At this time, Moderna’s booster is administered as a 50-microgram dose. The business announcement noted that this dose elevated antibody concentrations 37-fold, as opposed with the amounts seen when a fully vaccinated particular person does not get a booster, and a 100-microgram dose greater antibody amounts 83-fold.
It remains unclear what these boosts imply as far as how well the booster doses clinically do the job towards Omicron.
“The remarkable raise in COVID-19 conditions from the Omicron variant is about to all. Nonetheless, these knowledge demonstrating that the currently licensed Moderna COVID-19 booster can strengthen neutralizing antibody ranges 37-fold higher than pre-boost amounts are reassuring,” Bancel mentioned.
“To react to this remarkably transmissible variant, Moderna will keep on to rapidly progress an Omicron-specific booster applicant into medical tests in scenario it becomes necessary in the long run. We will also continue to produce and share data throughout our booster tactics with community health and fitness authorities to help them make evidence-based mostly conclusions on the very best vaccination procedures versus SARS-CoV-2.”
SARS-CoV-2 is the title of the coronavirus that triggers Covid-19.
It’s now up to US general public overall health authorities to contemplate no matter if Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine booster should really be specified at a larger dose, Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of the corporation, reported Monday.
“The selection of no matter if to deploy 100 micrograms or a better dose is seriously just one for public overall health organizations at this issue. We are just offering the information, and naturally we will share it with all people so that they can make that resolve,” Hoge stated through a enterprise meeting connect with.
Moderna spokesperson Colleen Hussey confirmed to CNN in an emailed assertion Monday that the firm is “sharing the data with regulators as they get started to evaluate if any adjustments to the authorized boosters will need to be created.”
Moderna’s present-day coronavirus vaccine booster is approved for emergency use for people today 18 and more mature in the United States and supplied as a fifty percent-dose at 50 micrograms, and it’s licensed at the 100-microgram dose for people today who are seriously immunocompromised, the assertion mentioned.
According to the US Facilities for Ailment Control and Prevention, about 32{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of absolutely vaccinated adults — almost 60 million people today — have gotten a booster dose. Additional than 26.7 million of them have received a Moderna booster, in accordance to CDC details.
Separately, “we’re going to carry on to progress an Omicron-certain booster into medical trials in early 2022,” Hoge said Monday.
Covid-19 booster pictures can assist improve protection towards the Omicron coronavirus variant, and there is no will need for a variant-unique booster dose at this time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments, said previous 7 days.
“A amount of experiments have been accomplished during the state and the world to take a glimpse at how we may get ready in the context of vaccinations,” Fauci claimed.
“The information remains crystal clear: If you are unvaccinated, get vaccinated,” included Fauci, the chief healthcare adviser to President Biden. “And especially in the arena of Omicron, if you are fully vaccinated, get your booster shot.”
Share on PinterestNew research examines trends in blood pressure during the pandemic. Aleks_G/Getty Images
Governments enacted emergency measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These measures significantly altered people’s behavior.
In a new study, researchers wanted to see if there was a link between these changes in behavior and effects on people’s blood pressure.
The researchers found blood pressure increased during the pandemic compared with previous, non-pandemic years.
In a new study, researchers have found that blood pressure increased in adults in the United States during the pandemic compared with previous, non-pandemic years.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, makes clear that the health effects of the pandemic include not just the COVID-19 disease but also other, indirect health issues.
Doctors measure blood pressure at two points: when a person’s heart is pumping, known as systolic blood pressure, and when a person’s heart is resting between beats, known as diastolic blood pressure.
If a person has high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, they are at a greater risk of stroke or heart disease. Hypertension can also damage a person’s liver, eyes, and brain.
The CDC state that 47{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of U.S. adults have hypertension, and in 2019 hypertension was the primary or contributing cause of more than 500,000 deaths.
A person can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels by eating a diet low in salt and high in fruit and vegetables, exercising regularly, avoiding smoking, and limiting alcohol intake.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted people’s behavior and access to regular medical care.
Researchers are interested to see if this disruption had an effect on people’s blood pressure levels.
To look at blood pressure levels during the pandemic relative to previous years, a group of scientists studied data from an employee wellness program in the U.S covering 2018–2020.
