Distressed jeans are everywhere, and for good reason too. Worn-out denim is the perfect balance between on trend and timeless fashion; minimal detail but detailed enough; dressed up but equally dressed down. But hey, you already knew that... which is probably why you’re reading this now!
What you may not have known however, is this high-street honey comes with a dark secret.
Unbeknown to the everyday consumer, the rips in our everyday ‘high-street’ jeans are actually the cause of harmful and incurable lung diseases among factory workers.
Sandblasting is process that gives denim that ‘pre-worn’ look that we all know and love. To manually sandblast jeans, workers are equipped with a hose, an air compressor and sand. The process? Literally blasting jeans with sand to give them that distressed style.
While your new high-street jeans may look and fit like a glove, there impact is quite the opposite.
Shocking statistics from the World Health Organisation have confirmed that the aggressive process of sandblasting actually leads to incurable diseases like lung fibrosis, emphysema and silicosis among factory workers.
Silicosis is caused when small particles of silica dust from the sand embed themselves within the lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing, weakness and weight loss. Silicosis is incurable and, in its acute form, fatal. According to reports, Silicosis kills about 100 people every single year.
While many workers understand the effect that their occupation is having on their health, they are forced to continue to work for as low as $70 a month so they can feed their family.
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