The Surprisingly Dangerous Story of Viscose

I hope you enjoy this rayon/viscose deepdive as much as I did researching it. And when I say our hero, Agnès Humbert's memoirs are *riveting* I really do mean it. Recommended on any TBR.

Who would have thought that such an innocous looking fibre in the shops would have such a convoluted and frankly deadly history. Let alone flammable. 💀

Also honorable mention to our queen Doctor Alice Hamilton. The lady absolutely deserves all the accolades.

Find me elsewhere:

More educated rants about the... "challenges" of the textile industry:

References:
(1) Humbert, A.; Mellor, B. Resistance: A French Woman’s Journal of the War (Originally “Notre Guerre”); 1946.
(2) St. Clair, Kassia. The Golden Thread; John Murray Press, 2019.
(5) Woodhouse, T. Artificial Silk And Its Manufacture; 1922.
(8) Hilaire de Chardonnet. Wikipedia
(13) Cuprammonium Rayon. Wikipedia; 2023.
(14) Rayon. Wikipedia
(16) Carbon Disulfide. Wikipedia
(18) Blanc, P. D. Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon; Yale University Press, 2016.
(27) Lyocell. Wikipedia

[JillianEve]

What a great dive into Agnes's life and the history of rayon. I'm inspired to read her memoir. I'm also glad you brought up bamboo. It's such a green washed fiber! In the spinning community, bamboo rayon is very accessible and frequently blended with wool. People are often surprised to learn it's actually rayon. Many people assume it's extracted like bast fibers. Thank you for covering this important topic!

[SierraNovemberKilo]

I am so glad you've done this. I'm getting increasingly cheesed off with companies claiming environmentally friendly policies whilst using and producing some extremely toxic processes. The bamboo scam!

[Theballonist]

Fantastic essay. I’m an industrial designer working in biomaterial design. I already knew much of the production process of these materials, but the eyewitness account of Agnes really gives a window into how horrifying the industrialization of work is in general and fibre work in particular. The resurgence of interest in local fibre production is really exciting and that 60+ years of existing cloth would give us a nice buffer to shut down unethical and exploitative factories while we rebuild high quality fibre supply chains.

[catsupchutney]

I recall my Organic Chemistry instructor saying that the process of making Rayon was so inefficient, that the Rayon was referred to as a by-product of the acid reaction with the cellulose.

[linr]

It's still being called artificial silk here in france, I'm pretty sure. Not sure whether it can be officially, but definitely in general speech.
But echoing other comments, yes, the marketing around "bamboo" is SO criminally obfuscating. They really make it sound like the fiber is extracted from bamboo itself as opposed to recreated from a sludge of cellulose. I keep trying to explain people that it's not.
Anyway, thank you for the video! If you feel like ranting on the topic more I'm sure there is much to say on the topic of "vegan leather" (this is mostly a playful microsuggestion haha)

[kateplee]

This video was immensely eye opening, thank you, Kristine, for sharing. are not something I understand at all, but I find your videos on the topic very accessible. It is definitely makes me recommit to wearing out my clothes as much as possible and not buying more. 💙

[karenradcliff]

Thank you so much for sharing this. As a weaver, and someone who tries to be conscientious in my choice of fibers in purchased clothes as well, I knew that my knowledge of viscose and rayon (and tencel, so beloved of weavers!) was limited. It's so sad that it is biodegradable and renewable but the chemicals involved are so caustic...

[catsandcrafts]

What an astonishing video! I have been telling anyone who will listen about the problems of 'fast fashion' for the last 20 years, and focussed on the waste and garment manufacturing. I hadn't really educated myself on the horrors of the fabric production. I'm an engineer by background, so in my head I just lumped in 'plastics' together, and 'plastic = bad'. I hadn't given much thought to the chemical processing at all. This is horrific. A lot of us have fallen for the 'bamboo' craze as being good, when I can see now that it's just yet another layer of feeding our over-consumption.

I put on a lot of weight quickly for health reasons, and had to go on a spending spree last year for new clothes as nothing fit me. Having no budget I found myself shopping online at the lowest of the low places that I hate, but needs must. This whole issue of desperately poor quality and awful materials is part of a much wider problem of many of us finding ourselves too poor too purchase the sort of 'last a lifetime' garments that we would have bought in the past. But that is a whole other story!

