The Environment

Leather is a popular material to wear, but making leather creates quite a lot of pollution. There are a number of environmental issues with the making of leather. First of all, animals that are bred for the purpose of leather and other by-products are living in terrible conditions. Cows and pigs are confined to dirty stalls that are just barely bigger than their bodies. Sometimes the stress levels for pigs are so high that "they often resort to cannibalism and tail-biting when packed into crowded pens or when they are kept isolated or confined." "Pigs inadequately stunned by bolt guns and bludgeoning with gate poles, hammers, and wrenches may be fully conscious when immersed in a tank of scalding water for hair removal." These very inhumane activities can breed diseases and cause an entire animal population on a farm to be wiped out.

There are also environmental issues with the manufacture of leather itself. Some substances used during the leather-making process include sulphuric acid, lead, zinc, formaldehyde, sodium bicarbonate, and coal tar derivatives. These substances pollute the environment. The leather industry also uses a huge amount of energy and on the basis of quantity of energy consumed per unit produced; leather would be put with paper, steel, cement, and petroleum as one of the biggest consumers of energy. The tanning of one kilogram of leather requires at least 35 litres of water. This polluted water mostly flows untreated into local water sources where people drink it and become ill with diseases. ~Malcolm

Child Labor

In the leather footwear industry in India, a major branch in the leather industry, child labor is often employed. Many children are contracted to work at homes, where they must carry the raw materials to the work site-not a pleasant job for children usually with muscles not yet fully developed.

Children from ages 10 to 15 work in poorly lit sweatshops, performing jobs such as stitching the leather soles onto shoes, also known as soling. The rooms lead to eyestrain and headaches, and the poor ventilation meant the children are constantly breathing in toxic chemicals.

~Edmond

Producers' Health

The industrial glues used in the factories are deadly for adult and children workers alike. Leather dust, benzene, and p-tert butyl phenols are carcinogenic, causing cancer to grow in the larynx, lungs, and gallbladder. In workers in China, those exposed to high levels of these chemicals experience leukemia and other health issues.

In addition to these diseases, many of the industrial chemicals used are neurotoxins. The shoe maker's paralysis is common among leather footwear workers, involving neurons in the voluntary motor system to be killed off, resulting in slower limb movement.

Other health problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, when the median nerve is compressed in the wrist, results from fast repetitive motions of the fingers, which is what many workers in the leather footwear industry must do.

~Edmond

Worker Harassment

Not only do children get harassed in making leather footwear and other clothing, but workers of all ages share the same misery. In China's Guangdong province's Pou Yen factory, called a "model" factory, 4000 workers with a female majority labored for up to fifteen hours a day, while being paid less than $80.00 US a month. There is, no surprisingly, no pension plan or health insurance.

The living conditions are terrible. Twelve workers are crammed into a dorm, sharing bunk beds. Food and other necessities are not included, so deductions are made to the workers' salaries.

To make matters worse, posts at the factory are far from secure. Workers over 25 are soon fired for a younger replacement.

~Edmond