This involved 464,585 participants, 53.5{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of whom were women, with an average age of 45.7 years in 2018. The paper offered no information regarding the racial or ethnic makeup of the participants.
The scientists compared blood pressure levels before the pandemic in 2018, 2019, and until March of 2020, when most U.S. states gave stay-at-home orders. They then compared these levels with those recorded from April–December 2020 during the pandemic.
The researchers found that before the pandemic, there was no significant change in blood pressure between years.
However, each month during the pandemic, blood pressure increased by an average of 1.1 to 2.5 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) for systolic blood pressure and 0.14 to 0.53 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure. This was the case for both women and men of different ages.
Women, on average, had greater increases for both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Older participants had greater systolic blood pressure increases, whereas younger participants had greater diastolic blood pressure increases.
Speaking to Medical News Today, Dr. Luke Laffin, co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and the study’s lead author, said that “[d]ietary indiscretion, lack of exercise, central obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, and not taking prescribed blood pressure medications can all drive high blood pressure.”
“Other research demonstrates that lifestyle habits like excessive alcohol intake worsened during the pandemic, so it is not surprising that a blood pressure elevation followed.”
“We also know that patients hesitated to see their doctor, particularly in the early part of the pandemic, and that may have contributed to increased blood pressures,” said Dr. Laffin.
Prof. Matthew Bailey, who leads hypertension and renal research at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was not involved in the study, told MNT that the findings were significant and had global implications.
“This paper has examined almost half a million people and clearly shows that the societal changes [and] restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic have increased blood pressure. The effect is particularly large in women, and there is also an unanticipated increase in young people.”
“A rise in blood pressure of this size increases the risk of debilitating heart attack or stroke. For individuals and their families, cardiovascular disease can be devastating. [F]or governments, these conditions are costly to treat and manage. Health budgets are already overstretched.”
“This study is based in the U.S. but is relevant globally. It provides an early warning signal that poor cardiovascular health might be a big problem a few years down the line,” said Prof. Bailey.
Dr. Tarek Antonios, a senior lecturer in physiological medicine at St George’s, University of London in the United Kingdom, and not involved in the study, told MNT the findings were not unexpected.
“I was not surprised when I saw this article. I am concerned about hypertension and the epidemic. If you put the two together — the COVID-19 epidemic and hypertension — there are certain different avenues [that connect] them.”
“The first one is the increased anxiety levels among the population. Lots of people lost their jobs, they became redundant, lost their businesses, and they lost income — all of this created a lot of stress and anxiety, and that can increase blood pressure. So this is one possible explanation.”
“The second is during the lockdown, there were no open gyms, no one was going out for running or sports, and many people — including some of my patients — put on a significant amount of weight. And once you put on weight, your blood pressure goes up as well.”
“The third point is that people are sitting at home most of the time, they order takeaways, and takeaways are full of salt, and therefore people have increased their salt intake. So there is a lot of stuff that may not be directly related to COVID-19, but [was] indirectly affected by this epidemic.”
“Some patients also found it very difficult to get in touch with their GPs and get a refill of their prescriptions. Some stopped taking their medications, and that also increased their blood pressure levels. [T]his is something we need to give information about to patients — that it is very important that they don’t stop the tablets.”
“Many of my patients have bought blood pressure machines so that they can monitor their own blood pressure and make sure that their blood pressure is well-controlled. This is my advice to most patients: get their own blood pressure machines and start measuring their blood pressure at home.”
Prof. Bailey said that he thought low-level stress and low quality sleep might be key factors in the increase in blood pressure.
“High blood pressure is caused by […] lifestyle [and] environmental factors that were difficult to avoid during pandemic restrictions. Many of us ate too much comfort food — high in salt, fat, and sugar — had limited capacity to exercise, and may have indulged in other […] habits such as drinking too much alcohol or smoking. Of these, the study was only able to discount weight gain itself.”
“I think a major factor is chronic low-level stress and poor sleep patterns. I think this will emerge as a big factor once more studies are done,” said Prof. Bailey.
Speaking to MNT, Dr. Helen Flaherty, head of health promotion and education at Heart Research UK and not involved in the study, also agreed that a range of factors may be at play when accounting for the increase in blood pressure.
“As a result of the pandemic, many people have seen a change to their usual lifestyle habits which, in many cases, can impact negatively on their blood pressure and cardiovascular health.”
