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> Healthy clothing – an intact environment cotton
General information and literature Cotton has a very high need for irrigation. As a result entire stretches of land are dried out. At the same time growing cotton requires large amounts of pesticide and herbicide which affects the fibre itself only slightly but has dire consequences for the environment and people working in this field. The genetic manipulation of plants, which is widely used today to reduce the amount of chemicals needed, permits a reduction in the pesticides but not enough is yet known about the potential side-effects of this technique (see a contribution at Spiegel-Online / 04.06.2002) Literature: see: Problems with conventional cotton plantation see WWF background paper: impact of cotton on fresh water resources and ecosystems
illness and death as a result of cotton plantations: see Cotton pesticides cause more death in Benin
Currently a lot of positive activities promote cotton which has been produced in a more environmentally friendly way (Green Cotton, Organic Cotton, Sustainable Cotton). Most of these products are not competitive to conventinal cotton because of higher production costs. Furthermore the need for high water and land demand limits the argumentation of sustainability. Existing data on market shares of such products provide an uncertain picture.
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