Author: Paul David Blanc, M.D.
ISBN: 978-0-300-20466-7
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2016
Hardcopy price: $40.00 Cdn
Fake Silk is a well-researched, detailed and deeply dark look at the profitable production of viscose rayon at the expense of workplace safety, human rights and medical observations. It is a roadmap of political maneuvering and cover-ups in order hide the horrific history of cellulose-derived viscose to the current "green-washing" it as an eco-friendly product.
This is not an easy or entertaining read. It is an important read for anyone interested in the social, human and environmental impact of the textile industry.
Blanc's research is not limited to viscose rayon, he also delves into the production and marketing of Modal and Lyocell (Tencel) as eco-friendly by avoiding at all costs (human and monetary) the word "synthetic" in its marketing campaign. These fabrics may be free of carbon disulfide but it is not free of a chemically intensive process as Blanc points out. Modern marketing campaigns are designed to maintain a "consumer blind spot that keeps the wounded worker out of sight" is the same old game that had been played for over a century and allows this hazardous manufacturing to continue and expand globally.
Yes, many parts of this book are dense in the examination of the history of viscose but it's worth the work and time investment to see how this plays out in our present day and the key players in this story.
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Thanks for your review. I lived in one of the biggest textile manufacturing cities in the country and each day would drive to work along the river where all the mills were. We would pass more than you could count, miles of them. These mills all had names, like Cliftex, BErkshire Hathaway, the Revere( copper pots), etc. One mill, a huge one, was called "The Rayon" by everyone, a big local employer and it sat right on the river, it's chemical effluent, like all the others going directly into the Acushnet river for decades. As you drove by you made sure your windows were rolled up. The smell was invisible and choking. I will never forget it. In time, all these mills closed and moved off shore. The river was declared #2 on the Super Fund when it was invented and today Mills are condos and senior housing, no stench. The river is spotless, ducks and geese have returned, children fish in it and families picnic in the parks lining the edges. It took more than a decade to clean the mess and turn it into the beautiful, clean, clear asset that it now is. It can be done. Thank you for reviewing this book and bringing this to our attention.
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