At the start of September, after  a long standing campaign launched by Clean Clothes Campaign in November 2010 and a recent petition hosted by Change.org, Giorgio Armani SpA agreed to ban the dangerous practice of sandblasting jeans, a technique used to give jeans a used look which is highly dangerous to workers.

Many companies were quick to ban the process; Gucci, H&M and Levi's for example. Others took longer to adopt a ban while some only recently responded to public pressure - after many months of silence, in July 2011, Versace said they agree that the sandblasting operators who make the finishings on the jeans run unacceptable health risks. Previously they had refused to join the call for a ban and refused to provide details of their production. Armani now joins them with a promise to eliminate sandblasting from their supply line.  

“In regard to the sandblasting finish applied to certain garments, the Armani Group wishes to make clear that this technique has been eliminated from our production processes starting from the autumn-winter 2011/2012 collection that is currently available in the stores worldwide,” Armani announced via Facebook and Twitter.

Sandblasting, a process that involves workers firing sand under high pressure to give jeans a ‘worn’ look, can cause silicosis, a potentially lethal pulmonary disease. The process has led to the deaths of scores of workers in garment producing countries like Turkey.  

Change.org is currently hosting a petition calling on Dolce and Gabbana to ban sandblasting which has so far gathered over 38,000 signatures. Dolce and Gabbana is ignoring these signatures and instead have been deleting messages posted on their face book wall supporting a ban.

Even before the launch of the public campaign Dolce & Gabbana had explicitly informed the Clean Clothes Campaign that they have no interest in banning sandblasting, despite conclusive evidence and numerous deaths demonstrating how dangerous the practice is.

Sign up to get Dolce and Gabbana to wake up to their responsibilities here: http://www.change.org/petitions/dolce-gabbana-stop-the-killer-jeans

Sign here to call on more companies to take action: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/sandblasting