Hi everyone:

I have had such confusion regarding Spandex, elastane, Lycra, Nylon, etc that I did a little research on lycra/spandex/elastane. I wanted to share what I found because so many of us have posted questions about clothing fabric. It seems that LYCRAŽ made by Dupont, is totally rubber/latex free. However,  elastane or spandex may or may not have rubber. Do the "long timers" agree? I don't know how to do attachments in Yahoo so I apologize that this is copied text.

Q. What is the difference between LYCRAŽ, elastane and spandex?

A. Spandex is the US and Canadian generic name for a specific class of man-made elastic fibers; in the rest of the world spandex is called elastane. LYCRAŽ is a man made stretch fiber, but not every stretch fiber or elastane is LYCRAŽ. LYCRAŽ is made only by DuPont, which constantly monitors quality and performance standards. In order to be identified as containing LYCRAŽ, a garment must conform to these standards.

Q. Is LYCRAŽ latex free?

A. LYCRAŽ fiber manufactured by DuPont does not contain any natural latex or rubber protein. It was originally developed as a replacement for rubber. LYCRAŽ fiber has been used in apparel for almost forty years with no problems of skin irritation or sensitization, even though fabrics containing the fiber are often worn in close contact with the skin, such as in swimwear, hosiery, lingerie, diapers and incontinence products. Whenever we change the composition, we conduct a test to confirm that the new product is not a skin irritant or sensitizer. To simulate the conditions that the fiber will encounter in consumer use, these test are usually carried out using a fabric containing the LYCRAŽ test fiber in combination with another fiber. Tests have also been performed on fabric composed of only the LYCRAŽ fiber. None of our commercial LYCRAŽ products has been found to be a skin irritant or a sensitizer in those tests.