Faux Leather Tote Bags For Summer

A Fashion Accessory To Save the Ozone and Save Your Skin

May 12, 2009

Leather tote bags alone don't cause skin cancer, but most dyes used to color them do. Consider non-leather fashion accessories and be skin smart all summer long.

Each summer, stylish women everywhere begin the ritual of preparing to embrace longer days spent outdoors by shopping for seasonal items. And, as they do, these women will inevitably revitalize their wardrobe with hip accessories, like the essential summer tote bag.

But in a time when skin cancers are on the rise, fashionistas know it’s just as important to choose products for their skin smart sense as much as for their fashion sense. While most everyone is aware of the connection between overexposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and skin cancer, very few know of the causal relation between the coloring process of leather and the depletion of UVR-shielding ozone.

This article will explore why a faux leather tote bag should be high on any woman’s shopping list if she is considering how fashion choices may help win the fight over skin cancer—not just for this summer, but for all the summers to come.

The Leather Tote/Cancer Connection

The tote bag has long been a summer fashion mainstay. For women who need to carry around sunscreen, beachwear, a camera, summertime reading material, and an umbrella for unpredictable summer showers, nothing beats the practicality of an oversized, sturdy, and brightly colored leather tote. But, that innocent-looking shoulder bag may also present a hidden danger and be indirectly responsible for ozone layer erosion, bringing about more cases of malignant melanoma in humans-- the most serious and deadliest of all skin cancers.

The simple facts are these: Most industry-standard dyes and surface coatings widely utilized to color and treat leather goods contain volatile organic compounds (or VOCs). These chemicals undergo metabolic changes during the manufacturing process, releasing chlorine, bromine, and other known cancer-causing molecules into the air. Once they make their way up into the stratosphere (the highest part of earth’s atmosphere), these substances eradicate the ozone -- ozone that keeps harmful UVR from reaching earth.

UVR is officially classified by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services as a "proven human carcinogen". With less ozone in the stratosphere to keep UVR at bay, people are experiencing increasing incidences of various kinds of skin cancers, including fatal melanoma.

In short, your colorful, designer leather tote bag may contribute to skin cancer.

Making the Faux Leather Fashion Choice

But, there is good news. Fashion retailers and apparel manufacturers offer a wealth of non-leather options to the tried and true leather tote bag. Leather-like products (patent leather, faux leather, faux snake, faux gator, vinyl, or the trademarked Naugahyde™) are a viable, affordable and ideal alternative to get your fashion fix. In assorted styles, colors and patterns, these fabrics not only often have the look and feel of high quality leather, but many also contain no VOCs, nor use ozone depleting chemicals (ODCs) in the manufacturing and coloring process.

Some retailers, such as Accessorybug.com and Handbags.com, with the former selling an eye-catching faux leather, leopard print tote (by Dooney & Bourke, no less!), offer the ease of shopping for skin-safe tote bags online, without sacrificing style for the sake of the environment and cancer-free skin.

With more people making eco-friendly and health conscious purchases, it’s good to know that there are many sensible choices available that are just plain good for you. Whether buying a convenient, carry-all tote bag, or some other chic and colorful seasonal piece of faux leather apparel, summer fashion accessories developed through non-cancer inducing methods will always strike the right pose.

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The copyright of the article Faux Leather Tote Bags For Summer in Handbags/Luggage is owned by Roxanne Blanford. Permission to republish Faux Leather Tote Bags For Summer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.