Abstract
Textile materials are prone to microbial infections during production, storage and use. Microbes deteriorate the overall quality of textiles and create unnecessary problems. Recent technological advances allow the textile industry to produce multifunctional fabrics. An antimicrobial finish provides protection against problematic microbes, prevents loss of fabric properties, reduces odour and even avoids the transfer and spread of pathogenic microbes. However, the antimicrobial finish itself interferes with the textile quality and wearer comfort. Since textiles intensively interact with the skin, antimicrobial finishes may exert health risks and interfere with nonspecific defence mechanisms of the skin and nonpathogenic microflora. Therefore a balance has to be found between the antimicrobial efficacy, the textile quality and the potential risks. This chapter reports on existing antimicrobial agents for protective clothing, antimicrobial finishing techniques, evaluation of effectiveness and safety of antimicrobial finishing, problems associated with antimicrobial treatments, and regulations related to the chemical antimicrobial finishing.
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