Ellen Phiddian

And mum happened to be a chemist and started testing everything in the house?

Right.

And what did she find?

And is it true that brighter colours are more likely to carry these sorts of contamination?

Not that I want Lab Notes listeners to become the beige brigade.

And enforce bland rules on their families.

Should we be worried about this?

Yeah, I didn't realize that even what it's actually made of isn't mandatory.

So if you've already bought something, say, and you want to be as safe as possible, does washing solve the problem?

Should we just be giving everything a really good wash?

Hmm, okay.

So there are some things that you could do that might create another problem.

Right.

So if there's no labeling about these chemical exposures, is there anything we can do in terms of our own awareness?

Do we know anything about which clothes are more likely to have this sort of contamination?

What can people do if they have a concern?

Yeah, from the regulators that brought you USB-C cables for everything.

Some transparency in the clothing manufacturing lines as well.

Ellen, thanks so much for sharing your lab notes with me.

That was Ellen Fidian, a science reporter here in the Radio National Science Unit.