The 2011 FAO/ICAC survey, prepared jointly by the Trade and Markets Division of the Economic and Social Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), is the third joint edition since the annual survey done by FAO alone was discontinued in 1995. The second joint edition covered the years 1992, 1996, and 2000 through 2004. The present FAO/ICAC survey covers the years 1992, 1996 and 2000 through 2008 for both developing and developed countries.
World fibre consumption has been steadily trending up over several decades. Per capita consumption was about 3.7 kilogram in 1950 and climbed to 104 kilogram in 2008. Given the nature of the final products of fibres, clothing and textiles, fibre consumption is sensitive to the global economic situation. The World Apparel Fibre Consumption Survey during 2004 - 2008 recently completed by the Economic and Social Development Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (EST/FAa) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) revealed the latest developments in world fibre consumption.
Global Economic Trends affected Fibre Consumption
Final products of fibres can be grouped into three major categories clothing, textiles for home and for industrial uses. These final products respond differently to changes in income and prices, depending on whether they are consumed as necessary goods, luxury goods, or durable goods. Therefore, world total fibre consumption is exposed to the influence of global economic developments.
Encompassing an annual average growth of the world gross domestic product (GDP) of 4.2% during 2000 - 2007, per capita world fibre consumption increased by nearly 35%, from 8.3 kilograms in 2000 to 11.1 kilograms in 2007. However, the economic stagnation in developed countries in 2008 resulted in a reduced rate of GDP growth for the world (3%), and a 64% contraction in per capita world fibre consumption, to 104 kilograms.
Marimekko will open its own flagship store in New York City in the heart of Manhattan in autumn 2011. The shop, with a sales floor area of 350 square metres, will be in one of the busiest blocks in Manhattan’s Flatiron District at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, which enjoys growing popularity as a shopping area for local people.
The district has a concentration of many attractive interior decoration and design shops, cafés and restaurants. The Marimekko showroom opened in New York last autumn will move during the spring to larger premises also in the Flatiron District, near to the new shop. Construction costs for the new shop and the showroom are included in the estimate of the total investments planned for 2011, which was announced earlier.
The new flagship store will be built as an experience-rich meeting place in which Marimekko’s varied colours and design idiom will lead the customer from one inspiring mood to the next. The range will embrace all product lines, and it is intended for the shop to act as a showcase for new products in particular.
The shop will be based on the same concept as the flagship store opened in the Kämp Galleria mall in Helsinki in February 2011 – the store in New York will also be designed by the Japanese architectural firm IMA in cooperation with Marimekko’s own shop design team.
“Opening a shop of our own in an excellent location in the heart of Manhattan will support our strategy of building up Marimekko’s profile and strengthening the brand image. It is crucially important for us to be able to introduce our customers to the whole world of Marimekko in our own way. The new flagship store is also meant to support our online shop, which will be opened in the US this year, and our extensive cooperation with Crate and Barrel.
The term "third-hand smoke" refers to that part of cigarette smoke which is not inhaled by either the smoker themselves or by passive smokers, but is deposited on surfaces, cushions, carpets, curtains or clothing. There, the concentrations of toxic substances from cigarettes are far higher than in smoky air, and they can be released again, for example by contact with the skin.
In fact, only about 30% of the smoke is inhaled. The remaining 70% go out into the atmosphere and form a reservoir of "third-hand smoke". This is why scientists at the Institute for Hygiene and Biotechnology (IHB) at the Hohenstein Institute studied the question of whether and to what extent "third-hand smoke", in the form of the toxic substances on clothing, could damage the health of infants.
Unlike with passive smoking, where the risks of inhaled nicotine, which is toxic to the nervous system, are well-known, the first question in connection with "third-hand smoke"
was to examine whether there are other health risks if the transmission channel is the skin. So researchers at the Hohenstein Institute wanted to find out exactly what happens when parents have a smoke outside on the balcony and then, after their break, take their baby in their arms again.
To find the answer, the scientists at the IHB used a specially developed cell culture model of baby skin - a 3D skin model, the cell composition, structure and properties of which imitate the skin of babies and toddlers. To simulate the effects of third hand smoke, a T-shirt was deliberately impregnated with nicotine, the main toxic ingredient of cigarettes, just like during a smoker's break on the balcony. So that the quantity of the toxin could be verified afterwards, radioactively marked nicotine was used. Then the smoke impregnated textiles were placed on the baby skin and the penetration of the nicotine into the skin was tracked in tracer studies.
