Did you know that many of the products you use every day contain optical brighteners?
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
Optical brightening agents are chemicals that manufacturers add to products like paper, plastics, and textiles to make them appear whiter and brighter, and to lessen the natural yellowing process that happens over time. They also add these chemicals to cleaning agents to enhance the appearance of materials – primarily textiles – after cleaning.
Often unacknowledged by the typical consumer, OBAs trick our eyes into seeing a brighter white. To understand how they work, read on. We’ll dig into light-object relationships, the primary reason behind this brighter than white phenomenon.
When you say you’re traveling at the speed of light….
You’re traveling at 299,792,458 meters (approximately 3.00×108 m/s) per second. As oscillating energy, light has a spectrum of frequencies, too. Like TV or radio signals, light oscillates, and can have many different frequencies. It is the frequency of light that creates a sensation of color.
This is the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared energy, microwaves, and radio waves all work at lower frequencies and fall to the left of the visible spectrum. To the right, at higher frequencies, are ultraviolet energy, x-rays, and gamma rays.
The visible spectrum, shown below, is the light that we can see with the naked eye. Since it’s the only part of the spectrum we can visualize, many of us consider it all-encompassing, but it’s really just a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
And you thought your pillowcase was blue…
Wrong! Objects themselves don’t have color… they have dyes, colorants, or pigments that absorb some wavelengths of light and reflect others. The color you perceive is the color of the light that is reflected off of the object.
Take this car, for instance. It’s bright red in the sunlight, but its color seemingly changes to a deep burgundy in the nighttime.
See how the color of the car changes depending on the type of light that is shining on it? The “cleanest” red is at noon.
Close your eyes, and picture a clear, blue day. Although you’re likely picturing a picnic in a park or at the beach, this reflectance curve, below, provides another way to describe what a clear, blue day looks like. Displayed through frequencies, we can see that there is an abundance of energy across the entire visible spectrum, and a clear bias towards the blue.
A clean as white as snow
It’s the goal of cleaning products everywhere. Manufacturers achieve this bright – almost blue – white by adding optical brighteners that are transferred to fabrics during washing.
So how does this difference in white look as a reflectance curve?
As we discussed, colors have different wavelengths. This graph shows the reflectance curves of black, blue, green, gray, red, and white.
A few things stand out.
The black reflectance curve is flat near the bottom with a low reflectance percentage. While the white curve is also flat, it sits at the very top with a high reflectance. Why is this?
Think of a dark room. If there’s no light shining, everything appears to be black. If there is a lot of light, the objects are bright, white, and sometimes even hard to see because there is so much reflectance.
Gray is hanging out in the middle with pretty equal amounts of each color, neither bright nor dark.
Blue, green, and red are peaked in their respective colors, perfect demonstrations of how reflectance curves align with the visual spectrum. High red peak = high concentration of red light.
Watch what happens to the white curve when we add optical brightening agents….
See how the peak rises in the blue area?
OBAs absorb light from the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can’t see, and re-emit that light in the blue region where we can see it. Our eyes will perceive this white to be brighter than the white that doesn’t contain optical brighteners.
Taking the good with the bad
Although OBAs help manufacturers sell more products, they make it very difficult to control color because the optical brightening content can only be seen under light sources that contain UV. Before assembling products with pieces from different suppliers, manufacturers need to evaluate the amount of optical brighteners in each to ensure consistency after final consistency and under all of the lighting conditions the product will be exposed to out in the world.
Take these shirts for example…
A manufacturer sewed them using fabric from different suppliers. Although they appear to be the same color white in daylight, as soon as the ultraviolet light is flipped on you can see they are quite different. This is a phenomenon called “metamerism” – when two things appear to match under one light source, but no longer match when you change the lighting.
Have you ever wondered how laundry detergent companies can claim their product creates “brighter colors and whiter whites”? What makes that happen anyway?
They’re referring to specific ingredients known as optical brighteners or chemical fluorescent whitening agents designed to absorb UV light to create the illusion of whiter, brighter clothes.
Optical brighteners may enhance the appearance of clothing, but they come with a hefty price in terms of potential health and environmental risks.
In this article, you’ll learn all about optical brighteners, including how they work, toxicity issues, how to find laundry detergents without optical brighteners, and safer alternatives for a healthier laundry room.
Prior to the introduction of optical brighteners in the s, laundry detergent manufacturers would add blue dye to their products to help mitigate the natural yellowing and dulling of clothing.
