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The Benefits of Organic Wool

Organic wool offers many benefits both for you and the environment.

For You: Organic wool creates an unsurpassed, luxurious and healthy sleep environment. During the night, the average person can lose up to a pint of moisture. Wool fibers absorb and store moisture, and also trap pockets of air that regulate temperature in every season and climate. Also, organic wool is completely chemical-free, avoiding pesticides and dyes that can irritate and endanger sleepers.

For The Environment: Organic wool is harvested in environments free from toxic pesticides that are damaging to humans, fish and amphibians, and which can potentially cause groundwater contamination. Pesticides used in sheep dips have also consistently been linked to nervous system damage in exposed workers. Additionally, growth-promoting antibiotics used on sheep may leach into groundwater, including drinking water, which could compromise the effectiveness of such medicines for humans.

Why Wool? It’s simple.
Natural and renewable — Wool is grown not made; every year sheep grow a new fleece. Wool products also use less energy than man-made fibres during manufacture.
Sunsafe — Wool has naturally high UV protection.
Flame retardant — Wool fibre has a higher ignition threshold than many other fibres and is flame retardant up to 600º C. It also produces less toxic fumes in a fire.
Biodegradable — When disposed of, natural wool fibre takes only a few years to decompose, and with a high nitrogen content, wool can even act as a fertilizer.
Breathable — Wool's natural structure allows it to absorb and release water vapour into the atmosphere, keeping you warm in winter and cool in summer.
Non allergenic — Wool is not known to cause allergy and does not promote the growth of bacteria. With microscopic scales, wool fibres can trap dust in the top layers until vacuumed away.
Durable and elastic — Wool fibre can be bent 20,000 times without breaking and still have the power to recover and return to its natural shape. Quality wool garments look good for longer.
Easy care — Modern wool can be machine-washed; retaining a small amount of natural oil, wool fibre resists dirt and grease.
Multi-climatic — Wool acclimatizes to its surroundings.
Naturally insulating — Wool can insulate the home providing and retaining warmth, and reducing energy costs.

Heat and Moisture Regulation

• Due to its superior insulation characteristics, wool carpet provides a warmer, safer, more comfortable surface on which to stand/sit than hard flooring.
• Wool fibre has a hydrophobic (water repelling) exterior and hydrophilic (water loving) interior that confer its unique moisture management properties—properties that are not shared by synthetic fibres such as nylon.
• In contrast to most synthetic fibres, wool has the capacity to remove large amounts (up to 35% of its own weight) of moisture from inside a room, before the fibre even begins to feel wet.
• Wool's chemical structure means that it has the ability to actively absorb and desorb moisture and to gain and release heat depending on the external and internal environment—thus buffering a room against environmental changes.
• A wool carpet's ability to absorb moisture may result in a reduced propensity for condensation within a room.
• Significant energy savings and comfort/health improvements are achievable by installation of wool carpets.

Acoustic Performance

• Exposure to unwanted or excessive noise has been shown to result in a range of negative health impacts, including hearing loss, loss of concentration, sleep deprivation, stress, headaches, ulcers and a higher incidence of respiratory complaints.
• Wool carpets out perform hard flooring in terms of their capacity to suppress unwanted noise.
• The fibrous nature of wool carpets and upholstery means that, unlike many other materials, wool products can reduce, at the same time, a) airborne sound, b) surface noise, and c) sound transmission.
• Wool carpeting is a healthy and comfortable choice for a flooring system as it provides thermal insulation allowing the room in which it is installed to remain a comfortable temperature while aiding in sound absorption.

Anti-Static

• Because of its unique moisture retention properties, wool carpeting is less prone to building up static electric charge than synthetic fibre carpeting.
• Use of wool carpets provides a safer and more comfortable work environment than synthetic products, particularly in applications where static electricity is of particular concern—aircraft carpets, buildings with sensitive electronic equipment, fuel transfer facilities, etc.

Control of Indoor Air Pollution

• Wool carpet is an efficient absorber of potentially harmful indoor air pollutants such as formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, effectively removing them from the environment.
• Wool carpets out perform nylon carpets in terms of their capacity to purify the indoor air.
• Under normal circumstances, no risk is posed to human health by emissions from carpets, and selection of wool carpeting may even permit optimisation of the process for indoor air quality improvement.
• Interior textiles such as carpeting can act as filters for particulate pollutants and subsequent cleaning provides an easy means of managing human exposure to such hazards.
• Particulate pollutants such as mite allergens are no more likely to build up in wool carpet than synthetic carpet and are readily removed by vacuuming.
• Carpet has a much reduced propensity for disturbance of particulate pollutants (allergens, etc) than hard flooring.
• Wool's ability to effectively buffer heat and moisture, in combination with its propensity to control indoor air pollutants, make it ideal for creating safe and healthy interior environments.

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