Reflection/Investigation

I just came back from a clothing haul from Ross- which has ironically become one of my favourite stores after disdaining it for long because of the seemingly endless clutter. Lately, however, it has strongly appealed to me because of some of the hidden gems I've come across for low prices. It's like thrifting, except for brand-new items, which brings me to my immunology connection.

One of the reasons I don't typically go thrifting is because of a dear family member, who is repulsed by the notion of wearing clothes from a stranger. The thought of wearing clothing people sweated in (and who knows what else), bothered her greatly and no amount of washing could fully decontaminate them.

I came to for the most part hold this conviction, though at times I've borrowed a friend's shirt or outfit, and snagged a few items at the dorms giveaway once. I have developed a somewhat nuanced view-- it's okay to thrift some items, like a shirt or coat, while questionable to thrift others, like swimming suits and leggings/pants. I wondered though how much of this belief could be substantiated by science so I did a little digging which I will share here.

My quick Google search mainly yielded results from bloggers or non-science sources. One article said that vinegar or baking soda (and unspecified 'anitbacterial solutions') would do the trick.

There wasn't an abundance of scientific articles that I was able to find, but one was based on a study conducted in Iran it was shown that while thrifted items that hadn't been washed harbored a variety of parasites, these were not to be found in washed clothes. Some of the conditions listed that could be derived from contaminated clothing include pediculosis and scabies. Also, clothes infected with lice could lead to conditions like epidemic typhus and trench fever.

So from this I gather that while it is probably safe to wear clothes that have been thoroughly cleansed (more expert guidance on how to accomplish this would be great), there should be caution in how we handle unwashed thrifted items and how we store them to prevent these conditions.

References

Rakhshanpour, Arash, et al. “Second-Hand Clothe, a New Threat for Acquiring Parasitic Infection.” Iranian Journal of Public Health, vol. 50, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 211–212, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213614/, https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v50i1.5093.

Tolliver, Domonique. “Fashion Experts’ Best Tips to Clean and Deodorize Thrifted Clothes.” TODAY.com, TODAY, 21 Feb. 2024, www.today.com/shop/how-to-clean-thrifted-clothes-rcna136158. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.