Natural and Man-Made Fibers and their Role in Creation of Physiological State of Human Body

Abstract

Natural fibres including linen and hemp are human friendly in every way. They guarantee high comfort as well as environment protection. Testing of clothes on the human organism is a necessity. New and more sophisticated technologies are being introduced in the textile industry that make production processes more efficient, more productive, allow for introduction of new assortment of textile products and new fibers, improvement of properties of clothes. However, chasing after technological novelties, one cannot forget about the human, because it is a human who is a recipient of the final product. No product should cause a negative effect on human organisms. Each new technology using new modifying chemicals should be evaluated for the safety in direct contact with human skin. The influence of clothes, which were covering transiently the human forearm muscles, on activity of motor units of these muscles was investigated at the INF. The results of electromiographical studies of two groups of people wearing the natural and synthetic apparel shown that temporary covering of tested forearm muscles with synthetic clothes changes the pattern of motor unit activity. The observed fluctuations are the reason of desynchronization in muscle motor units that may lead to higher tendency to fatigue when wearing synthetic garments. Another research concerned influence of different kinds of wear(in given conditions, during the rest or exercise)to the oxidative stress and how the organism defense mechanism change. One of the ways to test the ability of the organism to defense itself against the reactive oxygen species is to determine so called total antioxidant index status(TAS). This parameter informs about total ability of tissues to neutralize exactly determined amount of reactive oxygen species. Due to considerable amounts of man-made fibers in wear and bedding, there are more and more allergies observed among people who use different textile products based on man-made fibers. According to the most recent studies conducted at the Institute of Natural Fibres and Nara Woman's University, Japan, it was found that man-made and natural fibers in clothes have dramatically different physiological effect on human body. This physiological influence is connected with different effect on the level ofα-globulin and histamine produced inhuman body in different conditions created by clothes made of different fiber composition.