Conventional Cotton Is Fine.

Hey readers,

I got a very thoughtful question from the founder of a small sustainable kid’s brand recently, and I wanted to share it with you:

Something keeps coming up and I haven’t been able to find any credible research on it. I have always felt that organic cotton is of course better, but for those who can’t find or afford organic cotton, conventional cotton is a better option than polyester—especially if the cotton has Oeko-Tex certification. It seems like there is a push on social media to say that conventional cotton should not be considered a better option at all because it’s so bad ... but they place a large part of the argument on pesticides. I know that there are many different chemicals used for dyeing and for creating cotton clothing/textiles that are harmful, but specifically in regards to pesticides; is there research that has been done on conventional cotton that has shown that pesticides used during the growing of cotton remains on the fiber long-term?

This came in the week the USDA launched a MAHA-based campaign to promote American cotton and American-made clothing. The campaign includes cotton farm subsidies, support for domestic manufacturing, trade policies promoting the export of cotton, and a marketing campaign called “plant, not plastic.” But influencers were saying this is actually a ruse by the chemical industry to promote pesticide products.

Yikes…if it’s true.

I have been exploring this question since the very beginning of my career writing about sustainable fashion. In fact, when I started scouring the internet—again—for fresh research, one of the only things I found was an article I wrote in 2014 on this topic. 2014!!

The context for that article: A celebrity had written an article for Refinery29 about sustainable fashion. There were some inaccurate stats in there about cotton and pesticides. So Cotton Inc., which represents American farmers and cotton importers, asked Refinery29 if they would do a follow-up, and in turn Refinery29 asked me to interview one of their cotton scientists.

It’s a wild ride, reading it now. The scientist claimed glyphosate is “one of the safest herbicides, if you’re an animal.” Glyphosate has since become a flash point in a battle to protect consumers from its health effects, with the EPA ruling that it is safe, (contrary to the EU’s view of it), thousands of customers suing Monsanto and winning, a recent Supreme Court ruling making it impossible for consumers to sue Monsanto/Bayer, and several representatives proposing laws that would override that ruling.

So far, so bad. But after we talked about Roundup resistance, we moved on to whether consumers are exposed to pesticides like glyphosate when they wear non-organic cotton clothing. Here’s what he said:

“Most of the time the cotton plant is growing, the fiber is inside a boll [the rounded seed capsule]. The insecticides are applied before the boll opens. Most fibers are never exposed to those chemistries. Any chemistries that did get on the fiber, then you have textile processing. If there’s any wet processing, any residuals would be washed off. The Bremen Cotton Exchange takes raw fiber bales — cotton taken straight from the gin — from cotton from around the world. More than 90% of the time, even before the wet processing, there [are] no residues detected. The probability of any of that making it to a consumer product is about as close to 0% as you can get.”

Did I believe him? Kind of. That 10% of raw cotton fiber bales that did have pesticides on them concerned me. I then started discussing acceptable amounts of risk, and reading Baby Journalist Alden’s words, I’m really proud of her. Usually, I’m embarrassed by my old writing, but in this article I can see the seeds for To Dye For starting to germinate. I was already thinking deeply a decade before about how the concerns of consumers are brushed aside by telling them that a certain amount of exposure to toxic chemicals is perfectly fine.

So when I started thinking about writing this book on toxic fashion, I looked into this topic of agricultural pesticides on cotton clothing again. And I couldn’t find anything.

Someone tweeted me a study that they said showed pesticide residue in finished cotton clothing, but it was actually a paper exploring testing methods for finding trace amounts of pesticides on cotton textiles. Even today, when I looked through the research, that is all I could find: testing methods. But not the actual results of tests of regular clothing showing pesticide residue.

I emailed a few experts and researchers, and Nate Sponsler, Director of AFIRM, got back to me. If you’ve read my book, you might recognize the name AFIRM. It’s a membership organization of apparel and footwear companies that collaborate to create a restricted substance list (RSL) and provide guidance to brands on testing for hazardous chemicals and keeping them out of clothing. Nate has participated in AFIRM for 20 years, including nine years as a brand member at Gap.

