In 2011, 38 percent of Canadian adults went boating, a statistic that should make marine textile manufacturers take notice. This is one of many statistics available from the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) Canada, a leading trade group for recreational boating, which recently issued its first Canadian Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract for 2010 and 2011. [...]

Silver is widely used as an antimicrobial in textiles, but a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aims to halt antimicrobial nanosilver used in clothing, bedding and furnishings. In December 2011, the EPA decided to allow HeiQ Materials to use nanosilver in fabrics for four [...]

Sudden heart failure is the number one cause of death in the western world, and cardiac insufficiency (a weakness of the heart) affects 1.3 million people in Germany alone. Metrax GmbH, Rottweil, Germany, manufacturer of defibrillators, developed a textile harness with integrated dry electrodes for heart monitoring and (in emergencies) defibrillation to combat these serious [...]

Dutch European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers joined a Russian cosmonaut and a NASA engineer on a December 2011 mission to the International Space Station, carrying a set of gear pouches full of sensitive, scientific hardware. The pouches, developed by Dutch companies Schonenborg Space Engineering BV, Noordwijk, and TenCate Protective Fabrics, Nijverdal, feature attributes that [...]