[LindaBrinkmann-gvvr]

Articulate and enlightening video, Kristine. All natural fibers are more expensive to purchase than viscose-types but the consumer and society in general does pay a high price for viscose, the price of contaminated water and air. For my sewing hobby, I seek out cotton, silk, wool, linen. Have you tried to find cotton lace? It is a fun challenge.

[karlaverbeck]

Thank you. That was excellent. You answered so many questions that I had not been able to find answers to. Greed conquers again. We humans certainly lack any sense when money is to be had.

[barbaraferron]

There was a successful campaign in the 1960s to create the desire for synthetic fabrics over natural and although public desire has swung back to natural fibers, synthetics are mostly what is available for sale.

[janewhite]

What a horrendous history - horrifying, and very eye opening. Thank you Kristine.

[thomasnaas]

Top quality research and presentation of another dark corner of human history that still has repercussions today. I also like learning about the heroic and often tragic stories of people like Agnes.

[argusfleibeit]

Everything you say is true. I'm old and have a closetful of clothes bought over my lifetime, and me, I'm fine with never buying any more clothes. But, the big problem is how many people are employed world-wide in the business of clothing. And the fact that so much of our economy is dependent on it. It's as big a problem as fossil fuel dependence, and will be just as hard to put the brakes on. From cotton farming in India, all the spinning, weaving and dying, fashion designers, factories cutting and sewing garments en masse, to the retailers, importers, shipping, All those people need another job, or UBI, if we just quit making all these clothes. I watched the video "Dead White Men's Clothing", about what happens in Africa at the tail end of us cleaning out our closets and "donating". They don't want it, and it comes in shipload after shipload, ending in dumps or being burned or floating out to sea.

[rhyothemisprinceps]

Thanks for covering this topic! In addition to the observed effects on rayon workers, there were prior reports of 'carbon disulfide hysteria' (Charcot's term) in rubber factory workers. There were also cases of poisoning related to its use as a rodenticide. There were even human experiments with CS2. I'm interested in the topic since there was a viscose rayon factory on the lake where I grew up. My father later developed Multiple System Atrophy. Johnny Cash also lived on the lake (in a better neighborhood) and was diagnosed with MSA, but later had his diagnosis changed. MSA is unfortunately difficult to diagnose and the only way to know for sure is by autopsy (new diagnostic tools are under development). The lake was also polluted with coal ash. I understand that causation is impossible to determine for MSA* and two cases don't make a cluster, but I can't help but wonder about it. Learning about CS2 has opened my eyes to the dangers to viscose rayon factory workers. I buy most of my clothes 2nd hand. { * except for one family in Japan where it appears to be associated with a mutation in a gene for CoQ10 }

[TheSwissChalet]

"safe and effective"...just remember things are not always what we are told about them.

[carriescostumescrochet]

I hadn't had the time to deep dive into what viscose and rayon were, so thank you for answering my questions about what were they and if they were 'green'. Great video.

[toad]

This was amazing, thank you! I'm currently trying to focus on purchasing natural materials exclusively for my knitting / new clothes. There's so many names. I feel encouraged to also spend time at my local second hand stores!

[Hannah-pchg]

Thank you. This was super educational. You answered a lot of questions regarding fabric, that noone else could answer me on, just in the first few minutes. 🥰

I’ve always been a sceptic, and try to avoid synthetic as much as possible. I knew it wasn’t as clean as it seemed, bit didn’t know it was this bad.

[veganwinter]

Christine thank your thoughtful work is excellent. There is a new mycelium leather factory opening up in South Carolina, USA and other progress with these plant-based heavier fabrics that will be a wonderful addition to our lives.
I found it so relaxing to go to a weaving workshop when I was in Guatemala in San Juan, Lake Atitlan. The Pueblo specializes in natural dyes and weaving works for women, for so many were left widows in their society after their civil war, and they needed more work for the women, the males do excellent weaving work down there as well.
I don't want to leave them out either.
They do so much with the looms and the handweaving down in Guatemala around the lake I think people would enjoy weaving more it's very interesting almost relaxing .
If you produce more videos on the hand weaving I think people would appreciate it immensely. ❤🌷