The dark side of denim

The Dark Side of Denim Do you know that pair of jeans you've been dying for? Who else has to die for you to get them?

We are all guilty of turning a blind eye when it comes to where our clothes come from. We simply pick up our bargains from the stores or online and seldom give a thought to all the people and processes involved in making them. We none of us would like to think that we are doing any harm to people or the planet by buying the items we do. Sadly, however, the fashion industry is far from squeaky clean.

'Fashion victims' often takes on a whole new, much darker meaning. There are huge problems throughout the industry. For example, perhaps you are not aware of the dark side of denim:

Polluted Rivers, Polluted Planet

You may not realise it, but many harmful chemicals are used in the manufacture of many jeans.

Companies outsourcing their manufacture to China, Indonesia and other places in the developing world are often responsible for huge levels of environmental pollution. Rivers are polluted by the chemicals involved in the manufacture of jeans, watercourses that millions of people rely on for drinking water, for washing and for irrigating crops. Toxins enter the food chain and do untold harm. And the scale of the problem is staggering. Bear in mind that over five billion pairs of jeans are made worldwide each year.

The industry is causing untold environmental harm and there are also many health repercussions for the people living near affected rivers. Not just that, pollution has ways of spreading, through ocean currents and through the food chain. This truly is a global problem.

The Distress of Distressed Jeans

The cost of producing the sort of stonewash or distressed-look jeans that people in the West want to buy is not just environmental. Workers involved in the manufacture of distressed jeans are also paying a heavy toll. Some jeans use permanganate to get that acid-wash look, which is hugely dangerous and even deadly for those doing the spraying. While not all distressed jeans use this method, that this method is used at all is highly distressing.

Sandblasting and Silicosis

Another method used to 'distress' your jeans is sandblasting. There are strict regulations on sandblasting in European countries but elsewhere this is unregulated. There has been a trend for cost-saving which has seen companies outsource production to developing nations that are more and more unregulated. If your jeans have been sandblasted, in such an unregulated industry even the people who sold them may not be aware of who has suffered or even died to create your look. People in unventilated, unclean environments are sandblasting by hand, breathing in harmful silica dust and getting silicosis. This causes severe shortness of breath, heart problems and even death.

These issues are just scratching the surface when it comes to the dark side of the fashion we wear. So next time you buy, demand to know where they came from and make sure you are aware of the true cost of your clothes. MissBella