Your denim could be destroying some of the world's most precious water bodies, new study finds

A new study suggests that washing your jeans could be contributing to the pollution of Canada's waters.

Researchers at the University of Toronto say they detectedmicrofibres linked to blue jeans in aquatic environments rangingfrom the shallow suburban lakes of southernOntario, to the GreatLakes and all the way up to the Arctic Archipelago.

Their findings, published in Environmental Science and TechnologyLetters on Wednesday, suggest that between 12 to 23 per cent of microfibres in the sediments sampled could be identified as indigo denim.

Co-author Sam Athey, a doctoral candidate in U of T's departmentof earth sciences, says further investigation is needed to understand the impacts of denim-linked microfibres on marine wildlife.

But professor Miriam Diamond says the presence of thesehuman-manufactured particles in waters so far away from most of the jeans-wearing population should be cause for concern.

The researchers found that a pair of used jeans can releaseapproximately 56,000 microfibres per wash.

They suggest that denim lovers follow the recommendations of clothing manufacturers and try to get as much wear out of their jeans as they can before throwing them in the washing machine.