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Indian Textile Industry and Its Impact on the Environment and

Health: A Review

Article in International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector · August 2016
DOI: 10.4018/IJISSS.2016100103

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 International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector
Volume 8 • Issue 4 • October-December 2016

Indian Textile Industry and Its Impact

on the Environment and Health:
A Review
Hasanuzzaman, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India
Chandan Bhar, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India

ABSTRACT

Continuous development and automation has improved the production of Indian textile industry. As a
result, more and more raw materials demands have adversely affect the environment. In this study the
effects of Indian textile industry on environment and human health are reviewed and concluded that
textile mechanical process mainly affects the environment of the workplace by the way of producing
heavy noise and cotton dust. While fiber formation and chemical processing has vast negative impact
on outside world that pollutes land, water, air and emits hazardous byproduct which indirectly promotes
acid rain and global warming.

Keywords
Chemical Processing of Textiles, Environmental Pollution, Fabric Formation, Fiber Production, Sustainability,
Yarn Formation

INTRODUCTION

The textile industry, as a part of manufacturing sector has been one of the important sectors to
contribute towards country’s economy. It contributes 14% to the industrial production, 3% to the
gross domestic production, 8% to the total excise revenue collection, 17% to the country’s export
earnings and most importantly it provides direct employment to over 35 million people in India (The
Manufacturing Plan, 2015; Textile and Jute Industry, 2015). Today textile industry has been globalized
and to sustain in the global market overall growth of the Indian textile sector becomes factor of utmost
importance. However, the growth should not be in the expense of environmental degradation. The
environmental sustainability will need to be factored into India’s textile manufacturing growth plans.
The growth of textile sectors is enabled and facilitated by increasing use of material leading to
manifold impacts on the environment (The Manufacturing Plan, 2015). The environmental degradation
by way of pollution of land, air, and water occurs during the procurement and use of natural resources,
industrial processes and activities, and the product use and disposal. So, the objective of this study
is to investigate the impact of Indian textile industry on the environment and human health. In the
present study, an extensive review of literature has been carried out to find out the environment and
health impact of Indian textile industry.

IMPACT OF FIBER FORMATION

In textile industry, fibers used are mainly of two types i.e. natural and manmade. Natural fibers are
cultivated naturally and manmade fiber, marketed as synthetic fiber, are regenerated from natural
resources or produced from chemicals.

DOI: 10.4018/IJISSS.2016100103

Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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Natural Fiber Production

The cotton fiber which has the largest share in Indian textile industry is considered to be renewable,
biodegradable and environment friendly and has significant advantage throughout its life cycle
(About Cotton Sustainability, 2015; Myers & Stolton, 1999). But the cultivation of natural fibre
stresses heavy consumption of fertilizer, pesticide and fungicide. The study has revealed that cotton
cultivation consumes only 3% of world’s farmland but uses about 25% of the total world’s pesticide
(Yates, 1994; Lee, 2014; Ballikar, 2013; bex, 2012; Textiles, Leathers and the Environment, 2015;
Cotton and the Environment, 2015; Kumar, 2015). Further, to prevent stain on cotton fiber, several
deadly chemicals like defoliants have been used to the cotton plant before harvesting to remove the
leaves from the plant (Saunders & Grayson, 1984). Previous study found that roughly 65% of the
chemicals were insecticides, 20% were herbicides and 14% were defoliants and growth regulators,
while fungicides and others comprise only 1% of the total toxic chemical (Kumar, 2015). Same study
concludes that amount of cotton fiber required for making a T-shirt and a pair of jeans consumes over
0.5 kg of toxic chemical. The water required for irrigation during cotton cultivation exceeds profusely
for same amount of synthetic fiber production (Bex, 2012). This presents that cotton cultivation
destroys natural resources by intoxicating water and exhorting toxic chemicals in the environments
that unconditionally deduce cotton firming as the dirtiest and environment unfriendly cropping in the
world (Yates, 1994; Lee, 2014; Ballikar, 2013; bex, 2012; Textiles, Leathers and the Environment,
2015; Cotton and the Environment, 2015; Kumar, 2015).

