O Ecotextiles
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CHINOOK

#70-6120
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Almost translucent, with a delicacy not usually seen in hemp.

Oeko-Tex:    Standard 100 Certified yarns
LEED:   Eligible for credits: indoor air quality, use of rapidly renewable resources, and/or innovation.
ICEA:   Dyes meet organic textile standards of ICEA (Italian Institute for Environmental and Ethical Certification)
Fiber Composition:   51% long fiber linen, 49% long fiber hemp
Colorways:   6
Width:   64" wide/ 157.5 cm wide
Weight:   4.6 oz sq yard; 158 gm sq. meter
Country of Origin:   Italy
Cal 117:   Pass
NFPA 701:   Pass (with application of fire retardant)
Colorfast to light:   British Light Fastness Standards # 2-6:   6 at 60 hrs (scale of 1-8 with 5 as no change and pass)

EcoFacts

Certified Safe. The fibers are spun into yarn and dyed in northern Italy by a spinner who has earned the "Master of Linen" designation. These craftspeople use only low-impact fiber reactive dyes that have no chemical toxicity. As with all our suppliers, they take care to treat their wastewater so that it does not contaminate the local environment.

These yarns are certified by Oeko-Tex to Standard 100. Oeko-Tex is a third party certifier; it measures the chemicals in fabrics which are known to impact human health. Their standard 100 is the most stringent, which means these yarns are safe enough for infants to put in their mouths.

Exceptional Standards. The fabric is softened, bleached and/or dyed at our Italian dye house, which is one of relatively few houses in the world that is qualified to produce a dyed or finished fabric which can be a certified “organic textile.”  Being an “organic textile," means not just that a fabric uses organic fibers in the yarn, but that every step of the production process has been certified eco-friendly. 

For those who are interested, our dye house has received the Italian Institute for Ethical and Environmental Certification (ICEA) for adherence to AIAB (Italian Association for Biological Agriculture) standards, which currently (summer 2008) are the most stringent in the world.

Safe, Low-Impact Dyes. We invested more than two years of research in our dyes in order to achieve color consistency, colorfastness and complete absence of toxicity.  The dyes meet EU and Global Organic Textile Standards to be free of AZO colorants (a cancer causing toxin that is used in many dyes), heavy metals and aromatic amines and the dyestuffs are completely biodegradable (except for some of the blues which can contain copper).

Old-World Methods. The yarns are woven into the fabric at a mill in southern Italy that has been in the same location for over 100 years. This mill uses absolutely no sizers or de-sizers, in fact it uses no chemicals at all throughout their production process, avoiding chemical baths that degrade the yarn's quality and inherent strength.

Eco-Softness. The fabrics are softened with a combination of beeswax, aloe vera and vitamin E.

Test Results. Chinook is predicted to meet GreenGuard standards. It was tested by an ISO 9001:2000 registered IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) testing lab, which measured the out-gassing of nasty chemicals. Our results were very impressive, well below limits set by the USGBC to allow fabrics to accrue LEED points for low emitting materials.

This test, a combination of gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography, lasts for 24 hours. A small piece of fabric is placed in a closed chamber. The chemicals out-gassed for the first 24 hours at a given temperature and pressure are extrapolated to predict the results for the equivalent of a room volume. Based on decay rates for various chemicals, the test predicts the results after 168 hours (the GreenGuard requirement).  So based on those parameters, and the results you see below, our fabrics passed with flying colors.

The LEED threshold and our actual results are:

Chemical measured

LEED requirement

O Ecotextiles Fabric Group #1

O Ecotextiles Fabric Group #2

TVOC - Total Volatile Organic Compounds

.25 mg/mg3

.048 mg/mg3

.02 mg/mg3

HCHO (formaldehyde)

25 parts per billion

<1 part per billion

<1 part per billion

Total aldehydes

50 parts per billion

<1 part per billion

1 part per billion

We're happy to send you more detailed lists of the 22 chemicals actually tested and not just the grouping of the chemical categories should you want it.

Group 1 Fabrics:
Bloedel
Chinook
Lopez
Ozette
Ross Lake
Tyee

Group 2 Fabrics:
Shoto
Tacoma
Rogue River
Hardy Organic Hemp

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