1. How long will towels last?
According to experts, personal towels should be replaced in about 30 days, and should not exceed 40 days at most. Maybe someone will say, isn't it too wasteful? In fact, this is scientifically reasonable.
The towel will harden after a long time. The most important thing is that it will be contaminated with bacteria, which is harmful to people's health. Practice has proved that coins, bedding and towels are the three indirect transmission media of infectious diseases. However, there are still many people affected by traditional ideas, and there are some unscientific methods of use: for example, many people use one towel, one towel is multi-purpose, do not break or change, do not pay attention to hygiene, ignore product quality and so on.
As we know, towels are made of pure cotton yarn. Cotton fiber is a tubular structure, containing a hollow cell cavity, which can store water; Its main chemical component, cellulose, contains a large number of hydrophilic genes, which can absorb water. This moisture absorption and moisture storage performance of cotton yarn makes the towel feel comfortable and has strong decontamination ability. It is suitable for cleaning and sanitation. However, it is precisely because of this characteristic that it provides convenient conditions for the breeding of bacteria. Bacteria like warm and humid environment best. The towel has been warm and wet for a long time. In addition, the grease, dust, impurities in water and dust in the air on the human skin are deposited on the towel. Over time, the towel has become a paradise for bacteria. Then wipe the skin with such a towel, not only can not play a cleaning role, but will pollute the skin and block pores. Women who like make-up and children with fast metabolism have more skin oil, and towels are more vulnerable to infection, which is particularly harmful to human skin.
Therefore, experts suggest that towels should not be changed until they are worn out. Like the service cycle of toothbrush, the service life of towel shall not exceed 3 months.
2. The secret of towel natural damage
Some people reported that the new towel will appear holes or local brittle damage soon after use, mainly due to mold.
Our engineers and technicians found that most of the holes in the towel were irregular. When observing the brittle and discolored parts with a microscope, they found that the mildew on the fiber surface was obvious, and the fiber mold colonies could still be detected after washing. Brittle towels are stored in damp, hot and stuffy containers before drying after washing or wiping sweat. The longer they are stored, the more serious the brittle damage is.
There are also new towels that break when washed. These towels are pulped towels without washing and desizing. The starch pulp is exactly the nutrient base of mold. Once the humid and hot suffocating environmental conditions are met, mold will quickly breed and secrete enzymes to decompose fiber and starch into glucose. At the same time, the dander contained in sweat (including protein, fat, amino acids, potassium, sodium and other inorganic salts), which further promotes the reproduction of bacteria and other microorganisms and releases acidic substances, which is not only conducive to the survival of bacteria, but also accelerates the hydrolysis of starch and fiber. Therefore, after the use of new towels or with unwashed starch slurry, they will become moldy and brittle in a humid, hot and stuffy environment.
Therefore, if you find that the towel feels sticky and slippery and has a foul smell, you should wash it with soap and dry it in a ventilated place as soon as possible. Newly produced towels must be desized, dried and cooled before packaging and storage. They must not be stored for too long in a humid and muggy environment to avoid mildew.
3. How to distinguish the quality of towels
First, appearance observation: the towel has fine sewing, neat edge binding, consistent width, horizontal and vertical, no skew and twist, consistent tightness, neat wool height and upright pile circle; It's better to hold a towel in your hand, look straight at your eyes, have smooth velvet circles, and rarely have lint diarrhea. Pure and bright color without uneven depth is better.
Second, touch: a good cotton towel feels fluffy, soft and non greasy. It is soft and elastic to hold in the fist, and there is no lint falling off when patting.
Third, smell: a good towel has no peculiar smell. If there is candle smell or ammonia smell, it indicates that the softener is excessive; If there is sour taste, the pH value may exceed the standard; If there is a pungent smell, it indicates that the color fixing agent containing formaldehyde is used, and free formaldehyde is precipitated.
Fourth, measure the hygroscopicity: hang the towel vertically, throw it up after touching the water with your hand, and the water droplets do not roll down, indicating that the absorption and diffusion is rapid and the hygroscopicity is good; If water drops fall, it indicates that the softener in the towel is excessive or not refined enough.
Fifth, measure color fastness: first pour hot water at about 80 ℃ into the basin, and then put it into a towel to wash up and down. It is better if the water in the basin does not change color; If there is falling color, it indicates that the printing and dyeing quality is poor and hinders human health. According to Mr. Yang Donghui, President of China Home Textile Association, such a towel is "washing your face with industrial wastewater."
Therefore, we suggest you try to buy Towels in large shopping malls, supermarkets or specialty stores, and choose products from regular manufacturers. Qualified towel products have standardized marks, indicating the manufacturer, place of origin, telephone, trademark, executive standard, washing method, etc., and the price is reasonable and value for money.
