Wearable warning

New York – Clothing label Aerochromics has released a line of three reactive t-shirts that can detect pollutants and airborne hazards.

• Each shirt serves a specific purpose, including detecting carbon monoxide, particle pollution or radioactivity
• The shirts, which are priced at £375 ($500, €445), were originally created as an art project by designer Nikolas Bentel

Each shirt uses existing technology to create a wearable warning system. The carbon monoxide shirt features a special dye that changes colour from white to black when it detects the noxious gas, while the dye in the radioactivity shirt reacts to the presence of gamma rays or electronic-beam radiation.

While the shirts do not offer direct protection to the wearer, Bentel believes that they will enable people to interact with urban environments in a more informed way. ‘Knowing if an urban area is safe should be public knowledge,’ Bentel told The Verge. ‘The shirt completely changing colour enables people around the user to also be aware of their surroundings.’