Medical Daily. (2019, November 6). Clothing Industry A Big Contributor To Global Water Pollution. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from https://www.medicaldaily.com/clothing-industry-big-contributor-global-water-pollution-445402

 

This article describes the polluting effects that the clothing industry has on global water supplies. The article states that the clothing industry is the 2nd most polluting industry in terms of water pollution after the oil industry. The clothing industry uses huge amounts of drinking water and also releases chemicals that can end up in groundwater. The industry uses on average a half trillion gallons of water every year and provides 20% of all toxic chemicals released into water. The toxic chemicals can collect in plants and fish causing the quality of the Environment to decrease. One of the biggest sources of pollution comes from the dyes used to color clothing. Azo dyes are the most commonly used and also the most toxic because they can change into chemicals that cause cancer over time. These chemicals are called carcinogens. The clothing industry uses about 8,000 different chemicals and most of them are toxic to the environment. 

 

This article connects to Environmental Science because it looks at how the clothing industry has a negative impact on the environment. It shows that both the amount of water used and the chemicals released into the water can decrease the quality of the environment. It is important to understand which kinds of activities a company uses to create a product and how those activities will have a toxic effect on the environment. It also shows how the environment needs protection to keep water supplies safe and clean. It is interesting to see that the clothing industry is such a huge water polluter. It is not obvious from thinking about making clothes how it could cause so much water pollution. It shows how important it is to think about how everything is made, how it impacts the environment, and how we should decide what to buy..