4. How to use towels
Towel is a kind of loop pile fabric, which is fluffy and sparse, with large gap. It is very easy to hide pathogenic bacteria such as bacteria and microorganisms, which is the root of transmission and cross infection. For your health, we recommend that you:
First, for special personnel and towels
Starting from China's national conditions, health care experts advocate that the number of towels used by consumers is "three (male) and four (female)", and the minimum standard is "two (male) and three (female)". Towels for face washing, bathing and foot washing must be separated to prevent local skin diseases from infecting the whole body, and it is also an effective method to prevent cross infection.
Second, wash and sun correctly and disinfect regularly. When washing your face or bathing, you should first wash it with shower gel and water, and then wipe it dry with a dry towel, which can reduce the adhesion of human dirt to the towel. Clean the towel in time after use, boil it with boiling water for 10 minutes every week, ventilate the hanging place, and it is best to dry or dry it in time. Unused towels must be boiled, disinfected and dried before they are placed to avoid mildew and deterioration.
Third, replace it in time and often replace it. This is the key to changing the misunderstanding of traditional consumption.
Fourth, necessary special treatment. For example, add 30g soda ash or safe detergent to 1.5kg water and cook for 10 minutes to make the hard towel soft.
5. Why do towels get harder and harder
During use, towels frequently contact sweat glands and pores on the skin and constantly secrete body fluids such as oil and sweat. The impurities such as oil, protein, dander, inorganic salt and ash scale are not easy to dissolve in water. If you simply wash with water, it is difficult to clean, and these impurities will accumulate in the towel fiber. In addition, the soap used when people bathe and wash their faces is very easy to combine with calcium and magnesium ions in the water to form calcium and magnesium soap, which infiltrates into the fibers along the oil, making the towel loop fibers adhere, hard and rough. Therefore, the longer the use time, the more grease and impurities accumulated between the fibers, and the harder the towel feels.
6. How to keep towels soft?
Now, we know the reason why towels become hard and rough. So, how can I keep the towel soft? Let's teach you some life tips. You might as well try them.
First, pour the rice washing water for the first and second times into the pot, then put the towel in and cook it, boil it for a while, and then clean the rice soup. After this treatment, the towel will turn white and have a faint smell of rice.
Second, put the towel in the hot water of the washing solution, cook or scald it for 5 minutes, and then clean it while it is hot.
Third, every once in a while, boil the towel with soap, washing powder or lye for several minutes to prevent hardening. When boiling, the towel should be completely immersed in water to avoid oxidation in contact with air and change the chromaticity. Then rinse with clean water and warm water in turn, remove the water and air it in a ventilated place. After drying, the towel will return to softness. It should be reminded that towels should not be exposed to the sun for a long time, and it is better to dry them naturally in a ventilated place.
Fourth, boil the towel with boiling water for about 10 minutes, wash it with soap, and then wash it fully with clean water. Finally, fold the towel and put it into the microwave oven and heat it for 5 minutes.
Fifth, put the towel in the 1:4 vinegar essence solution. Don't have too much water. Just overflow the towel. After soaking for 5 minutes, scrub and rinse with clean water. It can also restore the softness of the towel.
7. What if the towel stinks
The impurities such as oil, dandruff, protein and inorganic salt stained on the towel for a long time are a good culture medium for bacteria. Towels are mostly wet daily necessities. Once the temperature conditions are appropriate, bacteria will breed in large numbers. Bacterial excreta contains a lot of peculiar smell such as ammonia, acetaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide, which will make towels stink.
To solve the problem of towel odor, first, wash it fully with detergent after use; Second, after use, it must be put in a ventilated place to dry; Third, select the towel after sterilization or the towel woven with bamboo fiber, chitin, bamboo charcoal fiber or hollow yarn containing sterilization agent; The fourth and most important point is that towels should not be used for a long time. It is best to update them once every three months.
8. The wonderful use of towel
Some people will say that a towel is a towel. In addition to its cleaning, can it be used for other purposes? However, towels can really come in handy at a particular time and in a particular environment.
First, we use gas or liquefied petroleum gas to boil water and cook at home. For example, we always keep a wet towel nearby. In case of gas leakage and fire in the gas pipeline or liquefied petroleum gas nozzle, we can rush up with a wet towel and quickly close the valve, so as to avoid a possible fire.
Second, when cooking, chefs often put a wet towel around them. If the oil pan catches fire, it can be quickly covered on it, and the fire will be extinguished immediately.
Third, under certain circumstances, a wet towel can hold a gas mask. The secret is the smoke removal effect of towels. Practice has proved that when taking refuge in the thick smoke of the fire, you can get self-help by covering your mouth and nostrils with a towel and rushing out of the fire quickly. Some people have done experiments. The more folded layers of towels, the better the smoke removal effect. The smoke removal rate of folded 8 layers is about 60%. The smoke removal rate of towels with different humidity is also different. The greater the water content, the greater the smoke removal rate. When the water content reaches 3.3 times of the towel, people's endurance time is about 1 minute and 20 seconds.