What is optical brightener in washing powder and why is it dangerous?
A variety of modern washing powders allows you to quickly and easily get rid of any dirt and return your laundry to cleanliness and freshness.
But if you carefully examine the composition of the washing powder, you will notice optical brightener in the declared components.
Let’s look at what it is and how harmful this ingredient is to human health and the environment in more detail.
What it is?
Optical brightener - this is nothing more than a luminescent dye.
Penetrating deeply into the fabric fibers, it absorbs ultraviolet light, reflecting a blue glow visible to the human eye. As a result, a visual illusion of ideal whiteness and radiant purity of the fabric is created.
It is important to understand that optical brightener does not remove stains or make laundry cleaner. Appearing under ultraviolet sunlight, it only masks the yellowness or grayish tint of repeatedly washed clothes. white clothes.
When buying powders that contain optical brightener, You need to pay attention to what type of fabric they are intended for:
The final result of washing depends on this.
Is it harmful to humans?
Optical brightener unsafe for health. With each wash, tiny particles accumulate in the fabric, prolonged contact with which can provoke allergic reactions, itching and burning of the skin.
Alternative
For those who care about the health of their family, oxygen stain remover will be a good alternative to optical brightener.
Effective even at low temperatures, it perfectly washes fabrics of any composition., does not harm the environment (on contact with water it decomposes into oxygen and soda).
You can safely bleach your laundry at home using the following method. To do this, dissolve 3 tbsp in 5 liters of hot water. lemon juice. The laundry is soaked in the resulting solution (for at least six hours), after which it is washed as usual.
The composition and purpose of the components of washing powder are discussed in given section.
Video on the topic of the article
The video will tell you what is included in washing powder and which components are hazardous to health:
Conclusion
Optical brightener will help temporarily restore brilliant whiteness to laundry that has become gray or yellowed as a result of numerous washes. But the short-term cleanliness effect is not worth the harm that this substance can cause with prolonged contact with the skin.
