Issues in the Textile Industry

Issues in the Textile IndustryThe Textile IndustryAn overview of the c copeh effortThe stuff assiduity is regarded a major and largest industry around the man in landmarks of its output, toil and employment. It brings a large contribution to heterogeneous national economies including both global small and large-scale ope proportionalityns (Parvathi, et al., 2009). The textile manufacturing is establish on the conversion of three types of fibre, the most one macrocosm yarn then fabric and finally textile. The fibres be then manufactured into clothes and sunrise(prenominal)(prenominal)s.However, the textile manufacturing originated from hand craft practices by spinners, weavers and some skilled craftsmen. The first textile companies sur face in the United Kingdom and the Western European countries. This came with the new technological developments that were being introduced (Warshaw Leon, 2011).According to Warshaw and Leon (2011), the term textile industry was initially c oncerned only with the twist of fibres, but today it involves a variety of deales. Therefore, as illustrated by Greenberg (2003), the takings of textiles involve processes manage spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing and finishing of different natural and celluloid fibres. Today, wet processing is utilise in the finishing treatment of textiles. It is further categorized into 3 more processes, which is the preparation process, coloration process and finishing process.Hazards present in the textile industryThere argon various hazards to which the textile workers ar exposed. These hazards argon categorised as (i) exposure to chemical substances, (ii) exposure to physical agents, (iii) exposure to biological agents, (iv) exposure to dusts and fibres, and also (v) psychosocial hazards (European Agency for Safety and Health at work, 2008).Exposure to chemicalsThe spinning, weaving and knitting process do not involve high use of chemicals. The most substantial chemicals utilize in th ese operations atomic number 18 sizing agents like starch and other polymers much(prenominal) as lubri idlerts to prevent yarns from being entangled. There is a wide variety of chemical substances utilise processes such as dyeing, printing, finishing, bleaching, washing, dry cleaning, sizing and spinning. The most commonly found chemicals are dyes, solvents, optical brighteners, crease resistance agents, flame retardants, heavy metals and anti-microbic agents. Textile fibres, reactive dyes, synthetic fibres and formaldehyde are the respiratory and skin sensitisers that can be identified in textile industries (European Agency for Safety and Health at work, 2008). The dyes that are use for cotton are usually classified into three groups firstly is the water soluble dyes, secondly are dyes soluble by alkaline reduction and at long last are the dyes formed on fibre. In addition, workers may be also exposed to aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as mineral spirits and kerosene, which are us ed for cleaning of equipments and parts of the plants (Greenberg, 2003)Exposure to physical agentsFrom the European Agency for Safety and Health at work (2008), it has been concluded that textile workers are exposed to various physical agents such as noise and vibrations during the weaving, spinning, sewing, twisting and cutting process. As such, being exposed to very high noise level can way out in permanent hearing damage while exposure to vibration along with other risk factors for Musculoskeletal Diseases can cause long term harm. It has been noticed that workers are also exposed to electromagnetic fields.Exposure to biological agentsBiological agents are also present in the textile industry, in processes like carding and willowing. The workers are exposed to anthrax, clostridium tetani and coxiella burnetti. These can cause allergies and respiratory disorders. Normally, work areas having air conditioning systems and high humidity, the workers tend to have allergies and respira tory problems caused by moulds or yeasts.Exposure to dusts and fibresPeople works in the textile industry are usually exposed to airborne particles formed from both the natural and synthetic fibres in their work milieu (Oldenburg et al., 2007). Studies have shown that workers in the textile industry are more prone to respiratory symptoms caused by cotton dust (Wang et al., 2003). In UK, the study Exposure Limit (WEL) for inhalable cotton dust has been fixed at 2.5 mg/m3 for an 8 hour time weighted average (HSE, 2005).Psychosocial hazards in the textile industryEmployees experience work-related stress when they are unable to cope with the work demands. The WHO (2003) define work-related stress as the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope. As such, psychosocial risks have been considered as being an integral factor of the process of stress. On the one han d, these can be in relation to the job content, the organisation and management of work, environmental and planning conditions while on the other hand it can be in terms of the competence and needs of employees. The interaction between all these factors can be dangerous to the health of employees through their perceptions and experience (Cox et al., 2002). According to the WHO (2010), psychosocial risks and work-related stress are closely associated. However, textile workers are faced to psychosocial risks since they have to perform repetitive and fast paced tasks and they cannot take any decision by themselves.The textile industry and color technologyThe textile industry has experienced a lot of changes and there has been the introduction of many new technologies. Today, it has been seen that there is a shift to more eco-friendly processes and chemicals used in the textile industry. These include the use of novel biopolymers along with some enzymes. The use of greener dyes forms p art of the essential constituents of green technology. The other constituents of green technology in the textile industry encompass systems which include waste water reduction by recycling, automatic process control and other filtration techniques (Sekar, 1999). In the dyeing process, the habitude of water accounts to more or less 30-60 litres of water for 1 kilogram of cloth, thus new technologies to minimise the use of water is being adopted (Deo Wassif , 1999). The new technologies that have been introduced in the textile dyeing and finishing process are as followsPlasma Treatment TechnologyPlasma is the state of a tout when its kinetic strength increases to such an extent that the energy is equal to the ionisation energy of the gas. At this stage, the rapid cascading of ionisation caused by the collisions of the gas particles result in plasma. Plasma is the quaternary state of matter.In addition, the plasma technology is applicable to the textile industries. It alters the c hemical structure and surface properties of fabrics, chemical matters are deposited for better functionality and substances are removed from the fabrics to improve the applicability. The plasma technology is used mainly in the processes like pre-treatment, dyeing and finishing (Shah Shah, 2013). It is a green and simple process.Super Critical Dyeing fluentA substance which is under a pressure above its critical temperature is known as a super critical fluid. There is