Environmental and Health Effect

Application of fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals in the cotton fiber cultivation leads
to emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) higher than polyester fiber production
(Rana, Pichandi, Parveen & Fangueiro, 2014). It is well known that carbon dioxide is the primary
greenhouse gas and responsible for global warming whereas sulfur dioxide is the major precursor of
acid rain which acidifies soil, water and air. Again oil extracted from cotton seeds often used in daily
house-hold cooking contain chemicals that is some far from benign (Imhoff, 1999) and poisons over
25 million people every year, creating severe health problems (Kumar, 2015; Myers & Stolton, 1999).

Remedies
Recently efforts have been made to find substitutes for conventional cotton cultivation for avoiding
the use of precarious chemicals. Nonconventional cotton, marketed as naturally colored cotton, green
cotton and organic cotton, which is grown without use of heavy water, fertilizers, pesticides and other
chemicals, may be the substitute for conventional cotton. Further processing of these fibers would
demand less or no chemicals for dyeing and finishing (Robbins, 1994; Page, 1999; Kadolph, 2007).
Transgenic cotton (modern technology generated cotton), which is less prone to any insect and fungal
attack, may be another option for environment friendly production of cotton (Myers & Stolton, 1999).

Synthetic Fiber Production

Nylon and polyester, mostly used textile fiber after cotton in India, synthesized from polyester
byproduct (Lewin & Pearce, 1998). There is a common perception that they are hazardous to the
earth as well as the human life although none of them contains any unsafe compound however, their
production leads to release nitrous oxide including acidic gases such as hydrogen chloride (Hannah,
2011; Sabita & Tripathi, 2014; Textile World News, 1991; Science News, 1991). In a study, conducted
by Science News (1991), it was proved that annual increment of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere was
0.2% and one tenth of 0.2% comes from mass production of nylon and polyesters. This amount was
very large because the atmospheric lifetime of nitrous oxide is 150 years.

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Environmental and Health Effect

The byproduct nitrous oxide, generated during synthetic fiber production, is the powerful greenhouse
gas and has 300 times more potentiality than carbon dioxide for the destruction of stratospheric ozone
layer (Hannah, 2011; St. Rosemary, 2015; Textile World News, 1991; Science News, 1991). On the
other hand, fume or dust generated during thermal processing of nylon or polyester causes many
health problems like irritation of mucous membranes in the nose and throat, mechanical irritation
of the eye, irritation of the skin, and if one inhales he may experience gastrointestinal discomfort
(Malloy and Grubb, 2008). Carrier used during polyester dyeing may cause allergic contact dermatitis
(Hatch, 1984, Lewin & Pearce, 1998).

Remedies
If the nitrous oxide byproduct is stored and used, it may reduce the huge environmental burden.
Recycling of synthetic fibers is another way to reduce the emission of nitrous oxide that also helps
in reduction of global warming (Kadolph, 2007).

