It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable

Toxics

Tackling PFAS / EU Lobbying

15 January 2025

3 minutes

The cross-border investigation project has calculated that the costs of cleaning up ongoing PFAS pollution, including emerging PFAS, in the next 20 years could be over €2 trillion.

EU Proposal to Restrict PFAS at Serious Risk of Being Hijacked by Corporate Lobbying

The European Commission’s proposal to restrict PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ is at serious risk of being hijacked by corporate lobbying, warns a Corporate Europe Observatory’s analysis of newly-released documents that reveal industry's influencing tactics. The conclusion is clear: it’s time for a lobby firewall to protect PFAS decision-making from corporate lobbying.

Special Correspondent

Toxics Usage / Retail Study

27 November 2024

4 minutes

The 2024 Retailer Report Card outlines clear steps that retailers must take to improve their performance and protect public health. These include embracing The Four Essential Elements for a Safer Marketplace, which includes: adopting comprehensive safer chemicals policies; requiring full transparency from suppliers; restricting toxic chemicals and plastics in products and packaging; and implementing safer solutions to chemicals and plastics of high concern.

Retailers Failing to Protect Consumers from Toxic Chemicals and Plastics, Finds Study

The 2024 Retailer Report Card analyses 50 major US and Canadian retailers representing 160 businesses that generate over $4 trillion in annual revenue and hold significant influence over the use of toxic chemicals in their supply chains.

Staff Writer

Toxic Fashion / Australia Scene

30 October 2024

5 minutes

Australia currently doesn’t have a national mandatory information standard in place for fibre content labelling let alone labelling of dyes or chemical additives.

Too Many Toxic Dangers Posed by the Popularity of Ultra-Fast Fashion

Recent investigations have revealed alarming levels of harmful chemicals in ultra-fast fashion items as retailers like Shein, Temu and AliExpress surge in popularity in Australia and across the globe.

Saniyat Islam
Pia Interlandi

Commentary

Toxic Fashion / PFAS Study

22 July 2024

2 minutes

The most recent discovery greatly expands the number of PFAS compounds that can be destroyed biologically.

Researchers Discover Bacteria that Destroys Stubborn Fluorine-Chlorine Bonds in PFAS Compounds

US researchers have discovered a bacteria that can destroy certain kinds of PFAS or forever chemicals linked to cancer and other human health maladies.

Staff Writer

Toxic Fashion / Bangladesh Study

31 May 2024

3 minutes

Water samples were collected from lakes and rivers in areas near densely populated areas and industrial centres including textiles and other manufacturing facilities (including garment, tannery, electronics, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and/or steel plants).

Bangladesh Factories Making Clothes for Global Fashion Brands Linked to High PFAS Contamination of Surface and Drinking Waters

A global manufacturing centre of the fast fashion sector, Bangladesh, with no specific regulations on PFAS, has high levels of toxic PFAS chemicals in its surface and tap water samples, collected from industrial areas that are centres of the textiles industry throughout and around Dhaka.

Staff Writer

Toxic Fashion / Off-Price Retail

13 March 2024

3 minutes

At both Ross and Burlington, the majority (87%) of lead-containing handbags and wallets sampled in 2022 showed a pattern of faux leather materials on the interior lining of the bags containing excessive levels of lead, whereas the exterior faux-leather material tended to be lead-free.

Shockingly High Levels of Lead Found in Fashion Accessories Sold at Off-Price Retailers

Leading US off-price retailers Ross and Burlington continue to sell leather and faux leather fashion accessories containing high levels of toxic lead, says a report by nonprofit watchdog Center for Environmental Health (CEH).

Staff Writer

Toxic Fashion / PFAS Cover-Up

10 June 2023

5 minutes

The DuPont Washington Works plant which was responsible for air and water contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia, US.

Enemies of the People: DuPont and 3M Knew of PFAS Dangers, But Covered It up for 40+ Years

A painstaking, exhaustive analysis of documents by University of California (UC) researchers has revealed that the chemicals industry used all nefarious tactics in the playbook to delay public awareness of PFAS toxicity and, in turn, delay regulations governing their use.

Subir Ghosh

Commentary

The Observer

Toxics Usage / TCE

15 March 2023

2 minutes

Two states, Minnesota and New York, have banned TCE, but the federal government has not, despite findings by the EPA as recently as 2022 that the chemicals pose “an unreasonable risk to human health.”

Common Dry-Cleaning Chemical Linked to Parkinson’s Disease

Trichloroethylene (TCE), a common and widely used chemical used to decaffeinate coffee, degrease metal, and dry clean clothes, could be causing cancer, congenital heart disease and definitely linked to Parkinson’s, a new research has warned.

Staff Writer

Chemical Usage / UNEP Project

15 October 2022

2 minutes

The 'Reducing uses and releases of chemicals of concern in the textiles sector' programme will provide technical support and tools for SMEs and manufacturers to improve their knowledge and management of hazardous chemicals, guiding them to manage risks to workers, and eventually eliminate the worst chemicals from their production processes.

Four Textile-Producing Countries Unite to Reduce Chemical Waste in Industry

The Governments of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Viet Nam have joined forces to fight chemical pollution, launching a joint $43-million programme to manage and reduce hazardous chemicals in their textile industries.