by Luisa Potenza
The fashion giant Versace has added his voice to a campaign to stop the sandblasting of jeans declaring the practice is dangerous to workers' health.
None of its suppliers were using the controversial technique and it has now joined an international campaign "to encourage the elimination of sandblasting as an industry practice." Sandblasting is used to give jeans a fashionable faded look.
The technique was outlawed in Europein 1966 but still goes on in countries outside the European Union. The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), a coalition of non-governmental organizations and trade unions aimed at improving work conditions in the textile industry, had previously called on Versace to end sandblasting.
Sandblasting operators work for leading brands in countries including Bangladesh, China, Egypt and Mexico. Sandblasting operators often contract an acute form of silicosis, which has killed many of them.
