9 Non-Toxic Bathroom Essentials, From the Shower Curtain Down
3 min read
Your bathroom is small, warm and wet, and you're in it with nothing on. Most people have no idea what is in there.
This edit covers the fabric in the room, which is the part we score: the curtain, the floor, the towels and the robe. Three things are worth changing, in that order. 9 pieces handle all three.
Start with the shower curtain
You know the smell. In 2008, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, an advocacy group, bought PVC shower curtains from five big retailers and sent them to labs. One curtain, from Walmart, hung in a test chamber for 28 days and released 108 volatile organic compounds, the gases that evaporate off a material. 40 were still detectable after 7 days, and 4 after 28. All five curtains contained phthalates, chemicals added to make vinyl soft, which the report notes have been linked to reproductive problems.
The limits matter. The report is 18 years old and wasn't peer reviewed. Only one curtain was tested for gases, and it measured the curtain, not anyone's health. The chamber also didn't recreate a hot shower, which the authors say would likely release more. Its advice for shoppers is the part that holds up: skip vinyl and buy organic cotton.
Boll & Branch's waffle curtain is 100% organic cotton and washes with the towels. The floor gets the same treatment. Many bath mats sit on rubber, latex or vinyl backing, and the Boll & Branch and Coyuchi mats here have none of it. They're organic cotton all the way through, so they go in the wash.
Then the towels
A bath towel touches nearly all of you, twice a day, on warm damp skin. The quick-dry ones are usually microfiber, which is polyester and polyamide split into very fine filaments. They shed those filaments in the wash, and the towel is plastic however soft it feels.
Cotton does the job. Brooklinen's Turkish cotton bundle and Serena & Lily's set are 100% cotton, and Coyuchi's Air Weight set is 100% organic cotton. Ettitude's waffle towels are lyocell, a semi-synthetic made from wood pulp, and they score 88. Boll & Branch fills in the rest in organic cotton: a bath sheet, hand towels and washcloths. If you want the full comparison, our towel guide goes deeper.
Finish with the robe
It goes straight onto clean, warm skin, and you stay in it longer than you stay in a towel. Most fleece robes are polyester, which holds heat and damp against you. Waffle and terry cotton let you dry off while you wear them.
Damson Madder's hooded towelling robe is 100% organic cotton, and so are Subset's and Under the Canopy's. Ettitude's waffle bathrobe is 100% lyocell, and Brooklinen's and Parachute's are 100% cotton. Sleep With Clementine's and MoonThreads' robes are silk, which is the one to reach for after the shower has already done its work.
Here's what's been measured: a new vinyl curtain releases gases for weeks, and PVC curtains contain phthalates. Microfiber sheds plastic fibers.
What hasn't been pinned down is how much of that a person takes in from one curtain, or what it does to them. That silence is the problem. You don't need it broken to make a decision. You can read what a curtain is made of before it goes up.
Start with whichever piece you were replacing anyway. Our towel guide has the full comparison, and 9 Non-Toxic Bedroom Essentials does the same for the room next door.
Some products may contain affiliate links.
Sources
- Center for Health, Environment and Justice. (2008). Volatile Vinyl: The New Shower Curtain's Chemical Smell.
- Brainard, C. (2008). The volatile coverage of phthalates. Columbia Journalism Review.
pins Toxome in your Google results, so our reporting shows up first when you search fabrics and brands.
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