Saturday, February 14, 2009

color latex gives them away

it was a few weeks ago when it happened again for a third memorable time. 

i was wearing my white latex body from morning under my work clothes till bed time. all fine. then i woke about 3am with random invisible itches appearing and disappearing all over my torso where the latex was in contact with my skin. when i mean invisible i do mean invisible. no redness or any sign or blisters etc.

it kept me up (i can be a light sleeper). i tried a hot bath which would be a bad idea if it was a infection reaction. it made things better and for that 20-30 min i didn't notice them. i had taken some meds for it and really wasn't working.

i slept furtively for the rest of the night and was pretty well a right off for the rest of the day.

so my conclusion now is that there's something in the curing or manufacturing process - extra chemicals or whatever - that the Chinese use that is reacting against my skin.

i've had this happen several times now and at least this wasn't as bad as it has been with the skinny jeans and the catsuit. first i thought it was a heat rash reaction but that would be made worse in a hot bath now wouldn't it? where-as a hot bath gives me some time without the grating annoyance.

so a bit of research later and a flash back to some news stories about leather sofa's causing burns - i came up with the idea and it maybe only affecting me that its definitely not a heat rash but chemical poisoning.

just have a google for formaldehyde skin reaction chinese and you'll find some worrying articles.

so besides what i currently own i don't plan on buying any more. the blouses i wear i normally have a long sleeve top underneath and a thick pair of black tights seem to insulate the skinny jeans and jodpurs.

again if this was heat rash then it wouldn't make a difference about the top or the pantyhose.

now this maybe only my problem. 

most people may not react at all too it. but its worth keeping in mind as there's loads of new start up latex designers importing from China or selling direct from there on ebay. i've noticed one way to tell i they all use the same color palette of latex and sometimes identical photo's along with measurement charts.

if you have detergent sensitivity then thats a good sign to avoid it too. please post any similar observations.

xx

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

From reading up on Wikipedia, the latex that is used for clothing can be either be tapped from a tree or synthesised. I am guessing that all Chinese-made rubberwear will be synthesised latex. Chemically, it is the same as the rubber sheet that is produced by tapping rubber trees.

The synthesis of rubber involves many toxic chemicals including some carcinogens like the formaldehyde you mention. It may be possible that the chemicals used for the rubber production process have not been 100% removed from the final product. In addition to the basis chemicals, you have the dyes, stabilisers, preservatives etc. Given the poor Chinese track record with regard to consumer safety, such as the phthalate leaching sex toys, and the melamine in foods, it is certainly within the realm of possibility that Chinese rubberwear exceeds the safe exposure thresholds.