Shop towels are handled in accordance with EPA regulations. Each wash removes enough soil to eliminate any risk to human health in their reuse. This contrasts with paper industrial wipers that contain hazardous wastes, which are often thrown away without regard to disposal laws, imperiling landfills and solid waste handlers.
Analysis provides conclusive evidence that laundered shop towels are the safe choice for industrial wiping. A health risk assessment of laundered reusable shop towels by the international environmental engineering firm ARCADIS indicates that using laundered reusable shop towels creates no health hazard. Findings indicate that metals that remain on shop towels after laundering are not readily transferred to the hands of workers who use shop towels.
This independent research found either zero detectable risk from the transfer of these metals or a level that would be considered insignificant even by comparison to health-conservative values established by EPA.