IMPACT OF YARN FORMATION

Ginning Industry
Ginning, interface between firming and industry, is the primary process step for the cotton fiber
processing which is engaged in separation of fibers from the cotton balls. The process needs high
speed machines that generate high noise and cotton dust in the workroom (Safety and Health of
Laborers in Cotton Ginning Industries in Gujarat, 2015) and principal noise source is high speed
doffing brush that generates noise with frequency of 500-1000 cycles/sec which is very high compared
to the standard noise frequency 31.5 - 250 cycles/sec (Laird and Baker, 1982; Anthony & Mayfield,
1995). Different bodies have defined the permissible noise limit for 8 hours or more working in
engineering and administrative department, which is given in Table 1 and Table 2. It was found in
a study on Maharashtra based ginning industry that workers were exposed to 89 to 106 dBA noise
on daily basis for 8 hours or more (Dube, Ingale & Ingale, 2011; Khatik, Shinde & Thakare, 2013).
Another study found that noise in gin press house lies in between 79.3 to 93.5 dBA and in ginning
house it was 96.0 dBA (Anthony & McCaskill, 1978). Similar kind of result was also found in study
conducted by Talukdar (2001) on Indian ginning industry as presented in Table 3.
Fiber fragmentation occurs in the ginning machine due to the high speed beating of fiber by
the ginning roller and results in generation of micro and fine dust in the ginning room. This dust is
the mixture of technical dust (i.e. bits of fiber and fragments from fiber surfaces) and organic and
inorganic natural dust. A study reveals that 40% of micro and fine dust is free between fibers and
flocks, 20-30% is loosely bound and the remaining 20-30% is firmly bound to the fibers (Kane, 2001).
During processing the dust mixture is set free. These free dusts contribute to increase the density of
dust in workroom. The cotton dust density in the ginning room remains in the range of 2000 to 6000
µg/m3, which is very high compared to the permissible limit, defined by Occupational Safety and
Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. The permissible limit, suggested by Occupational Safety and Health
Act (OSHA) is given in Table 4. Due to exposure to the environment for 8-12 hours on daily basis,
workers are suffering from several respiratory diseases (Dube et.al. 2011).

Environmental and Health Effect

The ginning workers exposed to high noise for 8-12 hours on daily basis that results noise induced
hearing loss of the workers (NIHL) (Dube et.al. 2011; Bedi, 2006). It was found in different studies
that workers exposed to noise exceeding 85 dBA suffers from NIHL (Sataloff & Sataloff, 2006; Patel
& Ingle, 2008; Arude, 2007). The high noise affects the overall efficiency, safety, and temporarily or
permanently hearing ability of the worker (Anthony and Baker, 1994).

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Table 1. Permissible noise exposure limit for industrial workers

Exposure Time (in hours) Limit in <dB(A)

8 90
4 93
2 96
1 99
½ 102
1/8 108
1/16 111
1/32 (2 minutes) or less 114
Source: The noise pollution (Regulation and Control) rules, 2000

Table 2. Permissible noise exposure limit

Duration per day (hrs) OSHA 1910.95 (dBA)

8 90
6 92
4 95
3 97
2 100
1½ 102
1 105
½ 110
<1/4 115
Source: Jayawardana, Perera & Wijesena, 2014

Due to exposure to the high cotton dust in the work room, ginning worker suffers from respiratory
impairment and occupational lungs disorder that includes byssinosis, chronic bronchitis and
occupational asthma (Dube, Ingale & Ingle, 2012; Woldeyohannes, Bergevin, Mgeni & Theriault,
1991; Jannet & Jeyanthi, 2006; Bünger, Schappler-Scheele, Hilgers & Hallier, 2007). A survey on
ginning workers point out that depending on the exposure, 51%–71% of cotton-ginning workers suffer
from the chest tightness, 55%–62% experience the chest pain, while 33%–42% of the workers report
the frequent cough (Dube et al., 2012). Moreover longer exposure causes the worker to suffer from
higher values of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, eosinophil’s, and white blood cells. (Dube et al., 2012).

Spinning Industry
Spinning, the process of yarn formation from raw fiber, also uses different types of machines. High
speed running of these machines results unavoidable noise and cotton dust in the workroom and it
was found that noise in spinning room remains in between 80 to 100 dBA. The noise generated in
different machine of spinning industry is given in Table 3, which consistently exceeds the permissible
limit for 2-8 hours working in engineering and administrative department as specified in Table 1
and Table 2 (Bedi 2006; Talukdar, 2001; Bhatt, Subrahmanyam & Swami, 1990). Study on Bombay
based spinning industry establishes that noise in spinning room remains around 96.5 dBA. (Kane,

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Table 3. Noise level in textile industry

Section Noise level, dBA

Ginning 88-92
Blowroom 80-83
Carding 84-89
Draw frames 84-88
Speed frames 82-86
Ring frame 86-90
Rotor 85-100
Winding 82-86
Warping 80-86
Sizing 73-86
Loom shed (No-auto) 94-99
Loom shed (Auto) 95-97
Shuttle loom 99-104
Source; Talukdar, 2001

