Laundry of doom?
October 31, 2011 11:32 PM Subscribe
I fried my clothes in a dryer at the laundromat that was way, way too hot. Besides everything being shrunken, some of the paint stuff from screenprinted T-shirts seems to have melted a little and everything stinks, almost like melted plastic. Is this dangerous? Am I inhaling toxic fumes from my sheets and might I be dead by morning?
Whatever you do, don't eat it, as plastisol ink is potentially a carcinogen if ingested. Sounds weird, but people are starting to get worried of little kids gnawing on their screenprinted shirts. Plastisol ink is really weird stuff - PVC pipes are made of basically the same chemical. Wouldn't want to eat that, either.
When you print shirts with plastisol ink, you need to cure the ink with heat - around 320 degrees F (varies with type/brand of ink). They say that once you cure the ink it stays solid, but believe me, if you can get it hot enough, it'll melt again. This will release fumes and the fumes are fumy. You can do the same thing, running an iron over a screenprinted design on a shirt, so don't do that! :) White ink is very thick and if the printer did a lousy job with the shirt, the ink won't be cured all the way as well. A way to make a design look more vibrant is to first print white underneath the design. The more layers of ink you have, the better chance that there's some uncured ink somewhere in the shirt. Less of a problem if the shirt is printed by someone with a major setup, more of a problem if it's some artist in his garage with limited equipment.
Usually if a shirt gets *that* hot, you're also burning off the starch that's in the shirt and well, that smells like starchy burning starch. If it gets really really hot, you'll set the actual fabric on fire. Regardless, that will loosen the bond of the plastisol ink to your substrate (your shirt) and you'll - yeah, ruin your shirt's design.
I'm kind of doubting the dryer is *that* hot.
Are you smelling other things, like burning nylon, or something?
posted by alex_skazat at 2:55 AM on November 1, 2011
When you print shirts with plastisol ink, you need to cure the ink with heat - around 320 degrees F (varies with type/brand of ink). They say that once you cure the ink it stays solid, but believe me, if you can get it hot enough, it'll melt again. This will release fumes and the fumes are fumy. You can do the same thing, running an iron over a screenprinted design on a shirt, so don't do that! :) White ink is very thick and if the printer did a lousy job with the shirt, the ink won't be cured all the way as well. A way to make a design look more vibrant is to first print white underneath the design. The more layers of ink you have, the better chance that there's some uncured ink somewhere in the shirt. Less of a problem if the shirt is printed by someone with a major setup, more of a problem if it's some artist in his garage with limited equipment.
Usually if a shirt gets *that* hot, you're also burning off the starch that's in the shirt and well, that smells like starchy burning starch. If it gets really really hot, you'll set the actual fabric on fire. Regardless, that will loosen the bond of the plastisol ink to your substrate (your shirt) and you'll - yeah, ruin your shirt's design.
I'm kind of doubting the dryer is *that* hot.
Are you smelling other things, like burning nylon, or something?
posted by alex_skazat at 2:55 AM on November 1, 2011
It should only give off fumes while hot. At room temperature everything should be fine.
posted by twblalock at 3:28 AM on November 1, 2011
posted by twblalock at 3:28 AM on November 1, 2011
Response by poster: The designs on the screenprinted shirts did actually melt and some of the ink rubbed off on other fabric. Also, everything still stinks. You can smell it just being in the same room.
posted by Dilemma at 7:53 AM on November 1, 2011
posted by Dilemma at 7:53 AM on November 1, 2011
I doubt it's toxic to a level of concern (i.e. greater than the toxicity of everyday life in These Modern Times). But I would re-wash everything to get the screenprinting smell off, so you don't have to walk around smelling like scorched plastic.
posted by ErikaB at 9:58 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ErikaB at 9:58 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:05 AM on November 1, 2011