no trait between gases and liquids under these specific conditions and the substance is then characterised as a fluid. As such, super critical fluids possesses the same solvent position as comfortable hydrocarbons used for most solutes.Super critical fluids is advantageous to the textile processing because of their ability to combine the properties of gases and liquids. Also, their solvating power is equivalent to their density while when referring to their viscosity, the normal gas possesses a similar one. Howeve r, it is this particular combination which gives it such impressive penetration properties. The dyeing process favour this increase in density along with the change magnitude power of solvation because of the positive effect that it has on the dissolution of disperse dye in the super critical carbon dioxide medium (Kannan Nithyanandan, n.d.).UltrasoundThe use of echography in the textile industry started only after synthetic materials and their blends were introduced. It is applied mainly in mechanical processes (weaving, knitting and finishing) and wet processes (sizing, scouring, bleaching and dyeing). Ultrasound has a lot of benefits such as the processing time and energy consumption is decreased, it enhances the quality of products and the use of auxiliary chemicals are reduced. For instance, development ultrasound in the dyeing process will replace expensive thermal energy and chemicals by electricity. Various experiments were carried out to show the effectiveness of ultraso und on textile and it has been shown that the adsorption power of disperse dyes on cellulose acetate is influenced greatly by ultrasound compared to the dyeing rate when using direct dyes ( (Prince, 2009).electrochemical Process TechnologyTraditionally, electrochemical techniques were used only for compounds synthesis and treatment for metal recovery but today its use has been expanded to the textile industry. In order to obtain functionalised fabrics, electrochemistry is applied for the production of smart textiles. However this technique is used mainly in the bleaching of cotton fibres and finished denim fabrics.Electrochemical process is also applied in due south and vat dyeing processes to reduce the amount of dyes used making the process eco-friendly since it will not involve the addition of chemical reagents like sodium dithionite (Mireia Carmen, 2012). Electrochemical dyeing process has advantages like product saving, less chemicals used, incomparable environmental compatibi lity and better quicker properties is achieved. Good reproducibility also is set by using electrochemical dyeing. (Das, et al., 2012)NanotechnologyNanotechnology is concerned with materials which are 1 to 100 nm long. The use of nanotechnology in the textile industry increase the durability of fabrics. This is because nano-particles possesses large surface area-to-volume ratio and high surface energy which means that they have better affinity for fabrics, thus increasing the durability of the function. The sporting industry, skincare, space technology and clothing are some examples where the nanotech enhanced textiles are being applied. It ensures that the wearer is better protected when exposed to extreme environments. Therefore, to treat textiles with nanotechnology materials is a way to enhance the properties of the fabric by making it more durable and have nicer colours (Kiron, 2013).Impacts of textile industry on environmentThe textile industry is a diversified industry being f rom the new(a) materials used to the various techniques adopted. At each steps involved in manufacturing fabrics, there are a number of environmental impacts associated with them which are also varied. For instance, the spinning, weaving and industrial manufacture of garments affects the air quality while the dyeing and printing processes use up large amount of water and chemicals. Also, there is the emission of some(prenominal) volatile agents into the atmosphere which have harmful effects on the human health (Challa, n.d.).In addition, each stages of the textile processing generates innumerable wastes streams which are of liquid, gaseous, consentaneous or hazardous nature. The type of textile processes, technologies used, chemicals used and types of fibres will determine the nature of wastes generated. However, the most prevailing environmental impact is the water body defilement which arises due to the disposal of untreated effluents. The second greatest environmental problems caused by the industry are air pollution caused by Volatile Organic compounds (VOC) and other air pollutants. The VOC does not only affects the environment but also the workers and public health. The noise level emitted by textile machineries can also harm the environment by disturbing the natural habitats of various species in the area (C Parvathi, T Maruthavanan, C Prakash, 2009).The character of textile industry in the Mauritian economyThe textile industry was set up and appeared in the government agenda of Mauritius in the 1960s. The industry then experienced a drastic expansion during the year 1980 to 2000. Mauritius was faced with a series of positive conditions for the past 30 years. These conditions helped the country in achieving a solid textile industry along with foreign and local investment. The industry was regarded as the main employer of Mauritius and contributed to 12 % of the GDP.However, the textile industry has not only brought a lot of improvements and developm ents to the economy of the country, but it can be said that its winner also coincides with the social changes that came along. The first change is that it has encouraged the emancipation of women. Many women were assiduous when the textile industry developed. In fact the number of women being employed today also is increasing. The women, who were once viewed as housewives and who did not have the opportunity to study, were regarded as an important pool of labour. Working women started to bring income in the family and this eventually changed their role they were no longer considered as docile housewife but an independent income earner. The second change is that the status of families has increased from the past years since a working woman helped in increasing the family income (Joomun, 2006).Today, the textile industry of Mauritius has achieved a very high status among other countries and there is currently about 174 textile entreprises employing approximately 55000 people. The ind ustry has invested continuously on innovation and greener production to satisfy the demand of the global market which is emphasising more on eco-friendly practices and products.1http//www.gov.mu/portal/sites/nsp/industry/greenertex.htm In 2009, Mauritius was be as the second largest buyer of machineries, accounting to 2300 machines and 9 % of the global sales. Mauritian manufacturers have also invested in latest cleaner technologies and reorganised their activities so as to combat against the low-cost competition of Asian countries. As such the Mauritian and Indian Governments have collaborated together and signed a contract for the transfer of new technologies along with deciding on ways of improving the performance of the textile sector in Mauritius2http//www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/mauritius/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=119742