Is it too dangerous for children to tie-dye their own t-shirts?

Name: Debbie

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Country or region: USA

Message: I was thinking of using this dye for a church VBS project. It sounds like it might be too dangerous for children to dye their own t-shirts. What do you think?

If we do this we will be dyeing about 125 t-shirts. How much dye should we purchase?

Whether it's safe for children to dye clothing depends on their level of maturity, and the amount of supervision you can provide.

Dyeing can be done safely with even very young children if there are enough adults supervising closely, but a class with only one or two adults requires that the children be old enough and well-behaved enough not to do obviously stupid things. A class of preschoolers will require one-on-one supervision throughout the dye application process, to make sure they don't drink the dye or squirt it on one another. A class of older children will normally be able to handle dye safely with only a couple of adults supervising, unless there is a problem with badly-behaved children in the class who purposefully do things that they've been told not to do.

Fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye, are not very dangerous. An occasional small spill on the hands is no big deal (unlike the situation with more dangerous types of dyes). It is important to avoid drinking the dye, eating with unwashed hands after spilling dye on them, or breathing the dye powder. (It is okay to eat with dye-stained hands if the hands have been washed very thoroughly with soap and water.)

Even if a child drinks the dye, it will not cause acute poisoning, but it's a bad idea since these dyes have not been tested for safety when eaten; many textile dyes could potentially increase the risk of cancer if one makes a habit of consuming them. Note that all-purpose dyes, such as Rit dye, are not safer than Procion MX dyes in any way. Breathing undissolved dye powder of any sort is a bad idea because it can cause allergies. If a person who is allergic to a specific type of dye continues to be exposed to it, asthma can result. The toxicity and allergenicity of these dyes is normally an issue only for employees who work in the dye industry, but we feel it is important for everyone to follow good safety practices, to prevent any such problems.

For students below high school age, I would encourage you to mix the dyes with water in advance of the class, so you don't have to worry about them breathing airborne dye powders. Anyone who is mixing up dry dye powder will need to wear a well-fitting dust mask, and be careful to avoid getting dye powder on any surfaces in the room. Procion MX dyes will last well for several days or a week, after being dissolved in water, if the water is neutral and the dye is not exposed to even a single drop of soda ash. Some tie-dye kits contain soda ash or an equivalent already mixed in with the dyes, which means that the dyes from these kits must be mixed with water only immediately before use, before they go bad, which happens in about an hour. The kits I prefer include soda ash that is to be used as a separate pre-soak, so that there is no problem with mixing the dyes a day or two in advance.

I recommend that the children tie their shirts while they are still dry, or dampened only with water, instead of after the soda ash presoak. Soda ash is very drying and irritating to the skin, and should not be used without gloves, but gloves make it difficult to tie the fabric. It's fine to dampen the shirts with water for tying, and then throw them into a soda ash presoak afterwards, before dyeing with Procion dye.

You will need to buy extra-small plastic gloves for children too small to wear adults' gloves, or buy the adults' size small and give smaller children rubber bands to hold them on at the wrist. Don't let the children handle soda ash or dyes without wearing gloves, whether of the thin latex or nitrile type, or the thicker rubber gloves used for dishwashing. Search for "extra small" gloves on Amazon, or see Blick Art Materials, which sells Hygloss Gloves for Kids.

How much dye will you need for 125 shirts? See my page, "How much Procion MX dye should I use?". To dye 100 adult size large shirts, you would need a total of twelve ounces of dye (one 2-ounce jar of each of several colors). You might be able to dye twice as many children's shirts with that amount of dye, depending on the shirt size. The simplest and most economical way to do this would be to order an appropriately-sized tie-dye kit from a good dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company or PRO Chemical and Dye [links go to their tie-dye kit pages], such as their kits designed for 100 shirts. You will find this to be much more economical than buying a number of smaller tie-dyeing kits.

Be sure to avoid the Rit Tie Dye kit, which requires boiling hot water and works very poorly compared to the kits that contain Procion dyes. Good dye suppliers, such as ProChem and Dharma, do not even sell the tie dye kits that contain all-purpose dyes, because the Procion tie dyeing kits are highly superior.

For more information about the safety of dyeing by hand, see the Dye Safety FAQ page.

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Posted: Tuesday - May 31, 2011 at 08:56 AM

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Is it too dangerous for children to tie-dye their own t-shirts?

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