Table 4. Standard exposure limit with actual level of cotton dust in textile industry

Defined body Exposure limit Actual level µg/m3

Processing stage Standard Limit µg/m3
OSHA PEL TWA Yarn Manufacturing 200 1900-2700
Weaving 750 1820-1960
Ginning and waste recycling 1000 2000-6000
Source: Occupational Safety and Health Guideline for Cotton Dust, 1988

2001). Further, different studies have confirmed that more than 30% of spinning workers are exposed
daily to the noise level exceeding 90 dBA (Yhdego, 1991; Picard, Girard, Simard, Larocque, Leroux
& Turcotte, 2008).
Cotton dust is an unavoidable problem produced during spinning operation like noise. Blow
room, carding and combing section of spinning mills. The actual density of cotton dirt and dust in
spinning room relied on 1900 to 2700 µg/m3 as mentioned in Table 4. It can be seen from Table 4
that cotton dust density in spinning room is 10 to 14 times higher compared to the permissible limit.

Environmental and Health Effect

Noise exceeding 90 dBA has deleterious effect on the health and psychological wellbeing of the
workers. It was found that workers exposed to noise beyond 90 dBA suffer from serious hearing
impairment (Chavalitsakulchai, Kawakami, Kongmuang, Vivatjestsadawut & Leongsrisook, 1989).
The degree of damage in hearing capacity depends on the duration of works i.e. workers working
more than 16 years may experience hearing loss even at low frequency where as there is very less or
no effect on the office worker. Office worker may experience hearing impairment after more than 10
years of working at high frequency found in a study at Boroujerd Textile Factory (Roozbahani, Nassiri
& Shalkouhi, 2009). High noise adversely affect job performance of worker along with suffering from

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agitation, constant weariness, disorientation, headaches, vertigo, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, and
the other nervous and psychic disorders (Giardino and Durkt, 1996; Van Kempen, Kruize, Boshuizen,
Ameling, Staatsen & de Hollander, 2002; Öhrström, Björkman & Rylander, 1979).
Conversely high density of cotton dust in the workroom causes the worker to suffer from
respiratory impairment and occupational lungs disorder that includes byssinosis, chronic bronchitis
and occupational asthma (Dube et al., 2012; Woldeyohannes et al., 1991; Jannet et al., 2006; Bünger
et al., 2007).

IMPACT OF WEAVING INDUSTRY

Weaving, process of fabric formation, is the noisiest industry amongst all textile industries. The
source of noise in weaving industry is due to the outdated machinery, poor design, and construction
and crowding in the workplace (Bedi, 2006). It was found that noise in weaving preparatory section
is low whereas it is very high in front of loom shed (Talukdar, 2001). Actual noise generated by
the weaving looms was in the range of 85 to 104 dBA, of which highest in case of shuttle loom and
lowest in case of air jet loom, which is specified in Table 3 (Talukdar, 2001). Study on northern India
based weaving industry establishes the fact that noise level remains in the range of 101.3-102.1 dBA
(Bedi 2006) which confirmed that noise in weaving room terrifically exceeds the permissible limit
as mentioned in Table 1 and Table 2, for 8 hours working. Similar kind of result were observed in
studies on weaving industries of different countries like Karachi it was 88.4 to 104 dBA (Ashraf,
Younus, Kumar, Siddiqui, Ali & Siddiqui, 2009), in Kenya based Rivatex Industry it was 99-101dBA
(Gitau, Mwikali, Batt & Njau, 1998), in Thailand based weaving industry it was 101.3 +/- 2.7dB
(Chavalitsakulchai et al., 1989) and in Tanzania it was 92dBA - 103.8dBA (Jayaraynum, 1991).
The weaving industry similarly suffers from the unavoidable cotton dust like ginning and spinning.
The density of cotton dust in the weaving industry remains in the range of 1820 to 1960 µg/m3 as
given in Table 4 which incredibly exceeds the permissible limit.

