I do know this for a fact that all fabric imported into the USA has to be treated with formaldehyde either in granular or gas form at the port of entry. I read the MSDS -Material Safety Data Sheets- at the store where I worked.
This is why you should always wash your fabric when you get it home so you have less exposure to it yourself, while handling it.
By the way this also includes all clothing, towels, wash cloths,sheets any thing made with fabric and imported. It makes you think twice.

I don't wash my fabric unless I think it'll bleed and I still won't even after reading this. Almost everything we buy has chemicals in it. I am allergic to so many things. As a child, I went into an alfalfa field and my eyes swelled shut and ran and my nose wouldn't quit running for two days. Now I can touch alfalfa plants and nothing happens.

My dad purchased an expensive machine to clean the air and put it in my bedroom when I was a child. I use 3 nose sprays a day because of allergies now, but with that help, I can be around cats or anything. I have the worst runny nose; it runs constantly and I own over 100 handkerchiefs because of it. Walmart is the worst for me, but I can go in there now. Before the nose sprays, my husband could find me in any store -- he'd just listen for sniffling and there I'd be. I have never had a problem with fabric -- with or without nose spray -- ever! I could live in a quilt shop and not be bothered without nose spray.

My baby never gets red or watery eyes and she touches all the fabric, she loves fabric I think more than me

Which is better? To know how something is made and learn all the icky things that may have been done or processed in it? or, To be ignorantly happy with the end product?

Sometimes our sensibilities get the best of us only because of the thought of something.

If we knew how our food was made most of it would rot on the shelf. If we knew what was done to keep things safe we wouldn't use them. Most all things we use today have been treated and/or modified to make them no longer toxic or dangerous.

I personally prefer to remain happily ignorant about a lot of things.

I know that cotton is a plant and the white puffy part has seeds in it. People used to pick the cotton bolls into big sacks - I think there is a macine that harvests the bolls nos. I don. ' t at what point the seeds are picked out. Wonder if any pesticides o herbicides are used on the plsnts during the growing season.and if so, how much residual is on the harvested cotton.


Somehow those fibers need too be spun into threads, and those threads are knitted or woven into cloth. Then the dying processes - I have no idea what chemicals are needed for the different colors. Then any finished that might be done/added.

And then getting it from place to place - and where it is warehoused.

And to think allthat was done " at home " not so long ago

I f anyone really wants to know there are a ton of articles you can check out from Google. I didn't site any particular one but easy enough to find out.

I wrote on here before how bad some of the places where the fabric is made and stored in the Far East was. Having lived there while my DH was stationed there I got to see first hand how dirty it was. That was in the 60's so it may have changed now That is why I wash everything before using it. The thing in the fabrics that brings tears is what it has to be packed with it to keep mold out. We had to hang bags of it in our closets or mold would grow all over. I hated that smell and knew what it was the first time I went into a fabric store and smelled it.

I think it all has to do with the cost of escalating labor cost is why so many jobs have been shipped overseas.

This is actually the first really relevant response to my original post.

since so few people have missed the point and since i can see where this is going, i'm going to close it now.
then i'm going to wash down my hot dog with a diet soda before rolling around in my unwashed fabrics.

see you in the ER. LOL LOL LOL