The Ultimate Debate: Handkerchief vs. Tissue – Which is More Effective for Trapping Sneezes and Coughs?

Maybe you have hay fever, COVID, a cold or the flu and you’re looking for a tissue or handkerchief.

But which one is best for stopping the spread of infections? What has the least environmental impact? Is it the handkerchief, which has been around since at least Roman times? Or the newer and widely used facial tissue?

You might be surprised by the results.

Little history of the handkerchief and the handkerchief

Today we think of tissues as a way to wipe our noses and catch coughs and sneezes. But a simple square of fabric has a complex history.

In the first century, the Romans used A sudaire (from the Latin for anti-sweat fabric) to wipe away sweat or to mask the mouth and face.

Over time, people used what we today call a handkerchief or handkerchief, as head coverings, as veils and for disguise, to clean their hands, to treat wounds and to stop blood.

Wealthy people used them to signify class and good manners, and to discreetly wipe away phlegm rather than smearing snot on sleeves or skirts. Royalty used them to indicate wealth and power through their gifts of fine linen and silk handkerchiefs to their favored subjects. Henry VIII had a vast collection, some enhanced with gold and silver.

Handkerchiefs were also markers love, fidelity and sexual preferences. In the late 19th century, the “handkerchief code” was a system of color coding and placement of handkerchiefs used to indicate sexual preferences. which is still active in LGBTQ+ communities today.

We can trace the origins of tissue paper in China in the 2nd century BC. But it wasn’t until the 1920s that fabrics as we know them today was developed to remove makeup and wipe a runny nose caused by hay fever.

So which one is best for our health?

Over 100 years ago, a cloth handkerchief was considered a “little flag of death“because of the germs it carried and the way it contaminated the pockets it was left in. Later we were asked to use a tissue as “Coughing and sneezing spread disease.”

Today we know that nasal secretions harbor cold-like viruses that can be transferred to a range of surfaces – hands, tissues, handkerchiefs, doorknobs, keyboards – sometimes surviving a long time after the initial exposure.

So, blowing your nose into a reusable cotton tissue, then touching another object, means these viruses can spread. Even if you immediately put your cotton tissue in the wash, you’ll likely contaminate surfaces along the way, such as doorknobs, and use your infected hands to operate the washing machine.

Viruses do not tend to survive so long on fabrics. As long as you throw away tissues after using them and don’t leave them lying around for others to pick up, the risk of passing germs to others from a used tissue is much lower.

Then there is the question of whether handkerchiefs or handkerchiefs provide effective barriers against coughs and respiratory sprays.

Basic cloth coverings, such as handkerchiefs or bandanas, can trap spit, as can tissues. But several studies have shown that they are not effective filtered respiratory aerosolsOr stop inhaling pollutants, pathogens or small particles suspended in the air.

Which is best for the planet?

If you want to examine environmental considerations, the American company Ecosystem Analytics compared with reusable cotton handkerchiefs to disposable paper handkerchiefs using a life cycle analysis. It examined four measures of environmental impacts associated with production, transport, use and disposal:

climate change (sum of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide and CFCs)

quality of ecosystems (chemical pollution of land and water)

human health (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity for humans)

resources (total energy needs linked to non-renewable energy and mining).

Surely, cotton tissues are better for the planet than paper tissues?(Pixabay)

The verdict? Across all four measures, a cotton handkerchief had an impact five to seven times greater than an equivalent handkerchief.

And, by far, the largest impacts were related to the production of each of these products, rather than their use or disposal.

If you still want to use a cotton handkerchief, you can opt for organic cotton, which has a reduced ecological footprint compared to standard cotton produced in the same location. But organic cotton production has lower yields than its conventional equivalent, meaning more land is required to produce an equivalent quantity, making the total environmental impact worse.

If you want to use tissues more easily, those made from recycled materials may be a better option. Their manufacture leads to less greenhouse gas emissions compared to manufacturing regular tissues.

The verdict

Wiping our noses with paper tissues that we dispose of properly after use (and do not store in our pocket), made from recycled materials, is preferable from a health and environmental point of view.

But handkerchiefs don’t quite have the same panache as the historic and versatile cloth handkerchief.

Mark Patrick Taylor is Chief Environmental Scientist at EPA Victoria and Honorary Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. Hester Joyce is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Creative Arts at La Trobe University. This piece first appeared on The conversation.