If you are trying to avoid chemicals and pesticides at home, have you thought to look at your bed sheets? There are organic and natural pesticides in bamboo sheets because the bamboo plant has a supreme resilience to bugs and pests. But have you ever looked at the pesticides in your cotton sheets?
With so many cotton sheet retailers advertising that their sheets are antibacterial, little information is offered to consumers about how that process is completed. Antibacterial cotton sheets are often treated with nasty chemicals to give them a small level of antimicrobial properties. Whilst we would all love sheets that keep harmful germs away, we need to look at the chemical load as well.
Why do Cotton Sheets Contain Chemicals?
So why do companies add chemical pesticides to cotton sheets? Not only is it an added dollar cost, but it is also an added health cost. They do it because consumers perceive the benefit of buying a ‘healthy’ product, rather than seeing the real issue with adding pesticides to fabric.
Even worse is that cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop on earth. Without spraying pesticides on cotton, the cotton plant has little natural defense against an attack. So basically you are sleeping with a whole load of chemicals whenever you sleep on cotton sheets. The same goes with your clothing. The natural pesticides in bamboo sheets mean that your eight hours of blissful slumber is now a chemical free period.
If you want further information about chemicals and cotton, check out these two things:
Google search this: cotton sheets with antimicrobial treatment
Natural Pesticides in Bamboo Sheets
Bamboo’s natural pesticides in the actual plant matter. This means that bamboo doesn’t require treatment or pesticide use as part of the growing phase, or when processing into bamboo fabric. Natural silk is the same – Thai silk bedspread anyone?
Time and time again, bamboo fabric has been proven to reduce microbial activity and bacteria levels. Pillowcases and sheets made from bamboo fabric naturally wick away moisture and impede bacteria cultures from growing.
Antibacterial capability testing was completed by the China Industrial Testing Centre during 2003. 100% bamboo fabric was infected with Staphylococcus Aureous and then put through a 24 hour test to ensure a long incubation time. At the completion of the test, the amount of live bacteria was checked in the samples. The results proved a 99.8% antibacterial eradication rate in 100% bamboo fabric. For further proof, at the bottom of this article is an image of a real life test result. The test was conducted in a quality controlled environment by independent SBS laboratories.
These natural pesticides and antibacterial characteristics of bamboo fabric comes from bamboo kun. Bamboo kun is an intrinsic element of bamboo. Growing bamboo plants do not need chemical pesticides because of this organic anti-fungal, antibacterial agent that is present in the bamboo plant. It is rare for a bamboo plant to be the brunt of an attack by pests, or affected by disease. These same natural pesticides that protect bamboo growing in nature, continues to flourish in bamboo fibres. Bamboo sheets really are the most natural, healthy sheet to sleep with.
If you are looking to change from cotton sheets to bamboo sheets, you can find them in store.