Ecomental

By Paul Crossley

Cloth Diapers vs Disposable...a 'rashional' debate

There tend to be two distinct sides to the Cloth Diapers versus Disposable Diapers debate: either you’re ‘for’ cloth and against disposable or the opposite.  You may also have the reasons lined up in your mind with regard to precisely why you’re in one camp or the other.

Common reasons to be ‘pro’ cloth include such notions as, reducing landfill, the bacteria and viruses created from human excrement in landfills, trees and plastics used to create disposables and so on.  The ‘pro’ disposable segment will speak to pesticide use in growing cotton (though organic cloth diapers are now available), pollution through harvesting and transporting cotton (though producing and transporting disposables also causes pollution) and to human waste in the local water supply through laundering (though this water waste goes to the same place as the water waste in your toilet: the sewage system.

This article will look at the pros and cons of the ecological debate and introduce an additional element over and above the well-being of the Earth: our own health.

It was during the 1970’s and 80’s that disposable diapers became the standard method of diapering babies.  The ease of use, ease of disposal, and apparent elimination of many rashes on baby bottoms all served to make the throw-away diaper the pre-emminent diaper.

Let’s consider the following five areas when assessing our own preferences for cloth or disposable: Skin Care, Infection, Environment, Cost, Convenience.

Skin Care

Diaper rash. that unpleasant, painful chemical and enzyme action, along with the growth of microbes in the diaper that can cause the skin to be more susceptible to friction, abrasion and bacterial attack.  It would appear that your choice of diaper can significantly influence how often and how severe your baby’s diaper rash can become.  Absorbent Gel Material (AGM) disposables have generally been acknowledged as being superior when it comes to keeping things dry and preventing the mixing of urine and feces.  Cloth users claim that today it is possible to reduce diaper rash to almost same level by using cloth.  This is apparently accomplished through a combination of good diapering practices and using more advanced cloth diapers.  Advanced cloth diapers can now have double and triple layers and can have a multi-ply, fiber-filled strip which makes them more absorbent.  Modern cloth diapers can also feature Velcro closure strips which not only are easier to use than pins, but will help to fit the diaper snugly on the baby.

Though rashes can be controlled, as stated, with proper diapering practices it must be said that, according to the Journal of Pediatrics, 54% of one-month old babies using disposable diapers had rashes, 16% had severe rashes. A survey of Procter & Gamble’s own studies showed that the incidence of diaper rash increases from 7.1 percent to 61 percent with the increased use of throwaway diapers, good news for manufacturers of diaper rash medicines. Widespread diaper rash is a fairly new phenomenon that surfaced along with disposable diapers. Reasons for more rashes include allergies to chemicals, lack of air, higher temperatures because plastic retains body heat, and babies are probably changed less often because they feel dry when wet.

Infection

Understandably, anyone required to change diapers can be concerned with the disease-spreading potential of any diaper change.  these people include parents, daycare workers, and health-care workers.  This is no more true than when outside the home, in small spaces where the potential for spreading disease is greater.  Until recently it had been believed that AGM disposable diapers were better at containing urine and feces.  Recently however, it has been found that cloth diapering can provide the same degree of containment particularly when accompanied by adequate diaper-changing practices and clean-up, which includes hand washing and surface changing wipe-down.  Following adequate hygienic practices when changing diapers is as important as the diaper type, when it comes to controlling infectious organisms.

That being said, it should be noted that it has previously been reported that some dyes that had been found in some disposables were later known to damage the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) received reports that fragrances caused headaches, dizziness, and rashes. Problems reported to the Consumer Protection Agency included chemical burns, noxious chemical and insecticide odors, reports of babies pulling disposables apart and putting pieces of plastic into their noses and mouth, choking on tab papers and linings, plastic melting onto the skin, and ink staining the skin. Plastic tabs can also tear skin.

In 1987, the Sunday Democrat and Chronicle published news about the new Pampers Ultra. The new gel they used caused severe skin irritations, oozing blood from perineum and scrotal tissues, fever, vomiting, and staph infections in babies. Employees in Pampers factories suffered from tiredness, female organ problems, slow-healing wounds and weight loss.

Environment

It is estimated that disposable diapers account for about 2% of all landfill space, amounting to 2.8 billion tons (yes, that’s about 5,600,000,000,000 pounds (5.6trillion lbs)) of feces, urine plastic and paper added to landfills each year.  An issue which can also be considered to be part of the “Infection” heading is ground water contamination: the potential for disease spreading via ground water is a distinct possibility.

It is generally accepted that cloth diapers do require more water and cause more waterborne waste due to laundering and that laundering at home uses more energy that commercial laundering.  Commercial laundering may use chemical additives though, such as bleach, to clean cloth diapers.

A study done by Franklin Associates Ltd, makes it unclear whether the cloth alternative is any better than the disposable. Their study suggests that there are equally harmful effects on air and water from the energy and chemicals required to launder the cloth diapers. The study concluded that cloth diapers used twice as much energy and four times as much water as disposables, and created greater air and water pollution than disposables.

Disposable diapers consume more raw materials to produce than cloth and are the third largest source of solid waste.  Though many diapers are biodegradable today, many will require oxygen in order to biodegrade.  Unfortunately placing soiled disposable diapers in plastic bags and throwing these away will eliminate any possibility of them biodegrading.  even if not wrapped in plastic bags, the general lack of oxygen available in landfills will mean that disposable diapers can take a very long time to degrade.

Cost & Convenience

The two areas can be grouped together since so often convenience is a by-product of cost.

AGM-type diapers often require fewer changes and take less time to change than a cloth diaper.  Disposable diapers are convenient for travelling and daycare.  Cloth diapers take less time to buy than disposable, so are more convenient in that respect.  But they do require more time for washing - versus simply throwing away the disposable diapers.  The total cost of disposables is marginally higher than for cloth it is believed, given that in about 30 months, a child will have used an average total of 5,000 diapers!

So, what is the appropriate ecomentality when it comes to deciding on the use of Cloth or Disposable Diapers?  Your baby’s health, your health, cost, convenience and the environment can all factor into your own decision.  The decision is your own, though Ecomental would love to hear what your stance is on this highly debatable subject - please leave a comment and/or answer our poll.

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