ABSTRACT

Contamination from non-cotton fibers can interfere with spinning, weaving and knitting and cause defects in cotton textile fabrics. Speculation that the bale package is a source of contamination led to risk evaluation of woven polyolefin fabrics on cotton bales. Woven polyolefin fabrics (primarily polypropylene) have been used in the construction of bale bagging for US cotton bales for more than 30 years and have been applied to an estimated 250 million bales. The objective of this report is to summarize exposure analysis and dose-response spinning studies and put results of those studies in context of industry experience. The report concludes the risk of contamination from woven polyolefin bale bagging manufactured and used in accordance with industry specifications is virtually zero.