Environmental and Health Effect

It is an established fact that noise exceeding 80 dBA causes physiological damage of the workers. In
weaving industry worker works in a noisy environment of 85 to 104 dBA repeatedly, which push the
worker to suffer from permanent hearing loss in addition to the loss in efficiency (Talukdar, 2001).
Cotton dust in weaving industry similarly affects the workers like ginning and spinning.
Like ginning and spinning it is equally responsible for several health hazards of the workers for
instance nasopharyngel cancer (NPC), byssinosis, cough and bronchial asthma (Anonymous, 1995;
Anonymous, 2006, Anjum, Mann, & Anjum, 2009). Further, the low light condition in weaving room
makes the worker to suffer from eyesight problems (AIM, 1991).

Remedies for Ginning, Spinning, and Weaving

Irrespective of being in the age of automation Indian textile industry still uses old and out dated
machineries and equipment except limited number of spinning industries that causes several problems
in the workroom. Upgradation of the industries with the modern equipment and machineries may
help to reduce these problems in the ginning spinning and weaving departments.
In contrast, ineffective control of humidity in the workroom generates high cotton dust. So,
effective control of humidity might help to reduce the density of cotton dust in the workroom.
The worker must also be aware of the health impact pertaining to cotton dust and should encourage
them to use safety devices while at work room.

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IMPACT OF CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF TEXTILES

Chemical processing of textiles include dyeing, printing and finishing process. As the name indicates
a number of toxic chemicals are used to make these processes efficient which includes dye, acid,
alkali, detergents (such as salt, acid, alkali, bleaching, and finishing agents) and softeners etc. The list
of general chemicals used in the chemical processing of textiles is given in Table 6. The unutilized
chemicals with huge water discharged as effluent is the main source of hazards created from the
process. An estimation of water consumption and corresponding effluent generation is given in
Table 5. The chemicals in effluent includes unutilized dyes, acid, soap, detergent, enzyme, dye fixing
agent, chlorinated stain removers, chromium compound, heavy metals and some auxiliary chemicals,
that make it toxic (Kant, 2011). It was found that about 20% of effluent holds unfixed dyes and
auxiliaries (Kalliala & Talvenmaa, 2000; Hasanbeigi, 2013; Babu, Parande & Raghu, 2007). The
estimated percentage of unfixed dyes in effluent is given in Table 7. The major pollution indicating
parameters in effluent are chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD),
total dissolved solids (TDS), suspended solids (SS), pH, color, presence of heavy metal etc. (Ntuli,
Omoregbe, Kuipa, Muzenda & Belaid, 2009; Patel, Rajor, Jain & Patel, 2013; Imtiazuddin, Mumtaz
& Mallick, 2012; EPA, 1974; Das et al, 2000) and the nature of effluent released from textile plant
is presented in Table 8. Impurities such as oils, fats, waxes, seed particles, spinning oils, amines
generated from reduction of dyes, natural starch etc. contribute in proliferating pollution indicating
parameters in effluent and make it detrimental to the environment (Das, 2000; Babu et al, 2007;
Malik, 2002; Wynne, Maharaj & Buckley, 2001; AEPA, 1998). The physic-chemical characteristic
of effluent provided by Environmental Technology Best Practice Program UK (ETBPP, 1997) is
given in Table 9. It was found that textile chemical processing industry at Pali, Rajasthan discharged
effluent to River Bandi that causes environmental pollution surrounding the river (Rathore, 2012).
In the same way Finland based chemical processing industries released effluent to municipal sewage
treatment plants and increase pollution indicating parameter like BOD and COD due to presence of
natural starches in the effluent (Kalliala & Talvenmaa, 2000).
Moreover, chemical processing of textiles is highly responsible for surrounding air pollution
due to evaporation of effluent. Evaporation rate depends on the surrounding temperature and it was
verified that high temperature around Bandi River of Rajasthan could increase the potential of the
discharged effluents from the textile mills to pollute air in the environment (Jauregui & Luyando,
1999; Rathore, 2012). Similar results found around Kaduna River of Nigeria that during long dry
season the evaporation from discharged effluent terrifically causes surrounding air pollution (Kaduna,
2004). Again high temperature causes air pollution promoting emission from effluent like ammonia,
sulfides and induces volatilities of oil and grease by adding organic compound in the air (EPA, 2001).
Instead, use of fossil fuel in boiler leads to carbon di-oxide and sulfur di oxide emission (Kalliala
& Talvenmaa, 2000), application of stain remover on fabric causes carbon tetra chloride emission
and use of sodium hypochlorite (bleaching agent) leads to chlorine gas emission in air (Das, 2000).

