ABSTRACT

Second hand clothes (SHC) also known as Okirika in Nigeria, are clothing items previously used by one person earlier before the present user. The origin of second hand clothing industries dates as far back as 1834. This has created a big business and employment to many people in some developing countries. These clothing are mostly affordable and alternative source of clothing material for both the poor and most of the rich. Most of these clothing includes sweaters, shirts, trousers, towels, socks, panties, pillow cases, curtains, and bed sheets imported from United States of America, United Kingdom, Asia, Germany and Netherlands after been used for a while by the initial owners. The worlds' largest importers of fairly used clothings are the sub-Saharan countries, receiving over 25% of global second hand clothing exports (Muthaini et al., 2010). These used clothes are known as bale means a bundle of different kinds of clothes which come from different world regions. Clothing bales are imported by businessmenlwomen and charitable organizations. Bale starts entering Nigeria in 1950s and 1960s from the available sea port in Nigeria. These are purchased without giving consideration to any attending health implications. It has been proven that clothings have the potential just as any other hand contact site to be a component in the chain of infection transmission during normal daily activities (Malnick et al., 2008). All forms of skin infections can be caused by wearing contaminated second hand clothes. Bloomfield et al. (2011) showed that clothes have the capacity to retain bacteria, fungi and viruses for varied lengths of time.