Are wrinkle-free / no-iron shirts bad for you?

Question

This article says no-iron shirts have formaldehyde!!!   that is bad bad

had to dissect animals in lab with formaldehyde stinks

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/your-money/11wrinkle.html?pagewanted=all

Comments

Our consensus seems to be No-Iron shirts can definitely cause contact dermatitis, but whether the risk for cancer is increased is unknown.
But why take a chance and wear something every day that could increase your risk for cancer?
DItch the no-iron shirts definitely.

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maybe we need to get the word more - any thoughts?  not worth getting cancer by avoiding once a week iron.

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I'm pretty convinced.  I don't need to dress up much at this point, but I won't get the no-iron shirts when I do.   All my going out clothes (club/bar) are non no-iron anyway.   just seems really stupid to wear no-iron clothes.   I think my aunt gave me a no-iron shirt - I'll donate it to goodwill or something.

Answer 1

Formaldehyde does cause cancer, but the question to ask is why is this necessary?  Formaldehyde definitely causes contact dermatitis, so why find out if you are susceptible?

Even if these no-iron shirts give very low exposure to formaldehyde, why take a chance with something you wear 10 hours a day, 5 days a week?

Minimize your exposure and wear traditional dress shirts.   Traditional collared dress shirts may even be getting cheaper as everyone is switching to these toxic no-iron shirts.   

Even Scientific American agrees.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-wrinkle-in-no-iron-shirts

http://www.shirtsmyway.com/blog/2010/09/09/no-iron-shirt-health-ris/

Comments

formaldehyde is a fixative - embalm corpses in it.  how is good to have in shirts???

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Common sense says no.   I threw out a Kirkland (from Costco) shirt because it was non-iron.  I know it is hard to get rid of shirts, but do you really trust that long term studies of formaldhyde exposure were done properly?

Answer 2

hi caliazn, i like yogurtfreak's answer.  i wouldn't wear a non-iron shirt to avoid any possibility of touching formaldehyde.  but if you're really worried, check out another source i found (straightdope):

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2886/are-no-iron-shirts-made-by-soaking-them-in-formaldehyde

where they mention two studies:

"On the cancer front, research has yielded mixed results. A study of 11,000 U.S. garment workers who used formaldehyde to make wrinkle-free clothes found a moderate increase in leukemia, but scientists looking at 7,700 Australian textile workers saw no significant link between formaldehyde and cancer risk."

my guess is that they followed these workers for a few years but if they had only 'moderately' higher risk for leukemia, it's only going to be a few cases more than the normla incidence of 16 / 100,000 people according to CDC.  it'd be nice if they could extend the study and see what the long-term effects are.

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hematologic/leukemia/statistics/race.htm

Answer 3

The Dean at Duke University thinks it is a terrible idea to wear shirts that contain formaldehyde.   That's enough me - I am going to give away the shirts in my hubby's closet!   I'd rather iron more shirts than have him get cancer in 10 years.

http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/no-iron-shirts

Answer 4

formaldehyde causes cancer (leukemia), and is bad for you.

the doses are not high, but can be avoided here.

just get normal shirts caliazn23, and have a young lady teach you how to iron :)

Comments

Any young man worth stripes should be able to iron his own shirt to look presentable.

Answer 5

These shirts look terrible regardless.   Just get the classic dress shirts, and iron them.  They will look much better.

Answer 6

I think you guys are freaking out for no reason.  Non iron shirts probably cause no harm.  If you think they cause harm, why don't you team up with a lawyer and try to get a nice profitable class action suit going against the shirt manufacturers?