Health Beyond the Blog: Is Toxic Fashion Making Us Sick?

“To Dye For” reveals the dangerous health effects of lingering chemicals in our everyday garb

by Joanna Yao

Fashion has risen to become one of the world’s largest industries. A 2023 McKinsey and Company report shows that the fashion industry is worth $2.5 trillion, with over 100 billion articles of clothing produced every year. Short-lived trends make fast fashion expand rapidly. Yet the fashion industry remains controversial for its significant carbon footprint and the ethics surrounding clothing production in developing nations. In the book To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick — and How We Can Fight Back, investigative journalist Alden Wicker examines fast fashion’s consequences, which affect human health from the individual to a global scale.

A series of lawsuits over flight attendant uniforms catalyzed Wicker’s investigative work into the fashion industry. Between 2016 and 2019, flight attendants from companies including Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines reported symptoms such as rashes, asthma, breathing problems, hives, swollen eyelids and fatigue. This was after receiving new uniforms from brands such as Lands’ End, Cintas, and Twin Hill. In the book, Wicker interviewed numerous attendants about their experiences of working in tight quarters in the uniforms despite the discomfort. She also worked with industrial hygienist Judith Anderson, who worked at the Department of Safety, Health, and Security at the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). Anderson’s chemical tests on the uniforms revealed alarmingly high levels in the fabric of chemicals such as azo dyes, heavy metals, and PFAS. In other settings, these chemicals have been linked to increased risk of respiratory and autoimmune illnesses, neurodevelopmental issues, neurotoxicity, and certain types of cancer.

Wicker invites her readers to explore the historically longstanding problem of chemicals used in the fashion industry, beginning in the Victorian Age with lead and arsenic greens. She finds that people in different fields—from garment workers in Southeast Asia, to individuals with skin conditions, to dermatologists—must bear the health-related consequences of unethical fashion. She concludes that, the fashion industry has prioritized consumerism and aesthetics over public health and safety, abetted by a lack of transparency and awareness regarding chemical ingredients, alongside gaps in regulation.

Amidst the pervasiveness of shopping-haul videos, aesthetic movements, and micro-trends such as “clean-girl make-up” on social media platforms, consumers rarely pause to consider the chemical make-up of their clothing. Wicker seamlessly blends scientific and clinical discussions of chemicals in garments with narratives of people with first-hand experiences. Her work broadly encourages reflection as a consumer on how people can make a sustainable impact on the fashion industry at the individual and community-levels.

To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick–and How We Can Fight Back is available at Bookshop in multiple formats. An interview with Wicker about the book is also available on the podcast NPR’s Fresh Air.