The Effects of Air Pollution On the Fading of Dyed Fabrics

This report details results for the first six months of a two-year study begun in February 1965 by The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and the Public Health Service to evaluate the effects of air pollution upon dyed fabrics. Groups of 69 dye-fabric combinations representing widely used dyes were exposed in light-free cabinets to ambient environments at urban and rural sites in Chicago, Washington, D. C, Tacoma, and Los Angeles, and at urban sites in Cincinnati, Phoenix, and Sarasota. Preliminary results of consecutive three-month seasonal exposures and controlled-environment exposures to irradiated and nonirradiated automobile exhaust for short durations show extreme fading of one-fourth of the dyed-fabrics, a higher degree of fading of susceptible fabrics at urban sites compared with that at rural sites, and a marked effect of photochemical by-products of automobile exhaust upon dyed fabrics.