Thursday, September 8, 2011

Worker deaths linked to sandblasted jeans


BRENDAN TREMBATH: They're popular in a lot of places: sandblasted jeans.
But the aid organisation Oxfam says the manufacturing process can be deadly.
Sandblasting has apparently killed dozens of workers overseas and made many more seriously ill.
Liz Hobday prepared this report.
VOX POP 1: We love fashion.
VOX POP 2: Look at the fashion and see the runway.
VOX POP 3: Pretty excited, you know, Melbourne has such a great fashion culture.
LIZ HOBDAY: Among the high end labels delighting crowds on the runway this week are the well-known brands Just Jeans and Dotti, owned by The Just Group.
Oxfam claims these and other labels owned by the company use sandblasting to fade the jeans they sell.
The executive director of Oxfam Australia, Andrew Hewett.
ANDREW HEWETT: Sandblasting is known to cause silicosis. It's been known to cause deaths.
The company says on one hand that they no longer use sandblasting but at the same time their website is promoting products which have been sandblasted.
LIZ HOBDAY: Michele O'Neil from the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia is among those who've been campaigning against the practice.
MICHELE O'NEIL: Pretty much the process is what it sounds like. It's workers involved in spraying high pressured sand onto denim.
What happens through that is that they suffer silicosis as a result of ingesting the sand and that is deadly.
LIZ HOBDAY: She says the pulmonary condition has killed dozens of workers overseas.
MICHELE O'NEIL: So recent studies that have been done in Europe, in particular in Turkey, have shown over a period of about five years in Turkey that in fact 50 workers' deaths were attributed to sandblasting.
LIZ HOBDAY: The Just Group says it won't work with manufacturers that use manual sandblasting guns on jeans but because its suppliers are overseas it can't rule out their use.
with thanks :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-08/worker-deaths-linked-to-sandblasted-jeans/2877068?section=entertainment

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