This worked fairly well to whiten clothes but did not impart a brightening effect.
For more information, please visit Ogilvy.
The discovery of optical brighteners solved this problem, and they are now used in many conventional laundry detergents.
They’re also used in textiles, hair care, cosmetics, and paper.
As previously mentioned, optical brighteners work by absorbing UV light and emitting a visible bluish-violet light. This effect enhances the whiteness or brightness appearance of white or lightly colored fabrics.
Optical brighteners used in laundry detergents are designed to permeate fabrics and build up over time, which enhances clothing’s brightness and whiteness. They are also used in clothing manufacturing to improve the appearance of clothing and textiles, extend clothing life, and enhance color.
As discussed previously, many synthetic chemical laundry detergents contain one or more optical brighteners.
Since their discovery, hundreds of types of optical brighteners have been created, many of which have been removed from the market due to safety or toxicity issues.
The remaining types of optical brighteners are considered safer and less eco-toxic, but concerns remain about their short-term, long-term, and cumulative effects .
As usual, spotting optical brighteners on labels isn’t straightforward as they’re not labeled “optical brightener.” In addition, laundry detergent companies are not required to list all the ingredients in their products. However, now most brands allow you to view their complete ingredient lists online.
Disodium distyrylbiphenyl disulfonate is the most common and has received a “D” from the Environmental Working group due to toxicity issues, which we’ll discuss next.
Toxicity issues with optical brighteners, which are persistent on fabrics and in water systems, soil, etc., can negatively impact people and the environment.
The optical brighteners in use today are considered more environmentally friendly than those from the past.
However, studies suggest these are persistent environmental chemicals, meaning they biodegrade slowly, which creates more significant exposure to animals and aquatic life.
Optical brighteners used in laundry detergents, such as Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate, are considered acutely toxic to aquatic life, but more research is needed to understand how they affect these animals and ecosystems long-term.
As you’ve just learned, optical brighteners are designed to permeate fabrics and accumulate over time, which enhances their brightening effects.
Unfortunately, this means the more you wash your clothing, sheets, towels, etc., the more optical brighteners you’re exposed to.
Plus, since optical brighteners biodegrade very slowly and may not be filtered out by water treatment plants, many people likely ingest them through tap water.
This is problematic because studies suggest a possible link between optical brighteners used in laundry detergents and reproductive toxicity, skin and eye irritation, and developmental toxicity.
Optical brighteners may do a great job brightening colors, but there are plenty of less toxic options to achieve the same results.
When looking for laundry detergents without optical brighteners, always choose the most natural and least toxic options available.
That means avoiding laundry detergents with harmful ingredients , which may include optical brighteners (along with dozens of other potentially harmful ingredients). We discuss this at length in: How To Toss Your Toxic Laundry Detergent.
Branch Basics, for example, is Made Safe certified, biodegradable, ultra-gentle, fragrance-free, optical-brightener-free Concentrate you can use to make your own safe and natural laundry soap.
Paired with our best-selling Oxygen Boost, which naturally brightens and whitens clothes using the power of natural baking soda and sodium percarbonate, it’s a human—and environmentally safe—match made in laundry heaven!
Get more tips on choosing a healthier laundry detergent in: 5 Best Laundry Detergent Alternatives Without Chemicals.
Most of us have been taught we need harsh synthetic laundry detergents to get our clothing clean, fresh, bright, white, and stain-free.
Yet, this couldn’t be further from the truth!
In reality, nature, in the form of natural soaps, surfactants, minerals, salts, and enzymes, provides everything we need to clean our clothes, remove stains, and whiten and brighten whites without polluting our bodies or the environment.
If you’re interested in tossing the optical brighteners and other toxins in your laundry room (and entire home), check out Branch Basics Laundry Detergent.
Our Laundry Detergent. is incredibly convenient and simple to use, requiring just one scoop per load with no additional products needed and thoughtfully formulated with your health in mind. It does not contain fragrance, dyes, optical brighteners, ammonia, chlorine, endocrine disruptors or 1,4-dioxane. It excels in stain removal, odor elimination, and fabric preservation, streamlining your laundry routine.
Plus, it's good for the earth! This powder is biodegradable, septic-safe and prevents toxic runoff. Because it performs excellently in cold water, it saves energy and protects your fabrics.
We also have sustainably sourced Wool Dryer Balls to round out your healthy and eco-conscious laundry experience.
For more information, check out: Branch Basics Laundry Instructions.
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