Diapers cloth

Table 9.10 shows the distribution of U.S. household incomes, which limits what each household can afford to buy. Let us consider baby diapers. A mother has a number of options to consider cloth diapers delivered to the home and retrieved after use, cloth diapers that are home laundered, disposable paper diapers for the garbage can after use, and the rural poor may let the babies run around with bare bottoms. The poor families buy less goods, and need to concentrate purchases on housing and basic food, such as bread and potatoes. The expenditure of 456 for disposal diapers in a budget of 75,000 is 0.6%, which is not a serious problem but for families with less than 10,000 income per year, this sum becomes 4.5%, which represents a much bigger burden, and less expensive and affordable options would be chosen. 

If you can wash cloth diapers at home using chlorine alternatives in a washing machine with really hot water, great. Your choice is made. This is an inexpensive (if time-consuming) way of dealing with the diapering dilemma. Sure, you ll use a lot of water, but so do the cloth diaper delivery services, and the manufacturers of disposable diapers. Just try to find diaper covers that aren t plastic or don t contain plastic, especially PVC. There are plenty of (sometimes organic) cotton and wool versions available. 

If you aren t set up to wash cloth diapers at home, conventional disposable diapers aren t a good option. One widely quoted study (published in Archives of Environmental Health and conducted by Anderson Laboratories back in 1999) found mice exposed to VOC chemicals emitted by conventional disposables had asthmalike reactions. They also contain chlorine and have high-tech chemical gel cores that activate when your baby pees to lock in moisture. The Children s Health Environmental Coalition says this absorbent material—sodium polyacrylate— could cause respiratory and skin irritations in occupational settings (where exposure is higher than with diaper use). We wonder how safe can that much chemical activity that close to a baby s genitals be twenty-four hours a day ... 

I was determined to use cloth diapers, and to be the most environ mentally friendly mommy I could be, so I signed up with a diaper service, those nice people who drive around L.A. in natural-gas-powered trucks and recycle their water. (A process I didn t want to know too much about.) Also, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment with no washing machine or dryer, which may have been a factor in my decision to use the diaper service, as opposed to spending every waking hour of my life washing diapers in the kitchen sink. 

During the past forty years, disposable diapers have become an important part of the economy. Since the average baby uses at least ten diapers per day for an average of two years, the convenience of the product has made it a very popular as well as controversial item. A recent survey by Texas A M University reported that 81 percent of the participants exclusively used disposable diapers, 15 percent used cloth and disposables, while just 4 percent used only cloth diapers. 

Sometimes, the ability of certain polymers to repel water is useful— this property is what keeps you dry when you wear a raincoat. Other times, it is desirable for polymers to absorb water. This is why wool socks keep your feet warm by wicking water away from your skin and why a diaper helps keep a baby dry. Cloth diapers are made of cotton, a natural polymer that absorbs water well. Why do disposable diapers hold so much more water than cloth diapers They contain a superabsorbent polymer that can hold hundreds of times its weight in water. In this MiniLab, you will determine how much water the polymers in two different brands of diapers can hold. 

China cup or drinking glass Cloth diapers collected from home and cleaned by diaper service... 

Several studies have compared the environmental effects of disposable diapers with cloth diapers.27 A 1988 analysis by the cloth diaper industry favored cloth as having a smaller environmental effect. A 1990 study made for Procter Gamble, makers of disposable diapers, favored disposable diapers. A 1990 study by the American Paper Institute found the two kinds to be equivalent. A 1991 study by the cloth diaper industry found cloth to be superior. 

One of the studies of cloth diapers assumed a life of 92 uses (a study funded by the disposable industry), whereas the other assumed 167 uses (a study funded by the cloth diaper industry). A study funded by the disposable diaper industry assumed an energy cost for transporting the cotton to China where the diapers were made. One would have to check to see what fraction of cloth diapers are made this way. Disposable diaper makers have pushed composting as a method of disposal. Most cities do not compost this type of waste. The polyolefins would not degrade well in this process, even though the lack of stabilizers in the polypropylene might allow it to become powder. 

Franklin Associates, Ltd., Resource and Environmental Profile Analysis of Children s Disposable and Cloth Diapers. Franklin Assoc., Prairie Village, KS, 1990b. 

When disposable diapers were first sold, they seemed like a great idea. Moms said goodbye to washing soiled cloth diapers and tossed the new plastic-lined disposables into the garbage. We now know that more natural diapers are much better for your baby s skin, and for the environment. 

Now the pendulum is swinging back to using cloth diapers and biodegradable disposables. Cloth diapers can be made from cotton, wool, silk, hemp, and even bamboo fibers. Fitted cloth diapers that are easier to use are now available. They have velcro fastenings and disposable, flushable inner linings that make them just as waterproof and a great deal kinder to your baby s skin. They are also more absorbent than plastic diapers. 

Economy Washed carefully, as you would any other item of clothing, cotton diapers should last you through two (or more) children. Cloth diapers can be washed and reused up to 200 times, and then used as lint-free cleaning rags. 

A cloth diaper set Easy to use, and better for a baby and the environment help a new parent make a dent in the tons of diaper waste going to landfill with a set of reusables. 

If environmental problems are to be understood in the context of evaluating the effect on our living environment and the preservation of nature, sanitary products are unique in a sense that they are misunderstood from both points of view. In particular, the disposable diaper has a short history as a commercial diaper . There has been unreasonable criticism and doubt from mothers with regard to the newly developed disposable diapers compared to traditional cloth diapers. To address these concerns we will discuss environmental problems associated with sanitary products. 

A diaper (in American and Canadian English) or nappy (in Conunonwealth English) is a kind of underwear that allows one to defecate or urinate in a discreet manner. Diapers have been worn throughout human history, and are made of cloth or disposable materials. Cloth diapers are composed of layers of fabric made from cotton, hemp, bamboo, or microflbers, and can be washed and reused multiple times. Disposable diapers contain absorbent materials and are thrown away after use. The decision to use cloth or disposable diapers is a controversial one, due to issues ranging from convenience, health, and cost due to their effect on the enviromnent. 

The risk of diarrheal iUness in daycare centers has been clearly linked with contamination of hands and items such as toys, so prevention of such contamination is an important step in controlling the spread of iUness in this setting. It should be noted here that, when thrown away in the mbbish, a soiled disposable diaper is typically wrapped tightly using the diaper tapes, thus providing additional containment of the feces until safely disposed off by incineration or in a landfill. In contrast, reusable cloth diapers must be retained and laundered, allowing many opportunities for contamination of hands, surfaces, or other aspects of the environment with fecal organisms. 

---