Nothing left to hit the fan!
High tech underwear to hit the shelves
BY MICHAEL WOODS
Toledo Blade
NEW ORLEANS -- The first ''permanent fresh'' socks, underwear and other garments that stay free from body odor for days without laundering will soon be headed for department store shelves, thanks to a major advance in textile technology.
Just as permanent press fabrics incorporate a chemical coating to reduce wrinkling, their permanent fresh counterparts have an anti-microbial, or self-sanitizing, coating that prevents growth of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms.
Some are nuisance microbes that grow on sweat and produce foot and body odor. Others spread disease.
''Anti-microbial fabrics have great potential for odor-free consumer products and in hospitals to prevent the spread of drug-resistant diseases,'' said Dr. Gang Sun in an interview. ''These are a very serious problem in hospitals.''
Sun, who is with the University of California at Davis, developed the chemical additive for anti-microbial textiles. He reported on the advance at the 218th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, being held here this week.
The technology involves attaching compounds called N-halamines to the fibers in fabrics. Sun employed the same chemical techniques used to attach wrinkle-free coatings to fabrics. Nhalamines contain chlorine atoms, which make disinfectants like household bleach so effective in killing bacteria and viruses. Unlike bleach, however, the chlorine in N-halamine fabrics remains in a form that does not cause the skin irritation that occurs when bleach comes into contact with skin.
Consumers would ''charge'' permanent fresh fabrics with anti-microbial properties by washing in a mild solution of household bleach. Garments would then be periodically recharged, much like a battery, by rewashing in a bleach solution.
Windows 2000 will allow users to change their own properties to 'anti-microbial!!! |
