[I am back after missing several days due to post-hurricane power outages.]

Name: Laura

Message: How do I get rid of dye smell from black jeans? (Store bought.) This has happened with a pair of brown cords also. I have washed them. The smell gets stronger as you wear them or as they hang; it's lighter after washing.

What makes you think that the smell is caused by the dye?

Your jeans have been treated with a number of chemicals, starting with the pesticides used to kill insects on the cotton plants, continuing with bleaches such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium chlorite, and sodium hypochlorite, to make the cotton white and therefore dyeable in a range of colors, bleach bath stabilizers such as silicates and organic stabilizers, sequestrants such as amino- and hydroxypolycarboxylic acids, aminomethylphosphonates, and sodium polyphophates, and reducing agents such as sodium bisulfite and hydrosulfite. Wetting agents and detergents are added to enabled the previously-mentioned chemicals to penetrate the fiber. Lubrication compounds are added to ease the passage of the rough cotton fiber through the spinning machines, while sizings such as starch, polyvinyl alcohols, or methyl methacrylate copolymers are added to the warp yarns to protect them during weaving. Halogenated phenols are used to inhibit mold formation on damp fabric. Enzymes such as amylase and cellulase are used to soften the fabric.  Fabric softeners, including the ones used by manufacturers as well as the ones you may use in the form of dryer sheets, are derived from fats, in many cases from rendered animal carcasses, and will produce a strong and disagreeable odor if they become rancid. Fiber reactive dyes and direct dyes are unlikely to have any significant odor at all, though sulfur dyes, which are inexpensive dyes used industrially on cotton, might have an accompanying odor. All strong odors should be removed in some stage of garment manufacture.

It is the manufacturer's responsibility to remove unsuitable odors that remain from any of the many chemical treatments practiced on their materials. If a purchased garment has a strong odor that is not removable by washing, then it is the product of a manufacturing defect, and should be returned to the point of purchase for a full refund, just as defective clothing whose dye runs should be returned.

If, however, the smell appeared only after you purchased the garment, then you should discard whatever fabric softeners you have been using, as they are the single most likely home source of odor problems. Try a different detergent if necessary, and wash in hot water for most effective washing. After using your washing machine, always leave the door open whenever it is not in use, so that it will stay dry, as the moisture in a closed washing machine will support the growth of unwanted molds and other smelly microorganisms.

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