“People working from home may be less physically active as they miss out on their usual walk to work or a trip to the gym. Physical activity may also be restricted where people are isolated at home due to the pandemic. In addition, changes to dietary habits, such as buying more takeaway foods, which may be higher in salt, can also contribute to raised blood pressure.”
“Many people have found the pandemic to be stressful and long-term stress is also associated with an increase in blood pressure, as well as behaviors that can increase blood pressure, such as smoking and alcohol consumption,” explained Dr. Flaherty.
As well as possible indirect factors that might account for the rise in blood pressure, Dr. Antonios highlighted that there could be more direct causes.
“The disease itself may cause high blood pressure because of the interaction with certain molecules like the angiotensin-converting enzyme receptors. Moreover, many of my patients called to tell me that once they got the vaccines — especially the first dose — their blood pressure went very high, and they ended up in A&E and casualty with systolic blood pressure exceeding 200 in some of them.”
“What is also interesting is that for many of [my patients], the blood pressure did not settle down and remained high — not as high as 200, but higher than it was before. I am doing some research now to look at the effects of vaccination on blood pressure. And I have at least nine patients who had the same reaction: [their] blood pressure went up, and they ended up in casualty at St George’s [hospital].”
“Since then, there have been two publications — one from Lausanne in Switzerland and the second from Italy — that describe exactly this. Especially with the BioNTech vaccine, the blood pressure goes very high. What we don’t know is why this happens and why it does not settle down,” said Dr. Antonios.
Dr. Antonios also said there could be a connection between long COVID and hypertension. However, this required more research.
“What we don’t know so far is if hypertension is part of the long COVID syndrome. Most papers and reviews have not included hypertension [as part of long COVID]. They have included, for example, chest problems, myocarditis, thromboembolic phenomena, or even diabetes, but hypertension is not yet part of this long COVID syndrome, which we don’t know much about.”
Dr. Laffin said researchers should continue monitoring blood pressure levels:
“It is going to be very important to identify if blood pressure elevations persisted throughout 2021, given that vaccination became more widespread and individuals started returning to see their medical provider. I think it is unlikely that we’ll see a decline to pre-pandemic levels until the current pandemic ends.”
Crucially, there are limitations to the generalizability of the study’s findings. In the U.S., Black adults consistently exhibit significantly higher rates of hypertension, for example, compared with their white counterparts. However, the present study did not characterize blood pressure based on race or ethnicity. This is an important point that researchers should further evaluate during the pandemic.
Fortunately, there are many things a person can do to try and maintain healthy blood pressure levels.
Prof. Bailey said: “I try to make sure I eat well and sleep well and have goals for regular exercise. Using mindfulness or breathing apps can be a really good way to unplug for a few minutes in the day. It’s a great idea to get your blood pressure measured — know your numbers — and to remember to keep taking the medicine if you have high blood pressure.”
“High blood pressure increases your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. However, many people are unaware that they have high blood pressure as there are usually no symptoms. It is important to have your blood pressure checked regularly. Ideal blood pressure is below 120/80 mmHg,” Dr. Flaherty told us.
“To maintain healthy blood pressure, it is important to maintain a healthy weight by eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of physical activity. Eating a diet that is not too high in salt also helps to avoid raised blood pressure. Keep an eye on food labels and avoid foods that have a high salt content, such as salted nuts and potato chips.”
“Limit your alcohol intake to no more than the recommended amounts — in the U.K. this is no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread out over 3 or more days.”
“Physical activity can help to reduce your blood pressure, and adults should aim to do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity — for example, brisk walking — or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity — for example, running — each week.”
Share on PinterestNew research suggests that antibody levels generated by vaccines could be an accurate way of measuring effectiveness. Image credit: Michaela Handrek-Rehle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Health authorities only approve the use of COVID-19 vaccines that have gone through rigorous clinical trials.
Scientists assess whether a vaccine is effective by checking whether participants in a trial develop the infection after having the vaccine.
In the present study, researchers find that a person’s antibody response could serve a correlate of effectiveness, instead of whether people develop the infection.
Using this proposed measure could speed up the regulatory approval of future vaccines.
