Smart choice of antibacterial clothes!

Taiwan Province Province is a subtropical island, and the climate is often humid and sultry, so it is inevitable that you will be covered in sweat after a busy day. These sweat will come into contact with bacteria on the skin surface, which can decompose fatty acids and skin keratin in sweat and gradually emit odor.

Our clothes will keep humidity for microbial growth, especially many kinds of natural fibers are hotbeds for microbial growth. As long as the environment permits, bacteria can multiply in 20 to 30 minutes, and they can rapidly expand from one bacteria to more than one million in a few hours. Sweat plus bacteria is an embarrassing body odor … or body odor. The more bacteria there are, the heavier the body odor will be. Although the ancient Egyptians did not know the existence of microorganisms when making mummies, they already had the wisdom to apply spices and herbs to the wrapping cloth. In the final analysis, this is to reduce the smell of decay. Nowadays, the function of clothes is no longer just shelter from the wind and rain. For sportswear, underwear, socks and other fabrics that are easy to leave sweat secretions, it is more and more important to resist bacteria and deodorize.

Why can clothes be antibacterial?

There are two ways to make clothes antibacterial. One is to coat the fabric with antibacterial agent and process it to obtain antibacterial ability. The other is to make antibacterial fibers during spinning, and directly use antibacterial fibers to make different clothes. Clothing made directly from antibacterial fibers has a lasting antibacterial effect, but it is difficult to produce. There are many choices of antibacterial agents. Some people choose natural alder essential oil and wasabi, but the antibacterial mechanism of these substances is not clear, so it is impossible to determine the antibacterial spectrum. Inorganic silver, copper and lead can sterilize, but sometimes lead to discoloration of clothes; Organic antibacterial agents (such as Protimo antibacterial agents) can destroy the cell wall of bacteria, and through the chemical signals released when the cell wall of bacteria is damaged, bacteria will avoid it, and bacteria will not thrive.

Does it really have antibacterial effect?

Faced with a dazzling array of antibacterial products, people will inevitably have questions: "Does it really have antibacterial effects? Can it still be used after washing? 」

This is a very practical consideration, because we not only hope that clothes can be antibacterial, but also maintain antibacterial ability after washing in water. In addition, we are also very concerned about whether these antibacterial fabrics are safe for the skin. Therefore, when the market is flooded with antibacterial functional fabrics, we need to know whether these products really have the functions claimed in advertisements.

First of all, we can see how to test the antibacterial performance. The method widely used in the early days to test the antibacterial ability of fabrics is to inoculate the bacterial liquid on the fabrics first, then cover them with culture medium, and then count the number of colonies on the fabrics after a period of time to understand the antibacterial ability of fabrics. After that, the United States and Japan developed their own standard test methods. American AATCC- 100 Test Method

The researchers will inoculate bacteria on the fabric, cultivate it under fixed conditions, then add liquid to wash off the bacteria, detect the concentration of the bacteria liquid, and then compare it with the control group to know how many bacteria the antibacterial fabric can reduce, which will be used as the standard for evaluating the antibacterial fabric. Generally speaking, the bacteria commonly used for testing are Staphylococcus aureus and pneumonia, and the antibacterial ability of fabrics to Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can also be tested for specific purposes.

When AATCC- 100 test method is used, the higher the antibacterial rate and sterilization rate, the better the antibacterial effect.

Japanese JIS test method

JIS L 1902 test can evaluate the antibacterial properties of fabrics, and the antibacterial activity value of fabrics can be obtained through experiments. If the antibacterial activity value is greater than 2.0, it means that it has antibacterial effect.

JIS Z 29 1 1 mildew test method is a method to detect the number of molds. Firstly, a fixed amount of spore suspension was sprayed on fabric samples and culture medium, and then the growth of mold was evaluated to evaluate the anti-mold ability of fabric.

Keep your eyes open and make wise choices!

These standardized test methods can help us to judge the antibacterial ability of clothes. When purchasing antibacterial clothing, you can know whether you have passed the international standards of American AATCC and Japanese JIS, or the national standard CNS 14945 of Taiwan Province Province "Performance evaluation of general antibacterial textiles" to evaluate the antibacterial ability of textiles.

According to CNS 14945 national standard, the sterilization rate of antibacterial fabrics should reach at least 99% and be safe. Besides disposable products, we also hope that antibacterial clothing will not lose its antibacterial effect quickly because of repeated washing, so antibacterial textiles should also be resistant to washing for 20 or 50 times.

Whether clothes can resist bacteria is not a matter of numbers. Remember to keep your eyes open and make a wise choice! Sponsor: "iMEWE Honey Hip Pants" by Taiwan Province Audrey Co., Ltd. is made of Protimo antibacterial fiber developed by the Institute of Textile Comprehensive Industry, which can effectively inhibit bacteria and reduce the chemical reaction between body secretions and air.