TRUST

In Cambodia and China the minimum wage would need to be at least twice as high to cover the basic cost of living (Clean Clothes Campaign, 2014).

In the Cambodian garment industry, over 80% of workers are women, aged 18-35. In India, Bangladesh and across Asia likewise, most garment workers are women. Many of these women have children and families to provide for and no other income earners in the family to contribute.

According to Clean Clothes Campaign, one worker’s salary typically supports at least three people in a family. Not only do low wages keep garment workers in a cycle of poverty, but they also add to the pressure to work long overtime hours, which impacts on health and safety.

Research shows for the most part, people don’t trust brands anymore. By and large, consumers are now sceptics. Why the mistrust? Rana Plaza, the banking crisis, the horse meat scandal, VW emissions scandal, IAAF doping scandal and the FIFA corruption are just a few of the incidents that have ravaged public trust in business.

Consumers now expect that business exists to serve society: on an individual and the collective level. People expect brands to help make our daily routines easier — by helping us stay healthy, by better connecting us to our loved ones and by helping us make informed, smart decisions.

We also expect brands to play bigger roles in our communities through event sponsorships or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that help support our collective well-being.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

WHICH TO BUY?

Customer walks into a sports retailer and picks up a top which states the average pay and conditions of the textile workers in Cambodia and lists the number of cancer causing and hormone disruptor chemicals used to make the top.

A similar garment in the same store, similar colour, identical price, again manufactured in Cambodia provides no information on how its made.

Which sports top does the consumer purchase?
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

NO CHANGE

The lo-down on PFC's

A chemical that for decades was a key ingredient in making Teflon and hundreds of other products including as a water/stain repellent in our clothing. Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, belongs to a class of chemicals that have invaded the bodies of people and animals in the farthest reaches of the globe. PFOA pollutes the blood of almost all Americans and can pass from mother to unborn child in the womb. It builds up in our bodies, and studies have shown it can cause cancer, reproductive disorders and other serious illnesses.

How was this allowed to happen? Toothless regulators, no consumer chemical labelling transparency, corporate lies coupled with a complete disregard for human / environmental safety.

Nothing has changed.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

What do you see?

Athlete, talent, intelligence, beauty, health?

What else do you see?

Perhaps a world where one in two Americans will be diagnosed with cancer? How can that be?

Do you see a young woman in make-up, wearing hair, skin-care products and dressed in synthetic textiles? Exposed daily to untested combinations of hidden toxic chemicals from carcinogens to hormone disruptor's.

In 1965 Ralph Nader published a book ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ accusing car manufactures of a resistance to introduce safety features and spend money on improving safety.

In 2016 do we need another Nader moment ‘Unsafe at Any Level’ accusing the chemical industry of a reluctance to rigorously test combinations of toxic chemicals prior to being used in consumer products?

It’s our time to act.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

LAST TO KNOW

DuPont faces 40 trials a year over cancer tied to water-repellent chemical known as PFC: C8 or PFOA.

This single case proves beyond doubt that chemicals in consumer products are insufficiently tested for safety prior to being used.

Just think how many brands (products) used this chemical for non-stick applications for decades; including cooking utensils and textiles. Many of us will still be using Teflon coated pans and waterproof apparel containing this toxic chemical.

To give you a specific example GR looked at leading sportswear brands RSL's and found PFOA stated in their polyester apparel. There is currently no legal obligation for clothing brands to disclose the toxic chemicals they use to their customers.

We can't be the only people who find this alarming 'cancer causing chemicals in your sportswear'.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ROUNDUP

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in the Monsanto’s flagship product Roundup, is now the “most widely applied pesticide worldwide,” according to a report published today in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe.

Though mainly used in agriculture, Roundup has also been sprayed on gardens and golf courses. Does your local Golf course use RoundUp?

Other scientific studies link glyphosate exposure to adverse liver and kidney problems, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Last March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC), the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm, infamously declared that glyphosate was a “possible carcinogen.”
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

THE C WORD.

What we do know is that the overall incidence of cancer has been increasing in recent decades. And there is a compelling—and growing—body of evidence linking this troubling trend to toxic chemicals in our daily environments: carcinogens and hormone disruptor's in our environment and consumer products.

There are more than 80,000 chemicals in commercial use. Chemicals in products we all use every day. Chemicals to which we are all exposed throughout the course of our lives.

The legislation “regulating” chemicals exempted about 60,000 chemicals from testing for safety. And in 40 years only 200 chemicals have been tested for human safety. Out of these, only five chemicals have ever been restricted due to their harmful impact on human health.

The conclusion is not that we have about 80,000 harmless chemicals on the market; the shameful truth is that our regulators and legislators have been asleep at the wheel and subservient to the lobbying of the powerful chemical industry, while we've all been exposed to countless toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.

Consumers need to start asking their favourite brands to disclose the carcinogens and hormone disruptor's in the products we love and use, as we cannot rely on anybody else.

Ref: Karuna Jagger - Health Insights.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo