Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Fast Facts


Fast Facts

Worldwide some 2.7 million tons (2.4 million metric tons) of plastic are used to bottle water each year, according to Earth Policy Institute. (National Geographic).

The average wage paid to manufacturing workers in China is 20¢-25¢ an hour. (Center for Research on Multinational Corporations-- Amsterdam)

Workers at a jeans factory in Kenya, producing jeans for Wal-Mart, are discouraged from joining unions, despite Wal-Mart’s policy that allows workers to join unions. (Oxfam)

Workers at a factory in Saipan, a US territory, making Abercrombie clothes are paid around $3.00 an hour. (Conscious Consumer) Which is a lot compared to workers in a Gap factory who make 30¢ an hour.

Maybelline and Cover Girl are manufactured by Proctor and Gamble. Proctor and Gamble uses Huntingdon Life Sciences for their cosmetics testing. Huntingdon Life Sciences kills, on average, 500 animals a day.

McDonalds uses genetically modified potatoes for its French fries. McDonalds fries contain dairy and what ingredients, yet said in 2002 that their fries were dairy and gluten-free.

Bleach, if mixed with ammonia, releases toxic chloramine gas. Short-term exposure may cause mild asthmatic symptoms or more serious respiratory problems.

Nitrobenzene (in furniture and floor polishes) can cause skin discoloration, shallow breathing, vomiting, and death; associated with cancer and birth defects. A safer alternative would be to use cornstarch, which can be used to can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs, and starch clothes.

According to the National Research Council, "no toxic information is available for more than 80% of the chemicals in everyday-use products. Less than 20% have been tested for acute effects and less than 10% have been tested for chronic, reproductive or mutagenic effects."

Union leaders who work at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia have been killed because of their union membership.

According to local NGOs in Sierra Leone, some 1500 children work in diamond mines in slave-like conditions, working for around $0.50 a day.