Cloth handkerchiefs have a reputation for being dirty, especially if they are not washed immediately and sit in a pocket for a long time. But, we could say that they are more ecological than paper tissues. It’s a received idea.
As you read these lines, your nose may be suffering from the onslaught of a cold, the flu, Covid-19 or an allergy attack, forcing you to keep a tissue or paper close at hand. fabric.
You’re probably wondering which of these two items is more effective at preventing the spread of infections, and which has the lesser environmental impact. Is it the cloth handkerchief, which has existed at least since Roman times? Or the paper handkerchief, developed more recently in its contemporary form, but which has quickly invaded our lives? Scientists’ conclusions on this subject may surprise you. Here they are.
Cloth handkerchief and paper handkerchief: which was created first?
However simple they may be, the tissues we use to blow our noses or capture our sneezes and other coughing fits are the fruits of a long and complex history.
Among their ancestors are the sudarium that used, in Ier century AD, the Romans in order to wipe the sweat from their faces or to hide their mouths. Over time, pieces of fabric of the same type, which today we would consider as handkerchiefs, have been used as head coverings, veils, disguises, or even to clean hands, sanitize wounds, or stop the bleeding.
Among the wealthiest categories of the population, they constituted a marker of social class and good manners, used in particular to discreetly get rid of sputum. Royal families, for example, used them as external signs of wealth and power, offering linen or silk handkerchiefs decorated with gold and silver to their most privileged subjects. King Henry VIII, for example, had a vast collection.
Handkerchiefs were also used to express one’s feelings, whether it was to express one’s love, to show one’s fidelity, or even to discreetly indicate one’s sexual preferences. At the end of the 19th centurye century, the “handkerchief code”, a system of color coding and placement of handkerchiefs, was used for this purpose. It is still used today in LGBTQ+ communities.
The origins of the paper handkerchief seem even older, dating back to 2nd century China.e century BC. However, it was not until the 1920s that the paper handkerchief as we know it today was developed, as a utensil for removing makeup and for wiping runny noses caused by hay fever.
Which handkerchief is better for your health, fabric or paper?
More than 100 years ago, the cloth handkerchief was sometimes considered “the little flag of Death”, because of the germs it carried and its supposed propensity to contaminate the pockets in which it was left. Later, however, the argument evolved, and people were advised to use tissues because “coughs and sneezes spread disease.”
Today we know that nasal secretions contain viruses such as those from colds, which actually survive in the environment and can be transferred to various surfaces (hands, cloth or paper tissues, door handles, keyboards, etc. .) where they are able to survive sometimes long after the initial contamination.
There is a risk of these viruses being spread when you blow your nose on a cotton tissue and then touch another object. Even if you do not keep your used tissue in your pocket, and immediately put it in the wash, contamination of the affected surfaces can occur along the way (door handles, washing machine, etc.).
Things are a little different with paper tissues, because viruses on them generally don’t survive as long as on cloth tissues. As long as you throw away tissues immediately after using them and don’t leave them lying around, the risk of passing germs to other people is lower.
Another question that arises is that of the effectiveness of paper or fabric tissues when it comes to providing a barrier to coughing and other respiratory projections. Certainly, basic cloth protections, such as handkerchiefs or bandanas, are capable of trapping sputum, as are cloth handkerchiefs. However, several studies have shown that they do not effectively filter respiratory aerosols, and are less effective in preventing the inhalation of certain pollutants, pathogens or small particles suspended in the air.
And for the planet, paper handkerchief or fabric?
The American company Ecosystem Analytics compared the environmental impact of reusable cotton tissues to that of disposable paper tissues by carrying out a life cycle analysis, an evaluation method aimed at quantifying the environmental impacts of products and services. To do this, it took into account four types of environmental impacts linked to production, transport, use and disposal:
- Impacts on climate change (sum of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide and CFCs);
- Impacts on the quality of the ecosystem (chemical pollution of soil and water);
- Impacts on human health (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity for humans);
- Resource impacts (total energy needs for non-renewable energy and mineral extraction).
The verdict ? Across all four measures, a cotton tissue had an impact five to seven times greater than an equivalent paper tissue. The largest differences in impact were related to the production stages of each of these products, rather than their use or disposal.
If you still want to use a fabric handkerchief, it is better to opt for organic cotton, whose ecological footprint is lower than that of standard cotton produced in the same place. However, since organic cotton production has lower yields than its conventional counterpart, a larger area of agricultural land is required to produce an equivalent quantity, which also increases the environmental impact.
To have a less guilty conscience when blowing your nose, opting for tissues made from recycled materials can be a solution. Their manufacturing is in fact accompanied by lower greenhouse gas emissions. Blowing your nose with paper tissues that you dispose of properly after use (and that you do not keep in your pocket), made from recycled materials, is therefore preferable from both a health and environmental point of view. ‘environment.
But these handkerchiefs have a flaw: they don’t have quite the same panache as their fine fabric ancestors, nor the same versatility…
Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University and Hester Joyce, Adjunct Associate Professor, Creative Arts, La Trobe University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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