Formaldehyde-infused clothing in the dryer.......what could possibly go wrong?

[PlanetaryOrbit]

So I bought a pair of new pants and it has an intense chemical odor, like formaldehyde (which I understand is used in wrinkle-free clothing.)

When washed and then put in a dryer, what could/would the heat do to that formaldehyde? It's bad enough as is, but as I understand it, heat causes formaldehyde to split into carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

What other..........noxious stuff gets released during the heating/drying process? (asking our DU chemists........)

[jberryhill]

1. You are putting wrinkle free clothing in the dryer on a hot setting?

Is that recommended for these pants?

[MicaelS]

2. The dryer should vent outside.

So any odors will go outside. You could run it on air dry (no heat) after the initial heated dry cycle.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. There be a potent solution

Sunshine. It will get the fumes out pretty damn fast.

[sorefeet]

4. Thats what I say

I don't even own a dryer. Hang it outside mostly year round. Chemicals are bad and heat magnifies their danger.

[PlanetaryOrbit]

9. Unfortunately, Hanging them to dry outside is not an option.

Hanging them to dry outside is not an option.

As for the "heating the chemicals worsens the danger".........ugghh. What happens exactly? Does the formaldehyde cook into something worse, a different new compound?

[snooper2]

16. even worse, you get these little guys living in your dryer

and they get on everything you put in it

[yeoman6987]

5. Some of us with HOA are banned from hanging out clothes

We can't even have a portable one.

[KT2000]

6. formaldehyde is in most fabrics

flannels, linen, cotton, cotton/polyester have lots of formaldehyde. The US is on a voluntary basis for how much formaldehyde is in products. The EU has stricter rules.

The best thing to do is put the pants through the rinse and spin on your washer, then hang them out in the sunshine to dry. Repeat if necessary. Some garments are treated with another chemical process that locks in the formaldehyde. So if after washing a couple times and it won't come out - taken them back. Actually I would take them back before you wash them and let them know the formaldehyde is too high in the pants. That is the only way manufacturers will get the message.

Actually fabrics contain a lot of chemicals now. Between the textile mills and garment manufacturing, chemicals are used in dyes, formaldehyde is used to make fabrics look to be better quality than they are as well as wrinkle resistance, mildewcides and formaldehyde are used to prevent mold especially in garments made overseas, some are treated with pesticides, etc.

[womanofthehills]

7. sometimes I wash new clothes two times with vinegar before putting in dryer

You can hang new clothes in the sun before washing them to out gas chemicals first.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Vinegar Won't Help On Formaldehyde

They don't react with one another, since the carbonyl and carboxyl groups won't react unless under stringent and catalytic conditions.

That being said, formaldehyde is HIGHLY soluble in water. (37% if memory serves). Begs the question as to how much of that was on the clothes if the wash and rinse cycle didn't remove it with the water.

The dryer will still gas out the clothes, but if you save a few cents by avoiding the dryer, that's a fine thing to do.

[PlanetaryOrbit]

8. Unfortunately, it's a bit too late

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice; one of my favorite things about DU is that there are plenty of folks here who hold just as adamant views about chemicals and toxins and pollutants and whatnot as I do.

Unfortunately, my thread was something of a "closing the barn door after the horse has already escaped" thread; I had already dried the formaldehyde-infused clothing, on heat, in the dryer, before starting this thread..........I wonder, does the heat make the formaldehyde residue "burn off," or "burn away," so to speak, so that through continuous vaporizing, there eventually won't be any formaldehyde residue left?

I'm not so much concerned about the formaldehyde in the clothing as I am concerned about the dryer walls still holding on to that formaldehyde stuff for a long time.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Formaledyde is Very Volatile

In normal use it's in solution with water. (As is said above, i think the typical usage is 37% in water, stabilized with something like wood alcohol, which helps prevent polymerization.)

So, as things get warm, it's going to go from a gas dissolved in water to a gas with a vapor pressure too high to stay in solution.

I'm still a little baffled why it was still on your clothes after the wash and rinse cycle. That's a lot of water and a lot of surface area to not just get washed away.

You sure it was formaledyde you were smelling? There are probably other things used in the wrinkle free process that some people might be sensitive to, from an odor perspective. That might be something water insoluble that then "gassed off" in the dryer.

On Edit: Your dryer walls won't hold on to it. Without the water, it's already gaseous. It's gone.

[PlanetaryOrbit]

17. As I understand it the formaldehyde can't be washed out

It's not water soluble or something......

But yeah maybe the strong industrial odor was some other chemical.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. It is VERY(!) Water Soluble

It's solubility in water is higher than that of table salt.

Nearly ALL industrial use of it is as 20 - 37% solution in water. Unless it's being used as a chain terminator in an industrial polymer process, hardly anybody would use it in it's gaseous state. Much harder to handle in a safe manner.

[Igel]

12. Heat causes formaldehyde to decompose, eventually to CO + other products.

But most of what I can find says that this happens at high temperatures. "High" means "high enough to cause scorching if not out-and-out combustion.

[sweetapogee]

14. do you think

there is enough heat in a residential clothes dryer to break the double bond between the carbon and oxygen atoms to make other products?

[ProfessorGAC]

19. No, There Is Not

The activation energy if far higher.

Use as an a preservative in consumer products (where still allowed) has a recommended usage addition temerature of 120 F or less, but that's more for personnel protection (vapors for the person doing the addition) than for protecting the chemical.

The breakdown rate is MUCH higher and the bond energy is very high, which is why it's considered highly flammable.

So, it takes a LOT of heat to decompose it. Don't have time to do the equation right now, but will try to get back later.

[sweetapogee]

20. I know

I take classes at community college for personal enrichment and next week starting o-chem 1. I l know a few things, not a chemist by any means but I'm certain there is no combustion reaction taking place in the clothes dryer (except of course in a gas dryer for the heat source) and probably not a whole lot of other products being produced from COH2 as another poster mentioned.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. You Are Correct

High does not mean dryer temperatures of 140 F or so. The decomposition temperature is IIRC, in the 300 C range. In the presence of oxygen and moisture, at elevated temperature, it can convert to formic acid, which is the waste product of ants. Formic acid has a higher decomposition temperature and cannot oxidize further.

[Bonn1997]

13. You can't tell it's formaldehyde just from odor

They put new flooring in my apt before I moved in and there was a bad off-gassing smell, particularly in the closet. I did a lot of research and assumed it was formaldehyde. But I had the air professionally tested and it's not. That doesn't tell us what it is though.