First, he explained that when looking at an RSL for product testing, pesticides fall into the chemical class “biocides”: substances that are used to kill or prevent insects, mold, or bacterial decomposition that can harm fashion products. This includes agricultural pesticides, preservatives, antimicrobials, fungicides, and more.

“Agricultural pesticides are included in the AFIRM RSL in Appendix C, but we do not recommend testing for them in any materials because they are never found,” he wrote in an email. (Emphasis mine.) “Occasionally, some AFIRM member brands test for them, but they never find any.”

“With respect to agricultural pesticides used in cotton farming generally, I would say the risk of finding them in finished garments is incredibly low to basically nonexistent. Whatever pesticides may have been used in the fields and potentially retained in cotton fibers are washed out during the many wet-processing stages involved in producing cotton garments,” including “processing the cotton into yarns and fabrics, pretreatment, dyeing, laundering, etc.”

“With all the washing that take place, I don’t even think there are meaningful differences between organic and inorganic cotton with respective pesticide residues. They just are not there in measurable concentrations.”

So, just to sum it up:

Agricultural pesticides are never found in organic or conventional cotton textiles. When it comes to pesticide exposure, purchasing organic cotton does not mean you are safer. If you’re on a budget and your main concern is your and your family’s health and safety, purchasing conventional cotton products is perfectly acceptable.

This is a question I’m increasingly hard-pressed to answer. Paying a few bucks more for an organic shirt used to feel like a guarantee that cotton farmers from India, Turkey, Brazil, Texas and North Carolina weren’t using pesticides, and that the garment as it moved through the supply chain would be free of hazardous chemicals, only using “organic” dyes and finishes.

But my faith in the GOTS Organic certification (the only organic textile certification) has broken down in recent years.

First, my investigation into fraudulent organic cotton from India made me feel like my extra dollars aren’t going to farmers (at least in India) and that buying organic wasn’t reducing farmer exposure to pesticides.

Then, I found out an an OG certified organic brand had started smelling like chemicals and causing reactions in several people, including a dear friend.

Finally, I found out that organic certification for dye houses is incredibly weak and easily gamed. The chemicals that are allowed aren’t organic plant dyes, they’re just petrochemical dyes that are supposed to be safer. But nobody from GOTS is really checking that a certified dye house is using those chemicals it said it would.

So, do I prefer organic cotton? No, not by itself. That’s because the main concern for cotton clothing is all the dyes and finishes that are applied long after it is harvested. So I prefer 100% natural clothing from brands that do several things to ensure they are safe and non-toxic. Organic certification can be one of several things indicating care, but it can’t be the only thing. I look for a brand that sources its dyed cotton textiles from the U.S. or Europe, that has Oeko-Tex certification, that is part of Afirm, or just has a strong chemical management program in general.

I’m also very aware of what pesticides are doing to conventional farmers in the U.S., their neighbors, pollinators and other beneficial bugs, birds, and the longterm health of our soil. So I am very happy to pay more for clothing from brands that source from American organic cotton farmers. That’s a much stronger system that I trust from beginning to end, and a brand that sources American cotton is showing a real commitment to its supply chain and farmers.

Here is a list of top-tier non-toxic brands, many of which source American organic cotton.

Here is a list of affordable, second-tier non-toxic brands, many of which sell certified safe organic and conventional cotton products.

So in conclusion, I will say with so much confidence:

If you want to support organic American cotton farmers, and can afford to, great. But you don’t need to spend a ton on organic cotton clothing.

AND

Conventional cotton clothing or bedding from a conventional brand is still better for your health than synthetic clothing.

As I wrote to the small brand owner who started me down this path:

“‘They’re saying on social media’ is almost never the precursor to a helpful or accurate statement.” Luckily, she agreed.