Cross-Dresser

From personal experience, I've found that people who are really into fashion are really intense about it. Scarily so at times. I've known some to place it above all else, as if they would "die for fashion!" First, I don't think that this is normal, acceptable or healthy. Secondly, new research suggests that it's not healthy for everyone else either.

A Greenpeace investigation has discovered a chemical called nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE) in clothing made by 14 major brands, including Adidas, H&M, Converse and Abercrombie and Fitch. Oh, and NPE just happens to be highly toxic. NPE breaks down to form nonylphenol in water, which disrupts hormone levels and has been known to cause fish and amphibians to change gender.

Due to its persistence in the environment, nonylphenol builds up in each level in the food chain, much like the bioaccumulation experienced with DDT. And in case you are rather apathetic toward fish and frogs,this bioaccumulation means that humans receive the highest dosage of toxins and can suffer from hormone imbalances as a result of eating contaminated fish and drinking contaminated water.

NPE is banned from use in textile production in the EU but in China and other Asian countries such as Vietnam (where many global clothing brands source their products from -big surprise) lax restrictions mean that NPE is widely used in the dyeing process.

Some of the clothing labels named in Greenpeace's study have retaliated, with many disputing the significance of the findings. H&M have claimed that the because the methods used for testing NPE levels are "uncertain", studies such as Greenpeace's that rely on a low threshold of contamination are not viable. 'Since the level of the findings stated [by Greenpeace] are very low, you cannot show that our products contain nonylphenol ethoxylate,' the company said in a statement to the journal Ecologist.

Adidas has also pointed out that the NPE levels found by Greenpeace in their own products were all below 100mg/kg. In comparison, one Converse t-shirt in Greenpeace’s study was found to have 27,000mg/kg. 'The concentration was well below our own threshold,' Katja Schreiber, an Adidas spokeswoman, told the Ecologist. Schreiber did, however, add that the findings were, 'a clear sign that we need to continue to work in decreasing the amount of chemical substances in our products.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "cross-dresser" if you ask me.