In a new study, scientists have found that antibody levels can help indicate the effectiveness of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
The research, published in the journal Science, may be the first step toward speeding up the regulatory approval process for future vaccines.
In theory, scientists could use antibody levels to identify vaccine effectiveness, rather than clinical trials to investigate how many vaccinated people develop severe COVID-19.
The speed with which scientists have developed vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is unprecedented.
Previously, vaccine development typically took 10–15 years. By contrast, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received emergency regulatory approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 11, 2020, less than a year after scientists first identified the virus.
However, researchers are still eager to reduce the time it takes to develop future vaccines.
Scientists may do this by identifying biomarkers that can stand in for the results of clinical trials. If these biomarkers can accurately predict how effective the vaccine is, it may obviate the need to see how many people develop the infection in a clinical trial.
Speaking to Medical News Today, Prof. Florian Kern, chair in immunology at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, in the United Kingdom, said, “If it were possible to define a laboratory endpoint — in this case an immunological marker — that can tell us if someone is protected or not, it would be easier to measure the protective effect of a vaccine quickly and compare this effect to that of other vaccines.” Prof. Kern was not involved in the new study.
In the study, the researchers wanted to see whether antibodies produced in response to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine could accurately predict whether the vaccine was effective.
They did this by analyzing data from the phase 3 trials of the vaccine. The researchers were looking at the level of binding and neutralizing antibodies produced and at certain properties of these antibodies.
The team focused on these biomarkers assessed at the point of the second vaccination and 4 weeks afterward.
The researchers found a clear link between higher levels of antibodies and greater protection against symptomatic COVID-19 .
Participants with antibody levels in the top 10{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} had a 10 times lower risk of symptomatic COVID-19 compared with participants who had undetectable or negative antibody values. This was the case no matter which antibody biomarker the researchers focused on.
MNT spoke with Dr. Peter Gilbert, a professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle, and the corresponding author of the study.
Summarizing the findings, Dr. Gilbert explained, “Four separate tests used to measure antibody levels in the blood showed that the higher a vaccine recipient’s antibody response, the less likely [they were] to experience symptomatic COVID-19.”
“The same measurements also indicated that higher antibody responses correlated with higher estimated vaccine efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.”
“The findings are based on data from the phase 3 COVE trial, which enrolled more than 30,000 adult volunteers and established 94.1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} estimated vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 for the mRNA-1273 vaccine,” Dr. Gilbert added.
He also noted that the findings may help accelerate the approval process for future vaccines.
“Correlates of protection are surrogate markers of efficacy that can be used to reliably predict whether a vaccine will be protective, which can accelerate regulatory authorization and approval of vaccine candidates.”
“Rather than conducting large-scale clinical trials to establish vaccine efficacy, which can require tens of thousands of volunteers and can take months to years to complete, data collected from blood samples from smaller cohorts of vaccinated individuals can be evaluated using a particular test that would indicate whether a vaccine is likely to have clinical benefit in that population.”
– Dr. Peter Gilbert, corresponding author of the new study
The study authors caution that their investigation had a short follow-up period and included a relatively small number of COVID-19 cases. Also, the group did not consider the effects of booster vaccines or different variants of the virus, as these had not emerged when the trial was conducted. The trial had sampled a large and ethnically diverse number of participants for its immunogenicity measurements.
“While it may seem like an obvious finding that that more antibodies equates to higher levels of protection against COVID-19, this detailed analysis advances evidence toward establishing a correlate of protection that could be used to accelerate regulatory processes for variant-specific formulations of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, as well as authorization of prototype mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in children,” said Dr. Gilbert.
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.
Canadians who purchase cheap fast fashion from online retailers may be exposing themselves to potentially toxic chemicals.
A Marketplace investigation found that out of 38 samples of children’s, adult’s and maternity clothes and accessories, one in five items had elevated levels of chemicals — including lead, PFAS and phthalates — that experts found concerning.
“People should be shocked,” said Miriam Diamond, an environmental chemist and professor at the University of Toronto. Diamond oversaw the lab testing that Marketplace commissioned.
Watch the full investigation tonight at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem.
Lab tests expose toxic chemicals found on new clothes. And how to fight back against overseas fraudsters. 22:31
Scientists found that a jacket for toddlers, purchased from Chinese retailer Shein, contained almost 20 times the amount of lead that Health Canada says is safe for children. A red purse, also purchased from Shein, had more than five times the threshold.
