Jonathan Webb

ABC Listen.

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Hello, Jonathan.

I think you probably should.

Yeah.

I don't want to be like a massive scaremonger.

This is not an enormous risk.

But the fact of the matter is we do use a lot of pretty hazardous materials to make a lot of textiles still.

Things like lead, things like azo dyes and stuff.

And it can get stuck in clothing and, you know, end up in consumers' hands.

So it doesn't hurt to give it a wash.

We do know that these things can be really, really harmful to people who are making the textiles.

There's many documented cases of being exposed to things like carbon disulfide, which causes

really serious neurological problems, it's reasonable to assume the risk's a lot lower if you're just wearing a garment as opposed to, you know, if you're working with a vat of dye every single day, obviously.

But we're talking about things like slightly increased risk of cancer.

You know, long-term lead contamination can cause sort of slow systemic chronic issues.

So it's not a case of this is going to make people extremely sick, but it is doing things like increasing your risk of other diseases possibly.

I did, yes.

So Camilla Devis, who's a researcher in the US, a chemistry researcher, started getting interested in lead contamination because her daughter very briefly had elevated lead levels.

Fortunately, it was only a short period of time, but she started looking to see, you know, what could possibly have exposed her child to this.