Try these Organic cotton masks and breathe easy.
No I am not talking about the need to go to a dentist, I am talking about how much do you pay attention to what you are actually breathing in. Travelling around cities in Asia and India I can smell and taste the toxicity in the air from bad air pollution. In India, as we climb into a tuk tuk, the driver pulls up his scarf wrapped around his chin so he can spit into the red dust. Mmm gross, I grimace and feel disgust but the pollution is so bad he has to do it.
In Ho Chi Mihn city in Vietnam I wander around the street market and wonder if I should invest in half a dozen face masks that are stacked high in every kind of bright colourful fabric. They have been on sale here long before we had ever heard of Covid. They were used to protect the wearer from pollution. This was back when the world first started talking about Covid and people started buying them to protect them from a virus, we knew little or anything about.
Hang on a moment, I picked up a bright floral pink mask and held it against my face. Immediately I could smell the toxicity of the fabric. Ah No thanks. I am not putting that against my face. It seemed pointless if I wanted to feel protected not to mention a dangerous virus everyone was talking about.
Thinking back to all I had learned about the chemicals that go into our modern fabrics and then to think about wearing them over my mouth and nose. breathing through them seemed questionably suicidal. Survival was at the forefront of my mind, believe me, I will survive somehow and I have no desire to promote the non wearing of face masks, before anyone suggests it. I am just pointing out, is anyone worried at all about what all these masks are made of.
Arriving back home midst the swarm of a Pandemic, masks were now mandatory. So forgive me as I ask again. Why was nobody talking about the masks and what they were made of? Sorry if I keep repeating myself here but I truly feel I have a valid point. It seems that the focus was on the mask and its ability to keep us and everyone around us protected, yet breathing in possible fumes from cheap polyester fibres from sweaty cloth slapped up against my nose and mouth had me feeling a little queasy. The paper ones tickle the end of my nose and unless you superglue it to my face I will continuously be scratching my nose, and that is not advised.
Are there alternatives? I bloody know there is. 400 metres of organic cotton is already purchased in India waiting to be made into dresses. Yeah, I had to leave it there for the time being…….Uh, until we find a vaccine or some other miracle cure and I am allowed back there.
I am watching masks flooding in. Fast fashion is still at work here and you know my views on that. All colours, attractive designs, cheap imports. and fabrics containing, polyester, genetically modified cottons, formaldehyde, zinc chloride and yes a lot of other stuff I really do not know the ins and outs of it all. Is it all safe to put on our mouths and breath through like a filter? Any scientists out there please let me know. You may like to take a deep breath here before you put your mask back on, but I am not taking any risks if we are in this for the long hall.
A quick phone call to my good friends Deepti and Nitin in India. They are looking after my organic cotton I had purchased before India closed her borders to me and other foreigners and mad lifestyle travellers.
Make me a hundred, I tell them and I will try and sell them for you. Nitin kindly modelled this made in 100% organic cotton, No chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and nobody has died from making them. Seriously! In fact my order is helping a bunch of sewing ladies earn some money this week. They love to work and they really need the orders. No work equals no food, which equals hungry children. Simple as that.
So here is my idea. You can order one from me. They are 7 Euros each or 12 Euros for two and each one I sell I will order another to replace it. Or you can buy me two coffee’s on my fundraising page and I will send you a mask and your money will go into the school fund in Jaipur. They will be available in a couple of weeks so please let me know if you are interested. Anyone buying me two coffees please leave me your email so I can contact you for your address (Sorry this will be for orders in EU only or I will have to charge you more postage.) Thank you for your kind support. Please tell your friends and hopefully we can all breathe a little easier.
