Issue Clothes that Care

Summary

Clothes that Care asks what would happen if clothing helped keep people healthy. It imagines smart fabrics with nanobiomaterials that deliver health-boosting nutrients on their own, meeting minimum daily needs and tackling nutritional deficiencies. The need is real, since almost one billion people worldwide lack vitamin D, even in sunny countries. Shortfalls in iron, folate and vitamins B12 and A can cause anaemia, which affects an estimated 42% of children under five and 40% of pregnant women, and vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness that also raises the risk of measles and diarrhoeal disease. The concept promises a scalable way to deliver nutrients, but vitamins may degrade with frequent washing and malfunctioning sensors or excess vitamins could cause toxicity.