Textiles & Air Pollution

So far, we have discussed the extensive influence the fashion and textile industries have on pollution, but how exactly are they polluting the environment? In this post, we will learn about the causes and effects of how textile production leads to high levels of air pollution.

(Source: https://magazine.impactscool.com/en/cambiamento-climatico-e-ambiente/lindustria-tessile-fra-le-realta-piu-inquinanti-cresce-la-moda-sostenibile/)

What is air pollution?

As Almetwally et al. (2020) define, air pollution is the contamination of the atmosphere with chemical substances, gases or particulate matter. These pollutants result in damages to living things such as animals and food crops. They are also causes for serious health problems that lead to millions of deaths each year.

Briefly put, air pollution can be sorted into two main categories: natural or man-made pollution. Natural pollutants would include those of forest fires, volcanic eruptions or even the pollen grains released from flowering plants. Man-made pollution on the other hand, refers to pollutants released as a result of human activities (Bernstein et al. 2004). This can include gas and chemical hazards that are projected into the atmosphere from our factories, for example. With large scale manufacturing sites for textiles, textile production has been releasing air pollutants at a rate that surpasses that of the natural, rendering it extremely difficult to curb with air pollution alongside other anthropogenic causes such as the airline industry.

Meenaxi and Sudha (2013) tell us that the majority of the processes performed in textile mills result in atmospheric emissions. Out of all the pollutants, gaseous emissions are the greatest contributor to the air pollution problem of the industry. This does not come as a surprise, considering how 10% of global carbon emissions come from the fashion industry alone!

The major sources of air emissions from textile operations include the printing, dyeing and fabric preparation. Hydrocarbons are emitted from drying ovens and mills often generate nitrous and sulphur oxides. Though these chemicals may sound familiar (for example, nitrous oxides are a type of greenhouse gas), we should not underestimate their toxicity! When emitted at high volumes, they can potentially cause major health problems and can be deadly (Parvin et al., 2020).

Apart from the direct release of air pollutants during its production phase, the consumption of energy resources during textile production has also indirectly led to significant contributions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accelerating the enhanced greenhouse gas effect. In particular, the textile industry consumes non-renewable petrochemicals to produce polyester and nylon. A relatively large amount of energy is necessary to synthesize these materials. As such, to fuel such energy, more non-renewable resources are utilized, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For example, Chinese textile factories alone release about 3 billion tons of soot yearly by burning coal for energy. This situation mirrors many worldwide textile factories, where governments have trouble keeping up with their major pollution footprint.

Plus, to have these textile factories, we need space, and it seems like many companies turn to deforestation, releasing even more amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Other than contributing to global warming, these gases, if concentrated and left untreated, can cause potential environmental damage such as altering plant growth (Stevens et al., 2020).

A Wider Implication

With rapid rates of industrialization of our natural environment, Fanizza et al. (2015) cautions that the release of contaminants into our atmosphere makes it evermore unstable . It results in uncomfortable conditions not only for the physical environment — with changes into our heat and light conditions, for example, but also to our biotic environment and threatens many biological life. As such, although the textile industry may only be one of many contributors to global air pollution, it’s contribution plays a significant impact that may cause a proliferation of even more environmental damage. I hope that through this post, you have learnt about how this industry is not to be neglected when we discuss issues of air pollution!

COMING UP

Now that we have set the ball rolling, let’s keep exposing how the textile industry contributes to environmental pollution. In my next post, I will be sharing how textile production causes big issues by producing waste pollution.

Cheers,

Hui Jie

References

Almetwally, A. A., Bin-Jumah, M., & Allam, A. A. (2020). Ambient air pollution and its influence on human health and welfare: an overview. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(20), 24815-24830.

Bernstein, J. A., Alexis, N., Barnes, C., Bernstein, I. L., Nel, A., Peden, D., ... & Williams, P. B. (2004). Health effects of air pollution. Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 114(5), 1116-1123.

Fanizza, C., Baiguera, S., Incoronato, F., Ferrari, C., Inglessis, M., Ferdinandi, M., ... & De Berardis, B. (2015). AROMATIC HYDROCARBON LEVELS AND PM 2.5 CHARACTERIZATION IN ROME URBAN AREA: PRELIMINARY RESULTS. Environmental Engineering & Management Journal (EEMJ), 14(7).

Green of Change. (n.d.). Inconvenient truth: fashion is one of the most polluting industries of the world. Retrieved from https://www.greenofchange.com/textile-pollution.

Meenaxi, T., & Sudha, B. (2013). Air pollution in textile industry. Asian Journal of Environmental Science, 8(1), 64-66.

Parvin, F., Islam, S., Akm, S. I., Urmy, Z., & Ahmed, S. (2020). A Study on the Solutions of Environment Pollutions and Worker’ s Health Problems Caused by Textile Manufacturing Operations. Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, 28(4), 21831-21844.

Natural Resources Defense Council. (n.d.). Encourage Textile Manufacturers to Reduce Pollution. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/issues/encourage-textile-manufacturers-reduce-pollution#:~:text=Textile%20mills%20generate%20one%2Dfifth,by%20burning%20coal%20for%20energy.

Stevens, C. J., Bell, J. N. B., Brimblecombe, P., Clark, C. M., Dise, N. B., Fowler, D., ... & Wolseley, P. A. (2020). The impact of air pollution on terrestrial managed and natural vegetation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 378(2183), 20190317.