Environmental and Health Effect

The toxic effluent, if released to the environment, might cause the destruction of earth’s natural beauty
by polluting land, water and air (ETBPP, 1997). This also causes heavy disease burden to human and
shorten their life expectancy (Yusuff & Sonibare, 2004). Moreover, it makes the water detrimental for
biotic and aquatic life by increasing the BOD and COD (Patel et al., 2013; Imtiazuddin et al., 2012).
On the other hand, emissions of carbon tetra chloride, carbon dioxide destroy the stratospheric ozone
layer and stimulate global warming (Das, 2000).

Remedies
The toxic effluent must be neutralized before releasing to the environment. The neutralization can
be carried out through physical, chemical and biological treatments. The best method to be one that
is involving several steps like bio-sorption using locally available agricultural waste followed by

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Table 5. Water Consumption and Effluent Generation in Different Wet Processing Stages in Textile Industries (L/100kg)

Activities Water consumption Effluent

Variation Average Variation
Sizing/slashing 50-820 435 50-80
Desizing 250-2100 1175 250-2100
Bleaching
e. Yarn (hypochlorite) 2400-4800 3600 2250-4600
f. Yarn (H2O2) 2400-3200 2800 2250-3050
g. Cloth (hypochlorite) 4000-4800 4400 3800-4600
h. Cloth (H2O2) 1700-3200 2450 1700-3200
Mercerizing 3600-17000 10600 3500-17500
Dyeing
g. Yarn (light & medium shade) 3600-4800 4200 3500-4700
h. Yarn (dark shade) 4800-6400 5600 4700-6300
i. Yarn (very dark shade) 6600-8800 7700 6500-8700
j. Cloth (light and medium shade) 7800-9600 8700 7700-9500
k. Cloth (dark shade) 10400-12800 11600 10300-12700
l. Cloth (very dark shade) 14300-17600 15950 14200-17500
Source: Garrett, Shorofsky & Radcliffe; Das, 2000

Table 6. Different chemicals used in textile chemicals processing

Type Example
Acid Acetic acid, Formic acid
Alkali Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Carbonate
Bleach Hydrogen Peroxide, Sodium Hypochlorite, Sodium Chlorite
Dyes Reactive, Direct, Disperse, Pigment, Vat
Salt Sodium Chlorite
Size Starch, PVA
Stabilizer Sodium Silicate, Sodium Nitrate, Organic Stabilizers
Surfactant Detergents
Auxiliary finishes Fire Retardant, Softener

biological treatment with microorganisms like fungi and bacteria (Padhi, 2012). Further, tricking bed
reactor is the method that reduces the BOD level from 600 to 100 mg/l (Palamthodi, Patil & Patil,
2013). The emission of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide can be controlled using natural gas in boiler
(Kalliala & Talvenmaa, 2000) and sodium hypochlorite may ban to control chlorine gas emission.

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Table 7. Percentage of unfixed dyes

Fiber type Dye type Unfixed dyes

Wool and nylon Acid dyes, reactive dyes for wool 7-20%
Premetalised dyes 2-7
After chromes 1-2
Cotton and viscose Azoic dyes 5-10
Reactive dyes 20-50
Direct dyes 5-20
Pigment 1
Vat dyes 5-20
Sulphur dyes 30-40
Polyester Disperse 8-20
Acrylic Modified basic 2-3
Polypropylene Spun dyed N/A
Source: ETBPP, 1997

