Chemicals in the US have developed a technique which could enable manufacturers of cotton textiles to graft to their fabrics chlorine-containing compounds called N-halamines which lead to the death of a wide range of odour-causing bacteria, virus, yeast and fungi.

The new fabrics could be used for the manufacture of a wide range of clothing including sportswear, nurses uniforms, hospital and hotel bedding, handkerchiefs, dishcloths and household sponges, says a report published in The Guardian, London.''

According to Dr Jeffry Williams of the Seattle firm which commissioned this research, carried out at the University of California, the grafting of the N-halamines to the cotton fabric required a very simple and easily adaptable technique.