This leaves, according to the survey report, only 79 per cent insignificantly or not at all contaminated. The contamination is by 16 different sources of foreign matter. ITMF conducts cotton contamination survey every other year with spinning mills affiliated to it's world-wide membership and the 1999 edition is the sixth in the series. The 1999 ITMF report is based on evaluation of 87 growths by 283 spinning mills located in 24 countries.

The previous cotton contamination survey of ITMF in 1997 had claimed lower levels of 5 per cent `seriously contaminated' and 13 per cent moderately contaminated, leaving 82 percent insignificantly or not at all contaminated.

Around 39 per cent of all cottons processed are either moderately or seriously contaminated by organic matter like leaves, feathers, paper, leather etc. This is up by 5 per cent compared to 1997. Other serious contaminants, the 1999 survey points out, are strings and pieces of fabric made of jute/hessian, woven plastic, cotton and plastic film. The most contaminated descriptions continue to originate in India, Pakistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan. Clean cotton are found, the survey claims, in Israel, Zimbabwe, Argentina and Australia. Foreign matter, stickiness and seed-coat fragments in raw cotton are the most serious problems affecting the spinning industry.

However, stickiness is on the decline. Compared to 23 per cent of cotton being shown as affected in the 1997 survey and a record level of 27 per cent in 1991, only 20 per cent is affected due to stickiness in the 1999 survey report.

The highest occurrence of stickiness, over 50 per cent, is reportedfrom Sudan (Acala and Barakat), Mexico (Mexicali), Tanzania (Coastal) and India (DCH). No stickiness is experienced in Turkish Izmir, Israel's Pima, Rio Grande Valley (USA), Paraguay and Zambia.

Appearance of seed-coat fragments, at serious levels in India and Turkey, is on the rise. World-wide it increased to 38 per cent in 1999, after a decline to 32 per cent in 1997. In fact, seven Indian descriptions figure in the top eight highly contaminated cotton in the world. Pakistan's AmSeed AFZAL stands second, next to the world's most contaminated cotton - India's F-414.

Indian cotton descriptions J-34, Shankar 4/6, H-4, LRA, DCH made it to the first eight in the highly contaminated list. India's MCU-5 is the 13th most contaminated cotton.

Egyptian Giza, which is widely imported into India by exporting mills, is reportedly the 14th most contaminated cotton in the world. The degree of non-existent/insignificant contamination level in the first 10 descriptions ranges from 36 per cent (India's F-414) and 66per cent (Sudan's Barakat).

Cottons grown in Israel, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Sudan and Australia hold the first five positions in the list of least contaminated descriptions. The degree of non-existent/insignificant contamination levels in these cottons ranges from 95 per cent to 92 per cent.

Not a single description from India, Pakistan and China have made it to the this list of 29 least contaminated cottons in the world. These three Asian countries are expected to become the future hubs of spinning activity in the world. Cotton from Greece is ranked 29th with a non-existent/ insignificant contamination level of 83 per cent.

The number of respondents (participating companies) and the number of samples (evaluations) from India, at 69 and 301 respectively, are the highest from a single country for the 1999 ITMF survey. The total number of respondents for the survey is 283 and total number of samples stood at 1,501.According to the federation, the biggest problem which the ever-increasing automation in thespinning industry presents for cotton relates to cleanliness. Automated equipment is unable to detect contamination or foreign matter, leave alone eliminate it. Contamination by plastic material is visible only when the fabric leaves the final finishing process. Apart from affecting the quality of the textile product, contamination may also damage the processing machinery.