Table 8. Effluent characteristics of textile plant

Process Effluent composition Nature

Sizing Starch, waxes, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), polyvinyl High in BOD, COD
alcohol (PVA), wetting agents.
Desizing Starch, CMC, PVA, fats, waxes, pectins High in BOD, COD, SS, dissolved
solids (DS)
Bleaching Sodium hypochlorite, Cl2, NaOH, H2O2, acids, surfactants, High alkalinity, high SS
NaSiO3, sodium phosphate, short cotton fibre.
Mercerizing Sodium hydroxide, cotton wax High pH, low BOD, high DS
Dyeing Dyestuffs urea, reducing agents, oxidizing agents, acetic acid, Strongly coloured, high BOD, DS,
detergents, wetting agents. low SS, heavy metals
Printing Pastes, urea, starches, gums, oils, binders, acids, thickeners, Highly coloured, high BOD, oily
cross-linkers, reducing agents, alkali. appearance, SS slightly alkaline,
low BOD
Source: Yusuff & Sonibare, 2004; Patel et al., 2013

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

Regardless of being in the age of automation, Indian textile industries still practices old and outdated
technologies, machineries and equipment. To make the textile industries competitive with current
automated era, Government of India approved several schemes like National Textile Policy (NTP)
2000 to enable the textile industry to attain and sustain a pre-eminent global standing in manufacture
and export of clothing, Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme to facilitate the installation of state-of-
the-art or near state-of-the-art machinery at competitive capital cost, Technology Mission on Cotton
2000 helps to increase cotton production and to reduce contamination levels, Scheme for Integrated
Processing Development (IPD) has been introduced to address the environmental concerns relating to
effluent treatment, Further, rationalization of Fiscal Duties and Common Effluent Treatment Plants
with Marine Outfall (CETPMO) provides a level playing field to all segments.
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Table 9. Physic-chemical characteristics of effluent

Determined Woven fabric Knit fabric Stock and yarn dyeing and
finishing finishing finishing
BOD (Biological oxygen demand) (mg/litre) 550-650 250-350 200-250
Suspended solids (mg/litre) 185-300 300 50-75
COD (Chemical oxygen demand) (mg/litre) 850-1200 850-1000 524-800
Sulphide (mg/litre) 3 0.2 0-0.09
Colour (ADMI* unit) 325 400 600
pH 7-11 6-9 7-12
(Source: Hasanbeigi, 2013)
*American dye manufacturers institute

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

Development and automation of Indian textile industry makes it competitive in global market but
has detrimental effect on environment and human life. Automation and modernization increased the
speed of production that results in consuming more and more resources and consequently pollutes
the environment. Such as fiber production leads to emission of gases those are accused of global
warming (viz. CO2 and NO2) as well as acid rain (SO2 and NOx). While chemical processing of textile
produces toxic effluent along with gaseous emissions that pollute land, water, air and leads to severe
health hazards. On the other hand, mechanical processing of textile forces the worker to work in
the noisiest environment that remains full of dirt and dust makes the workers to suffer from several
diseases (viz. hearing and respiratory impairment, occupational lungs disorder etc).
Although the effect of textile mechanical processing is limited to the work room, fiber formation
and chemical processing has vast negative impact on outside world that pollutes land, water, air and
emits hazardous byproduct which indirectly promotes acid rain and global warming.

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Hasanuzzaman is a JRF in the discipline of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Department of
Management Studies in Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India. He has published an article in
an international journal published by Taylor and Francis, and has presented a paper at an international conference.

Chandan Bhar is a professor in the Department of Management Studies and Dean (Student Welfare) of Indian
School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand- 826004, India. He was head of the Department of Management Studies,
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad from February 1, 2008 to January 9, 2012. He has more than 28 years of research
experience in Industrial Engineering and Management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. He has guided 6
PhD Students and 9 are ongoing. He has published many articles in various international and national journals
published by renowned houses such as Taylor and Francis, Emerald, Inderscience, etc. He has also published 5
books to his credit in his research field. He has gained industry experience by serving as junior executive trainee
and under manager in the Coal India Limited prior to joining academics.

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