How Toxic Are My Clothes? A Documentary and Website from Wilson Oryema

Wilson Oryema is a veritable jack of all trades. Model, poet, environmental campaigner and of course, former SHOWstudio panellist. Influenced by his experiences in the fashion industry, Oryema has become a recognised sustainability advocate. Not only is he a contributor to sustainability consultancy EcoAge, but he has also gained acclaim for his 2017 poetry collection WAIT, which explores the complexities of human consumption and behavioural drives. The latest bow to his (recycled) string comes in the form of a short documentary How Toxic Are My Clothes? investigating the shocking health effects of chemicals used in synthetic materials. Such chemicals have a range of implications for our wellbeing, from carcinogenic properties to the potentially irreversible effects they can have on our DNA and reproductive systems. Alongside this documentary, Oryema has also launched a website with the same name, with plans to further expand upon the research and raise public awareness surrounding the issue.

Oryema talks through what we need to be aware of regarding what we choose to wear and how to minimise the potential risks:

Sophie Walsh: The documentary focuses on the chemical effect of clothing on the body, how did you become initially interested in this?

Wilson Oryema: I was given something to wear by a friend at a pretty well-known brand, they were like, “Hey, this is one of our samples, we'd love for you to try it out,”, but everything I wore under it got dyed in the same colour. That really worried me! They then sent me another item, and the exact same thing happened. I thought, 'If all of this is being absorbed into my clothes so easily, what's the effect on my skin?' So I spent a lot of last year researching. The documentary should have come out around summer time, but I never got around to it, so then I sat down and made it over the course of two and a half weeks at the end of last year.

SW: What kind of health implications of synthetic fabric chemicals did you discover?

WO: As an immediate effect, I have come across many reports of people getting contact dermatitis. When I was researching, I also watched a documentary which featured a store worker in Germany who, simply by putting synthetic clothes on rails for about a year, lost a considerable degree of nervous system control, which also made them more susceptible to certain diseases. I think that's the scariest thing - that there's both immediate and long term effects.

SW: Not only does the use of these chemicals have a hazardous effect for the wearers but also for those in the production process. In the early 20th century, there was a famous case of the Radium Girls, US female factory employees who worked with the under-researched element radium, who ultimately ended up with fatal health repercussions. Do you think there is a risk of similar cases with workers unwittingly being exposed to chemicals that will turn out later to be dangerous?

WO: Definitely. There's an attitude of, 'Let's rush to produce this item first, and worry about the issues it causes later,' - we're setting ourselves up for a very dangerous future. That attitude's not just in the fashion industry though: you can see similar concerns about 5G and the potential risks of mobile phones. Cancer rates are increasing globally, and I'm interested in why that's happening and how chemicals in clothes might be contributing to it. Given that you still see examples of factories where people aren't clothed well or protected at all, it's concerning.

SW: What do the public need to be aware of regarding chemicals in clothing and what can we do to minimise the risks?

WO: The public need an awareness of the different processes that go into making clothes, of why certain clothes are so much cheaper or made in certain places, why certain chemicals are used, and what positives or negatives they have. In terms of things that people can do, I'm not saying, 'Throw out all synthetic materials,' as I know that's not feasible, but I would say at least the base layer that you wear should be something that is natural, breathable and not loaded with chemicals. We also collectively need to push for more information on labels as well, but what a lot of people don't know is that actually most labels are extremely toxic, and it’s even advised that you cut off the label straight away.

SW: How can fashion brands improve their overall transparency?

WO: I think transparency is where it begins, and a willingness to be transparent about everything. Greenwashing has become so common. There are a lot of brands who are performatively showing effort, but behind the scenes, what's really going on? It would be ideal if everyone collaborated on improving standards but, in terms of what can be done straight away, enforced transparency is the best thing.

SW: Who is doing good work at the moment regarding toxic chemicals in clothing?

WO: There are efforts being made - the global fashion agenda at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit has a massive group of brands who come together and talk about their goals. You've also got the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, where clothing and footwear brands and retailers are working together to lead the industry towards the zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. There, they gather and discuss what's working for them and what's not.

SW: How does this documentary fit into the wider sustainability conversation?

WO: Often people forget about their own well-being. Their passion to solve the sustainability problem is so great that they are willing to set themselves alight and be a burning star, in the hopes that other people will follow their lead. However, the fight for sustainability is a much longer challenge than most people will anticipate, and a lot of the time we end up hindering ourselves by not paying attention to our own well-being. I wanted to insert the topic of toxic clothing into the discourse as another entry point into sustainability, and to encourage people to look at what's going on with their bodies and not just what's happening far away. Not everyone is able to go vegan, so this is another way to focus on the body in the context of the environment.

SW: How will the project expand in the future?

WO: We definitely have to address toxic clothes and engage in more conversations, which is why I'm taking so much time to build up this website and make the documentaries. A lot of the time you see someone do a campaign project once and it's like, ‘Oh my god, what's happening is terrible,’ but there's no follow up. So I really want this to become a more regular conversation.

I want to find more ways to engage with people. I will be building the site and adding a lot more content with weekly updates, as well as talking more about labels, certifications, natural materials and materials' effects on the body. I’m turning the site into an intellectual repository, adding a podcast and audio aspect - I'll be reading some of the articles I write on the site so that people can engage with the topics in different ways. Maybe there will be collaborations with other organisations, since we've got the time and space! I'd love to do a call out for great ideas that we can work on together. This documentary is only a taster.