While the little ailments of winter have continued to circulate for several weeks, an environmental scientist from the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia, Mark Patrick Taylor, has revealed the best choice of tissues. whether for health or for the planet! We tell you everything!
Maybe you too have been affected by the flu or Covid which has been raging in France in recent weeks or you simply have a cold with a runny nose. If so, tissues are certainly your best friends whether you have a runny nose or the irremediable need to blow your nose to try to unclog your nose. But then what type of handkerchief do you use on a daily basis? Paper or fabric handkerchief?
A specialist has looked into the question and reveals which of these two objects is the most effective when it comes to avoiding the spread of microbes, but also to protecting the planet. Although the cloth handkerchief has been around much longer than the paper handkerchief, it was invented in the Greco-Roman era and has had many lives and uses over the last few centuries while the latter appeared in the early 1900s and was democratized from the 1920s, the results of this scientist will surely amaze you.
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In terms of health, what is the best option?
Who has never heard of the cloth handkerchief as “ little pavilion of Death » ? A nickname obtained for the unreasonable amount of germs and viruses it carries, but also for its proportion of contaminating the pockets in which it is kept. Despite everything, the handkerchief is a very good accessory to protect against coughs and sneezes which cause the spread of diseases. Knowing that nasal secretions also contain all types of viruses such as colds, covid or flu and that these viruses survive and can be transferred to many surfaces, using a reusable cotton handkerchief can increase this proportion to propagate. Even if you are careful and start washing your handkerchief immediately, the risk of contamination of the surfaces you touch on the way, for example, is higher.
On a tissue, on the other hand, viruses do not survive as long as on fabric, especially since for a majority of the population throwing away their tissue immediately after blowing their nose is normal. If some are wondering about the effectiveness of protection between a fabric handkerchief and a paper handkerchief, know that certain studies have proven that cotton handkerchiefs do not effectively filter the aerosols released during a cough or ‘a sneeze.
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Environmentally speaking, what is the best option?
According to the results of the study of the American companyEcosystem Analyticswhich was based on four criteria: the environmental impact of production, transport, use and finally its elimination on climate change, the quality of the ecosystem, human health as well as in terms of resource, the researchers were able to compare the two types of handkerchiefs. Results which showed that the cotton handkerchief has a greater impact of five to seven times more than the paper handkerchief! So if you still want to use fabric handkerchiefs, the scientist recommends opting for recycled materials such as organic cotton, advice that can also be applied to paper handkerchiefs.
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