“This is hazardous waste,” said Diamond.
This jacket, purchased for $23 from Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein, contained almost 20 times the limit of lead Health Canada says is safe in children’s products. (David Abrahams/CBC)
“I’m alarmed because we’re buying what looks cute and fashionable on this incredibly short fashion cycle. What we’re doing today is to look [for] very short-lived enjoyment out of some articles of clothing that cost so much in terms of our … future health and environmental health. That cost is not worth it.”
Shein, which sells products both under its own brand and from third-party suppliers, sent an emailed statement to Marketplace saying it had removed the purse and jacket from its app, and would stop working with relevant suppliers until the issue was resolved. “We are committed to continuous improvement of our supply chain,” the company said.
Marketplace found garments containing elevated levels of chemicals from three fast-fashion retailers: Zaful, AliExpress and Shein.
These companies boast hundreds to thousands of styles updated daily at rock-bottom prices. Tops are available for under $5, sneakers for under $10. Marketplace purchased a kids raincoat from AliExpress for just $6 US.
Miriam Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto, oversaw the lab testing Marketplace commissioned to test for PFAS, heavy metals and phthalates in clothing. Here, she’s holding a purse from Shein that contained over five times the amount of lead that Health Canada considers safe in children’s products. (CBC)
Lead can cause damaging health effects to the brain, heart, kidneys and reproductive system. Children and pregnant people are more vulnerable, and infants and children are the most at risk, according to Health Canada’s website.
Lead is a naturally occurring element that can be found throughout the environment, but Joël Mertens, a product environmental impacts expert at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, said the levels found in Marketplace’s lab results were beyond environmental contamination, or the small amounts clothes are exposed to unintentionally during the manufacturing process.
“There were clearly products that were intentionally using lead and intentionally using it in a way that was well above what should be considered responsible — or even safe,” he said.
Mertens explained that lead can be used in textile dye pigments, but there are safer alternatives that can achieve the same results.
Diamond pointed to the broader concerns stemming from the industry itself, noting that it’s not just the consumer that could be exposed to the ill effects of lead; it’s the entire supply chain, from mining the lead to shipping the final product.
“If the final product isn’t safe for me, it’s definitely not safe for the workers that are handling these chemicals to make it,” said Diamond.
Health Canada would not give an interview, but in an emailed statement said it “monitors the marketplace and follows up on all identified consumer product risks.”
Expert: Current regulations on phthalates not strong enough in Canada
Other articles of clothing contained elevated levels of phthalates, a group of chemicals often used to make plastic more flexible.
A clear tote purchased from Zaful contained enough phthalates, including DEHP, DiNP and DnOP, that Diamond and Mertens suggested Health Canada review the product.
Health Canada restricts some phthalates in children’s toys — like DEHP, DiNP and DnOP — to no more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm) each. However, it is unclear if it would be considered a children’s product.
Health Canada has proposed to ban DEHP in all products bought and sold in Canada, but it is not yet in effect.
Diamond said more attention should be paid to all phthalates, many of which are considered endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals that can interfere with hormones. They can also have developmental effects, and target the liver and kidneys, with particular concerns about its effect on people in their reproductive years, she said.
After notifying Zaful of the lab results, the company wrote in a statement that it is recalling the clear tote purse and sending customers who purchased it a refund.
This clear tote purse, purchased from Zaful for $13 US, contained levels of phthalates that concerned experts. (David Abrahams/CBC)
In addition to the tote purse, Diamond flagged elevated levels of phthalates in a children’s tutu dress from Shein, a children’s dress featuring Elsa from the movie Frozen from AliExpress, the red purse purchased from Shein, a children’s raincoat set from AliExpress and a set of plastic bibs from AliExpress. None exceeded Health Canada’s limits.
But Diamond still has concern, particularly with the tendency for children to suck on clothing or put it in their mouths. Children’s skin also can absorb chemicals easier than adults’ skin, she said.
After informing retailers of Marketplace’s investigation, Shein, Zaful and AliExpress removed all questionable products from their sites. The companies confirmed they would be investigating further, and taking action against suppliers and sellers if necessary.
