the idea that “fashion products have some of the most complicated and multilayered chemical profiles of any product you or I can buy—without a license, anyway,” Wicker spotlights a host of people who’ve been affected by the fashion industry’s unregulated toxic chemical use, among them flight attendants who wore uniforms that caused bloody skin lesions; an industrial hygienist later discovered the clothing contained Teflon and tributyl phosphate, which trigger skin and respiratory issues. Meanwhile, a fashion production manager describes grim factory visits in China, where she found workers living on-site and using toxic dyes without protection. Wicker enriches her study with fascinating background on how arsenic ended up in makeup and mercury in top hats before manufacturers switched to azo dyes, which are poorly understood and suspected to have carcinogenic effects. While the situation might seem dire, the author suggests consumers can protect themselves by buying used clothing and avoiding dry cleaners, which often use toxic cleaning agents. Wicker makes a robust, sobering case that “much of what historically made fashion dangerous to our health has been invisible,” grounded by copious research and frequently shocking first-person accounts. This is a real eye-opener.