Next time you buy a bath towel, T-shirt or even notepad, you might want to think twice before picking the color. A new study by Rutgers University found that yellow dyes found in many common household products and items could contain a potentially harmful chemical that may be bad for your health. That chemical is PCB 11, which is regularly found in yellow dyes in printing inks, paper, paint and clothing, said Lisa Rodenburg, one of the study’s authors and associate professor in environmental chemistry at Rutgers…”PCBs cause a whole range of really worrisome health problems,” Rodenburg said in an interview today with “Good Morning America.” “There is enough evidence that there could be health effects from this specific kind of PCB that we should investigate further.”
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Your Favorite Yellow Sweatshirt Could Be Making You Sick
Yellow: the color of sunshine, happiness, friendship…and, potentially, serious health risks. Environmental scientists at Rutgers University have discovered that yellow printing inks and dyes in a number of paper products and clothing brands contain chemicals that have been banned in the U.S. for decades…”When you touch these things, you are getting [PCB 11] on your hands,” Dr. Lisa Rodenburg, associate professor of environmental organic chemistry at Rutgers and lead author of the study, tells TakePart. “[The chemicals] can also get out of the pigment and find their way into water…” She and a team of researchers from Rutgers analyzed 18 ink-treated paper products made in the U.S. and found that 15 contained PCB 11. What’s worse: All 28 paper products they tested from 26 foreign countries contained PCB 11. And 100 percent of the 16 articles of clothing they tested had traces of PCB 11, including children’s clothing purchased from Walmart.