Showing posts with label Denim jeans Sand blasting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Denim jeans Sand blasting. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Are Your Designer Jeans Making Factory Workers Sick?



There are few things that compare to the comfort and look of a worn-in pair of blue jeans. In fact, the allure of your “favorite pair of jeans” is so enticing that designers have been looking for ways to artificially duplicate it for years.
Even though sandblasting was outlawed in Europe in 1966 many top designers still use it in their foreign factories to give denim a worn, faded look. According to Mother Jones, inhaling silica from the sand used during this treatment process puts factory workers in developing countries at increased risk for a disabling lung disease called silicosis.
Sandblasting is “often performed in small workshops in the informal sector in jeans-producing countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, China, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico, reports the Clean Clothes Campaign. “Almost all of the jeans sold in Europe are produced in these countries. In Turkey alone, 46 documented cases of sandblasters contracting silicosis and dying have been registered. This is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg.”
A few months ago, the Clean Clothes Campaign started a public action concerning the sandblasting of denim. The CCC urged many of the top fashion designers in the world to ban sandblasting in their supply chains, and some, like Levi’s, H&M and C&A got on board immediately. Others, like Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli, have ignored requests to protect worker health.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/are-your-designer-jeans-making-factory-workers-sick.html#ixzz1XLnyCV4u


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Oxfam blasts jeans sellers




OXFAM Australia is threatening to take The Just Group to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission unless it stops promoting ''sandblasted'' jeans.

The practice of blasting denim to speed up the faded look is banned in several countries, including Australia, as it causes lung diseases such as silicosis. But it is still widely used in clothing factories in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other manufacturing hubs. Several denim brands, including Levi's, Esprit and Gucci, have banned sandblasting.

Last month, Just Jeans insisted that sandblasting was not a practice it used, but online catalogues for Jay Jays and Just Jeans continue to promote sandblasted jeans and shorts


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/oxfam-blasts-jeans-sellers-20110907-1jxs7.html#ixzz1XLleNW7c



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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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