Today, we'll be discussing synthetic fibres and how the acquisition of the raw materials used to produce these synthetic fibres cause pollution. You might have heard of fabrics called nylon and polyester, a common component of our everyday clothing. Their low cost, and ease of mass production (as compared to organic materials like cotton) have made them a popular choice for use in fabric blends. In today's post, we'll be focusing on Nylon.
A brief history of nylon
Nylon was first invented by DuPont, unveiling it to the world in 1938. It was advertised as the first truly synthetic material being made from "coal, water, and air". Nylon is a polymer, meaning that each fibre is a molecule that is a single long chain. This long chain is made by combining one or two molecules in a repeating fashion (think A-A-A or A-B-A-B-A-B). The production of nylon often begins with crude oil. The usage of crude oil comes with a great environmental cost, since its extraction inevitably leads to solid, liquid, and gaseous pollutants (1). Furthermore, oil spills during the transport of crude oil can be devastating to aquatic ecosystems.
Crude oil and carbon disulfide: how do they pollute and what are their effects?
The extraction of crude oil produces a large variety of pollutants, from heavy metals, to producing volatile organic compounds, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (2). To keep things short, we'll be focussing on the impacts of heavy metal contamination in the soil surrounding oil rigs.
Crude oil extraction has been found to dramatically increase the concentration of heavy metals in oil polluted soil as compared to the concentrations of heavy metals in uncontaminated soil in the same region (3). Heavy metal contamination and accumulation is often detrimental to human and animal health (4). Furthermore, heavy metals have been found to easily accumulate in edible plants found in contaminated soil (5).
What this means is that people who live near oil-polluted soil have a higher chance of getting heavy metal poisoning from eating local produce. Some effects of heavy metal poisoning include a higher risk of cancer (in hexavalent chromium), degenerative bone diseases (in cadmium compounds), and central nervous system damage (from lead and mercury compounds) (6). Arsenic, a heavy metal that is commonly found in countries like Bangladesh and Taiwan, do not even need a high concentration in order to cause toxicity (7). What makes things worse is that heavy metals do not undergo chemical or biological degradation in the same way as most organic compounds, causing their increased concentrations in the soil to persist for a long time (8).
Okay.. nylon = bad.. what now?
People often think of nylon as the original material used in the production of some clothes, overlooking what was used to create the nylon in the first place. All in all, I wanted to write this article to bring awareness to everyone on how nylon is actually made, and how its main starting material, crude oil, actually causes a lot of environmental damage just through its extraction. Thanks for listening! :)
Yours truly,
Bremen (trying to avoid big oil)
References
Obiajunwa, E. I., D. A. Pelemo, S. A. Owolabi, M. K. Fasasi, and F. O. Johnson-Fatokun. "Characterisation of Heavy Metal Pollutants of Soils and Sediments Around a Crude-Oil Production Terminal using EDXRF." Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, B 194, no. 1 (2002): 61-64.
Ramirez, Maria Isabel, Ana Paulina Arevalo, Santiago Sotomayor, and Natalia Bailon-Moscoso. "Contamination by Oil Crude Extraction – Refinement and their Effects on Human Health." Environmental Pollution 231, no. Pt 1 (2017): 415-425.
Fu, Xiaowen, Zhaojie Cui, and Guolong Zang. "Migration, Speciation and Distribution of Heavy Metals in an Oil-Polluted Soil Affected by Crude Oil Extraction Processes." Environmental Science--Processes & Impacts 16, no. 7 (2014): 1737-1744.
Nriagu, Jerome O. "A History of Global Metal Pollution." Science 272, no. 5259 (1996): 223-224.
Wang, Guo, Miao-Yu Su, Yan-Hui Chen, Fen-Fang Lin, Dan Luo, and Shu-Fang Gao. "Transfer Characteristics of Cadmium and Lead from Soil to the Edible Parts of Six Vegetable Species in Southeastern China." Environmental Pollution 144, no. 1 (2006): 127-135.
Tchounwou, Paul B., Clement G. Yedjou, Anita K. Patlolla, and Dwayne J. Sutton. "Heavy Metal Toxicity and the Environment." In . 2012th ed. Vol. 101, 133-164. Basel: Springer Basel, 2012.
Duffus, John H. ""Heavy Metals" a Meaningless Term? (IUPAC Technical Report)." Pure and Applied Chemistry 74, no. 5 (2002): 793-807.
Vhahangwele Masindi and Khathutshelo L. Muedi (June 27th 2018). Environmental Contamination by Heavy Metals, Heavy Metals, Hosam El-Din M. Saleh and Refaat F. Aglan, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76082. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/heavy-metals/environmental-contamination-by-heavy-metals
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