S.P.I.T.

This is a typical contemporary polyester golf outfit; brightly coloured shirt, cap, shoes dark trousers and belt. With marketing claims it will keep you dry, refreshed, crease free, odour free and stain resistant.

Golf refugees have calculated that such an outfit contains 100 plus chemicals, by totalling the number of chemicals used in each item of clothing from head to toe.

You may wear underpants to cover your privates, which is a good thing, because after testing polyester sport shirts in laboratories across Europe, the European Consumer Organisation recommended you wear a natural fibre garment underneath your sports apparel. To act as a barrier and limit the interaction of your sweating skin with toxic chemicals used in polyester sportswear.

Do you know what any of those chemicals are?

Probably not, as the leading sportswear brands refuse to inform their customers or even admit to using any chemicals. Which is bizarre as polyester; real name ‘polyethylene terephthalate’ (PET), is a synthetic, non-biodegradable plastic derived from petroleum, developed by the chemical industry. PET is a durable fabric; hydrophobic, meaning it does not absorb moisture and unfortunately retains body odour even after washing. To make PET more suitable for sportswear, those clever people from the chemical industry developed moisture-wicking and anti-bacterial textile finishers, all based upon adding more chemicals.

Polyester sportswear has become a very lucrative market for both the chemical and oil industry who supply all of the ingredients.

There is no obligation for the brands to test any combination of chemicals used in polyester sportswear, even when it is specifically designed to interact with your sweating skin: (skin is the largest organ in your body). In effect, when you buy and wear it, you become the experiment.

They are probably safe to wear, depending upon how much sport you play and how much you sweat. As the amount of any individual chemical used in each garment is relatively low. However, no one knows the potential increase in toxicity from reactions between chemical combinations, which is of genuine concern as many of the chemicals used are listed as skin irritants, hormone disruptors even carcinogenic. Your body, through sweating skin, can also be exposed to a double dose, when similar chemicals are used in both your polyester golf shirt and trousers, when worn together.

Golf Refugees are not advising you to stop wearing polyester sportswear. All we are asking for is greater transparency for you, the consumer. These apparel brands should come clean and provide a list of the ingredients (chemicals) used to make their sports apparel.

Why are they hiding this information from you? The information is held between apparel brands, the chemical industry and regulators. The chemical industry supply material safety data sheets (MSDS), which describe how to handle, store and detail potential health risk to humans, animals and the environment of each substance they supply.

Golf Refugees can only conclude the likes of Nike, Adidas, Puma and others are too scared to tell you. They are chicken and you are guinea pigs.

We believe if enough consumers join together, greater transparency can be achieved. It will be interesting to learn if any printed or digital sports media who rely on leading brands advertising revenue will support this campaign for ‘Sportswear Polyester Ingredients Transparency’ (SPIT). Please let us know if you would be willing to support SPIT.
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