The word of Editor-in-chief

Uvodne riječi nove glavne urednice i uredništva časopisa Tekstil.The introduction word of new Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board of journal Tekstil

Bio-innovation in Cotton Fabric Scouring - Acid and Neutral Pectinases

Using biotechnology during textile processing has been known for years due to its environmental benefits and special performance of enzymes in comparison with the conventional processing of textiles. This paper deals with the bioscouring of cotton fabric with acid and neutral pectinases in comparison with alkali scouring. Variations in technological procedures, as expressed through pad-roll and exhaustion, were also identified for the bioscouring of cotton fabrics. The varied impacts of alkali, acid, and neutral pectinases on the properties of cotton fabrics throughout the processing technology were evaluated for electrokinetic phenomena, hydrophilicity, mechanical and chemical degradation, inorganic residues, and whiteness

SKIN CANCER AND UV PROTECTION

The incidence of skin cancer is increasing by epidemic proportions. Basal cell cancer remains the most common skin neoplasm, and simple excision is generally curative. On the other hand, aggressive local growth and metastasis are common features of malignant melanoma, which accounts for 75% of all deaths associated with skin cancer. The primary cause of skin cancer is long exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UV-R) crossed with the amount of skin pigmentation and family genetics. It is believed that in childhood and adolescence, 80% of UV-R gets absorbed while in the remaining, 20 % gets absorbed later in the lifetime. This suggests that proper and early photoprotection may reduce the risk of subsequent occurrence of skin cancer. Reducing the exposure time to sunlight, using sunscreens and protective textiles are the three ways of UV protection. Most people think that all the clothing will protect them, but it does not provide full sun screening properties. Literature sources claim that only 1/3 of the spring and summer collections tested give off proper UV protection. This is very important during the summer months, when UV index is the highest. Fabric UV protection ability highly depends on large number of factors such as type of fiber, fabric surface, construction, porosity, density, moisture content, type and concentration of dyestuff, fluorescent whitening agents, UV-B protective agents (UV absorbers), as well as nanoparticles, if applied. For all of these reasons, in the present paper, the results of UV protecting ability according to AS/NZS 4399:1996 will be discussed to show that standard clothing materials are not always adequate to prevent effect of UV-R to the human skin; and to suggest the possibilities for its improvement for this purpose enhancing light conversion and scattering. Additionally, the discrepancy in UV protection was investigated in distilled water as well as Adriatic Sea water

THE FABRIC HAND OF ANTIMICROBIAL PROTECTED COTTON FABRICS USING ANTIBIOTICS AND ANTISEPTICS

Healthy and active lifestyle has led in recent years to the rapid development of antimicrobial treatment. Such antimicrobial materials provide lasting freshness and a sense of security and well-being of consumers. At first glance it seems easy to achieve antimicrobial properties, but the persistence of such treatment is a bigger problem. Application of natural zeolite nanoparticles for antimicrobial protection has shown increased activity and synergism with some antimicrobial agents, e.g. azalide. On the other hand, azalides are not acceptable from dermatological or ethics view, because of resistance development. This paper deals with the selection of optimal antimicrobial treatment which will provide protection against Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram negative (Klebsiella pneumoniae) bacteria, as well as fungi (Candida albicans). For this purpose, 100 % raw and bleached cotton knitted fabric was treated by exhaustion with natural zeolite nanoparticles and different antimicrobial agents cationic surfactant, azalide and antiseptic. It is well known that the cationic surfactants significantly improve fabric hand, but the high concentrations of activated zeolite getting it worse. Therefore, the influence of these treatments on fabric hand (subjective and objective evaluated) was investigated

UV PROTECTION WITH ZEOLITE TREATED COTTON KNITTED FABRIC - THE INFLUENCE OF YARN LINEAR DENSITY

UV radiation (UV-R) can be divided into UV-A, UV-B and UV-C radiation. UV-C radiation get absorbed by atmosphere, but diminishing of the ozone layer results with the reaching of UV-B and UV-A rays on the Earths surface. Even though the UV-A rays are necessary for vitamin D synthesis, longer exposure to UV-A and UV-B rays can cause acute and chronic reactions and damages such as erythema (sunburn), sun tanning, photocarcinogenesis and photoaging, as well as known skin aging and recently the formation of skin malignant neoplasm. Garment provides some UV protection, but in most cases there are not enough its sun screening properties. This protection, among other large number of factors, highly depends on fabric surface and construction, especially for longer pending in the sun. Therefore, in last few years different protective finishes and material modification were developed. This paper deals with the influence of yarn linear density of cotton knitted fabric on its ultraviolet skin protection expressed as ultraviolet protection factor (UPF). The effects of yarn linear density on UPF using knitted fabrics from the same cotton fibers were discussed. Raw, pretreated and zeolite treated cotton fabrics were used. UV-A and UV-B transmissions were measured on transmission spectrophotometer Cary 50 Solarscreen (Varian) according to AATCC Test Method 183-2000. On the base of these values Ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) was calculated