2024-01-11 16:38:39
As you read these lines, your nose may be under attack from a cold, the flu, Covid-19 or an allergy attack, forcing you to keep a tissue or paper close at hand. fabric.
You’re probably wondering which of these two items is more effective at preventing the spread of infections, and which has the lesser environmental impact. Is it the cloth handkerchief, which has existed at least since Roman times? Or the paper handkerchief, developed more recently in its contemporary form, but which has quickly invaded our lives? Scientists’ conclusions on this subject may surprise you. Here they are.
A brief history of the cloth handkerchief and the paper handkerchief
However simple they may be, the tissues we use to blow our noses or capture our sneezes and other coughing fits are the fruits of a long and complex history.
Among their ancestors are the cloth which the Romans used in the 1st century AD to wipe sweat from their faces or to hide their mouths. Over time, pieces of fabric of the same type, which today we would consider as handkerchiefs, have been used as head coverings, veils, disguises, or even to clean hands, sanitize wounds, or stop the bleeding.
Among the wealthiest categories of the population, they constituted a marker of social class and good manners, used in particular to discreetly get rid of sputum. Royal families, for example, used them as external signs of wealth and power, offering linen or silk handkerchiefs decorated with gold and silver to their most privileged subjects. King Henry VIII, for example, had a vast collection.
Dropping your handkerchief to be picked up used to be a token of love. Wellcome Collection
Handkerchiefs were also used to express one’s feelings, whether it was to express one’s love, to show one’s fidelity, or even to discreetly indicate one’s sexual preferences. In the late 19th century, the “handkerchief code”, a system of color coding and placement of handkerchiefs, was used for this purpose. It is still used today in LGBTQ+ communities.
The origins of the paper handkerchief seem even older, dating back to China in the 2nd century BCE. However, it was not until the 1920s that the paper handkerchief as we know it today was developed, as a utensil for removing makeup and for wiping runny noses caused by hay fever.
For health, cloth or paper handkerchief?
More than 100 years ago, the cloth handkerchief was sometimes considered “the little flag of Death”, because of the germs it carried and its supposed propensity to contaminate the pockets in which it was left. Later, however, the argument evolved, and people were advised to use tissues because “coughs and sneezes spread disease.”
This 1960s poster from New Zealand encourages using a tissue. Archives New Zealand, CC BY-SA
Today we know that nasal secretions contain viruses such as those from colds, which actually survive in the environment and can be transferred to various surfaces (hands, cloth or paper tissues, door handles, keyboards, etc. .) where they are able to survive sometimes long following the initial contamination.
These viruses can be seen spreading when you blow your nose into a reusable cotton tissue and then touch another object. Even if you don’t keep your used tissue in your pocket, and immediately put it in the wash, there is a risk of contamination of surfaces touched on the way, such as door handles or the washing machine.
Things are a little different with paper tissues, as viruses on them generally don’t survive as long as on cloth tissues. As long as you throw away tissues immediately following using them and don’t leave them lying around, the risk of passing germs to other people is lower.
Another question that arises is that of the effectiveness of paper or fabric tissues when it comes to providing a barrier to coughing and other respiratory projections. Certainly, basic cloth protections, such as handkerchiefs or bandanas, are capable of trapping sputum, as are cloth handkerchiefs. However, several studies have shown that they do not effectively filter respiratory aerosols, and are less effective in preventing the inhalation of certain pollutants, pathogens or small particles suspended in the air.
And for the planet, paper or fabric?
The American company Ecosystem Analytics compared the environmental impact of reusable cotton tissues to that of disposable paper tissues by carrying out a life cycle analysis, an evaluation method aimed at quantifying the environmental impacts of products and services. To do this, it took into account four types of environmental impacts linked to production, transport, use and disposal:
Impacts on climate change (sum of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide and CFCs);
Impacts on the quality of the ecosystem (chemical pollution of soil and water);
Impacts on human health (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity for humans);
Resource impacts (total energy needs for non-renewable energy and mineral extraction).
The verdict ? Across all four measures, a cotton tissue had an impact five to seven times greater than an equivalent paper tissue. The largest differences in impact were related to the production stages of each of these products, rather than their use or disposal.
Are cotton tissues better for the planet than paper tissues? Not so sure… Shutterstock
If you still want to use a fabric handkerchief, it is better to opt for organic cotton, whose ecological footprint is lower than that of standard cotton produced in the same place. However, since organic cotton production has lower yields than its conventional counterpart, a larger area of agricultural land is required to produce an equivalent quantity, which also increases the environmental impact.
To have a less guilty conscience when blowing your nose, opting for tissues made from recycled materials can be a solution. Their manufacturing is in fact accompanied by lower greenhouse gas emissions. Blowing your nose with paper tissues that you dispose of properly following use (and that you do not keep in your pocket), made from recycled materials, is therefore preferable from both a health and environmental point of view. ‘environment.
But these handkerchiefs have a flaw: they don’t have quite the same panache as their fine fabric ancestors, nor the same versatility…
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#Paper #fabric #tissues #choose #health #planet
