safety of chrome tanned leathet or any type of leather

[high-maintenance]

Hello

I recently came across the idea that chrome tanned leathet might be harmful to our health.

Chromium 6 is a known carcinogen and some articles say that human sweat can dissolve chromium 6 out of leather and this poses threat to our health.

I think government wouldnt let them use chrome tanned leather if it is carcinomatous, but just wanted ask you guys what you know about this matter.

Do tanneries wash off or neutralize all the chromium 6 before they ship out? or at least the major tanneries that source hide for leather jacket companies that we usually buy from make sure their chrome tanned leathers are safe to wear... right???

please tell me it is so...

Thanks

 

[TREEMAN]

The government lets you eat carcinogenics...why not wear them ......

 

[navetsea]

my grand father and my father both died of cancer and they never touched any leather jackets, if I would die of cancer later on at least I will die a happier person.

beside it sound kind of much cooler to say I'm dying from Chromium6 rather than dying from eating too much pork belly and cow's intestines or too much smoking.

 

[ton312]

LOL.

 

[handymike]

Chromium6 is dangerous...just ask anyone who lived in a small town down river from American factories over the years... by poisoning the water. I don’t believe a leather jacket will kill you any faster than a wearing vintage watch with radium markers will.

 

[high-maintenance]

So the bottom line is... tanneries from which renowned leathermakers source their leather neutralize chromium 6... right?

worried...

 

[Peacoat]

So the bottom line is . . . we don't know. You could ask the tanneries, but would you believe their answer? That is just something I don't need to worry about. There are too many other things trying to kill me for me to worry about my leather jacket doing me in.

 

[nick123]

I hope to be buried in the leather jacket that kills me!

OP, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Life causes cancer.

I'm sure a newbie - maybe even you - posted this question a few months ago.

 

[navetsea]

If there is a case of leather jacket poisoning, probably TM would be the patient 0.

 

[Carlos840]

I saw a documentary years ago about cheap Chinese made shoes sold in France.
They used leather that had been tanned with nasty illegal chemicals.
According to the documentary a few people died and a few had to be amputaded from legs and feet.
The chemicals still in the leather had disolved in feet sweat and been absorbed by the skin, creating necrosis.

Some people lost both feet within hours of wearing their new shoes!

 

[tmitchell59]

If there is a case of leather jacket poisoning, probably TM would be the patient 0.

I'm still kicking, probably got a lot of Chrome tanned leather in the house. The only noticeable issue is the need for more jackets!

 

[Sloan1874]

Horween's account of the tanning process it uses on their website makes me think that, given the chroming process happens early on in the tanning- post-dehairing, but before the retanning and then the hot-stuffing of fats and oils - I'd hazard that, even if the excess chrome solution isn't washed off initially (which it will almost certainly be) then by the time the leather is a finished product any nasty stuff will have been neutralised.
I've paid a visit to the Horween tannery and the place is EPA-ed up the wazoo. Any noxious liquids are stored and disposed of safely. One of the reasons Horween survived where other tanneries failed is that it took the environmental side of tanning very seriously from the moment it became an issue. Thus, when the government started getting really heavy about protections, the firm had already made a lot of changes which meant it was less of a burden financially while others went to the wall because they couldn't afford them.

 

[jacketjunkie]

I think I'm having a dejavu.. didn't we have a thread just like that a year back?

As for big tanneries and leather jacket makers, I'm confident they make sure their product doesn't kill people. Not because they are good people but simply because lawsuits are really annoying and expensive, especially in the USA.

And let's assume for a second, wearing leather on bare skin may cause cancer.. then so what? Most of what we eat can cause cancer, in fact pretty much anything can cause cancer. And then you got people eating and living healthy af and they still get cancer. I think wearing leather won't increase that risk in any significant way. The older you get, the higher the chance you get cancer, it's like universe's emergency switch to make sure it's not stuck with any of us for eternity.

 

[Canuck Panda]

Are you a PETA undercover agent?

 

[Nykwil]

I think I'm having a dejavu.. didn't we have a thread just like that a year back?

As for big tanneries and leather jacket makers, I'm confident they make sure their product doesn't kill people. Not because they are good people but simply because lawsuits are really annoying and expensive, especially in the USA.

And let's assume for a second, wearing leather on bare skin may cause cancer.. then so what? Most of what we eat can cause cancer, in fact pretty much anything can cause cancer. And then you got people eating and living healthy af and they still get cancer. I think wearing leather won't increase that risk in any significant way. The older you get, the higher the chance you get cancer, it's like universe's emergency switch to make sure it's not stuck with any of us for eternity.

Yep. Anything and everything can cause cancer. We can live our lives worrying about it or we can just get on and deal with it. Life is too short to worry

 

[Gamma68]

One thing I've wondered about from time to time is the "scent" some jackets have. I'm not talking about the odor of an unclean jacket, but the scent of the leather itself. My understanding is what we pick up with our noses isn't really the leather but a residual odor from the chemical tanning process.

I store most of my jackets on a rack in the basement next to a dehumidifier. When I enter that room, I definitely pick up a nice leather bouquet.

Some jackets have a stronger scent than others. For example, I can smell my Vanson Comet across the room. It's fairly powerful and strikes me as more "chemical" than most of my other jackets. The Comet is 16 years old, so that scent is permeated in the leather.

Now, I'm still going to wear the jacket and not worry too much about it. But I sometimes wonder if the chemical odors the jackets give off are at all harmful.

 

[AeroFan_07]

I'm still kicking, probably got a lot of Chrome tanned leather in the house. The only noticeable issue is the need for more jackets!

As Terry states, this is the most likely hazard of wearing Leather jackets on a regular basis.

 

[ProteinNerd]

Do you smoke, drink alcohol, eat red meat, eat any processed meat, go in the sun, eat salted fish, BBQ food, take herbal remedies, live in a city....if you live long enough it appears just living can give you cancer.

I wouldn't be surprised if Chromium 6 is a carcinogen, apparently a lot of chemical in manufacturing are but do you have link to the study where you got this information?

 

[Dr H]

Plenty of scientific studies outlining the harm caused by hexavalent chromium through inhalation, ingestion, etc. Here’s one for example:
Cancer Mortality in a Chinese Population Exposed to Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water
James J. Beaumont, Richard M. Sedman, Stephen D. Reynolds, Claire D. Sherman, Ling-Hong Li, Robert A. Howd, Martha S. Sandy, Lauren Zeise and George V. Alexeeff
Epidemiology
Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 2008), pp. 12-23