Health Canada addressed the tote in an emailed statement, writing that the presence of phthalates doesn’t always mean a risk. The regulator suggested that unless a toddler under age four is sucking on the purse for more than three hours on a daily basis, the purse is not a significant source of exposure to phthalates.
WATCH | Marketplace finds toxic chemicals in some ultra fast-fashion items:
Toxic chemicals found in some Shein, AliExpress and Zaful clothes
A Marketplace investigation found lead, phthalates and ‘forever chemicals’ in purses, jackets and Disney princess dresses. 2:13
Some scientists are calling for stronger regulations on phthalates in Canada. Unlike the European Union, where the combined amount of phthalates is considered in regulations, Canada restricts each phthalate individually.
“The question naturally arises that combined exposures are possible,” said Eva Pip, a biologist and professor at the University of Winnipeg. “You can’t have more than 1,000 [ppm] of any individual [phthalates] they list, but you could theoretically have 900 [ppm] of each of them together and still be okay.”
In 2021, Health Canada published a document stating that the combined exposure of phthalates to the Canadian environment is “below the levels that are expected to cause death to organisms.”
Pip thinks this needs to change. “Given the fact that these chemicals are hormone and developmental disruptors, death [to organisms] is a pretty extreme criterion to determine harm,” she said.
Unnecessary forever chemicals found in rain gear
The scientists also tested for PFAS, a collection of fluorinated compounds commonly used in clothing for waterproofing and stain resistance.
Many PFAS are known to be endocrine disruptors, and all are considered “forever chemicals” because they aren’t flushed from the body and don’t break down in the environment.
Potential harmful effects include “increasing obesity to impairing immune function to different types of cancers to even diabetes,” Diamond said, noting: “This is a class of chemicals that should not be used unless they’re absolutely essential.”
A raincoat purchased for $13.21 US from AliExpress contained high levels of PFAS, said Diamond.
Health Canada prohibits the sale and import of any products containing particular fluorinated compounds, including the type CBC tested for, with the exception of products containing trace amounts of the chemical. However, the regulator doesn’t specify what a trace amount would be.
“This creates a huge loophole,” said Pip. “The manufacturer can claim that presence [of PFAS] in the product is incidental.”
When reviewing the amount of PFAS found in the AliExpress raincoat, Pip said: “It is hard to imagine this is an incidental amount.”
When CBC brought the lab results to AliExpress, the company removed the raincoat from its online marketplace, confirming that it would be investigating further.
A pink raincoat, purchased from AliExpress for $13.21 US, contained 220 parts per billion (ng/g) of PFAS, a type of ‘forever chemical’ that Diamond says should not be used in any product unless it is ‘absolutely essential.’ Experts considered this amount to be ‘high.’ (David Abrahams/CBC)
In addition to affecting human health, the chemicals assessed can enter the environment through laundering. A 2019 study from B.C.’s Ocean Wise found that up to 4.3 million microfibres can be shed in just one load of laundry.
Mertens suggests PFAS are not essential, and there’s suitable alternatives easily available, such as wax for water repellency, or newer, degradable chemical compounds with similar effects.
“This is actually one of the areas that the industry has been focusing on, especially leading players in the industry, is phasing out PFAS compounds for alternatives,” said Mertens.
Health Canada initially told Marketplace it has “identified concerns with PFAS and actively monitors the evolving science related to these substances.” With the products that concerned experts, the regulator confirmed it will “assess compliance and take immediate action as appropriate.” Ultimately though, the regulator said it is up to companies to provide safe products to Canadians.
So you still need new clothes. Here’s what to do
Mertens says that while the fashion supply chain is complicated and spans many countries, the onus is on the brands themselves to oversee the process so it eliminates unnecessary chemicals.
“There are many, many organizations and groups out there that can help any brand or manufacturer navigate this space. Nobody really has an excuse to say, ‘Well, I just don’t know how to tackle it,’ including small brands.”
Mertens suggests consumers look for brands that complete product safety compliance through organizations like Oeko-Tex or Bluesign, which set restricted substances limits in each article of clothing based on progressive international regulations, like the EU’s REACH, which sets safe levels of certain chemicals in clothing.
And if you already own the garments? Diamond says some chemicals can wash out of clothes.
However, she adds, “In the long term, you know, I just don’t want to buy it.”
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