Sweatshops Should Be Banned Research Paper

INTRODUCTION
Sweatshops are often ignored by the public eye and neglected by the Western community, because of how they [sweatshops] greatly contribute to the Western concept of fast fashion. Disregarded by the media, it seems that the removal of sweatshops all across the world, is impossible to acquire. The demand for fast fashion, a contributor of sweatshops, is so excessive and imprudent that our Earth cannot keep up with it as it replenishes its resources.
HOW FAST FASHION DANGEROUSLY AFFECTS MODERN SOCIETY & OUR ECOSYSTEM
Fast fashion is 52 seasons of fashion instead of 2 seasons. Perceived obsolescence, a process used in advertisements that pressures consumers to buy the latest products that are ‘trending’, is used as an advantage by

retailers, worldwide. Perceived obsolescence is used by advertisers which is evidently true, as Elrod, the author of the article The Domino Effect: How Inadequate Intellectual Property Rights in the Fashion Industry Affect Global Sustainability, says, “This overabundance of product then pushes trendsetters to seek out the “next ‘new’ thing,” and fashion designers then come up with new designs. -- Bluntly stated, Earth’s natural resources cannot sustain consumers’ increasing demand for cheap, fast fashion” (Paragraph 60-63). The textual evidence also shows that the demand for fast fashion is high but the supply of it is limited, because of our heavy consumption taking a toll on Earth’s resources. The toxic dyeing and fabrics that are used to produce the products of fast fashion, risk people more likely to cancer and can get into our food supply, because the toxins are passed within the food chain. From the text, Elrod says, “The dyeing and treatment of textiles further add to the water pollution problem implicated as a result of fast fashion. -- Furthermore, the textile dyeing industry alone accounts for 17-20 percent of industrial water pollution seen each year. Untreated wastewater from the dyeing process is often disposed of into nearby rivers --eventually reaching the sea and contaminating global waters. Many of the chemicals used in the fashion textile industry are bioaccumulative--meaning they can build up in aquatic life (which was previously exposed to the chemicals) and pass up the food chain all the way to human consumption. -- In addition to the harms previously discussed, the chemicals used in the fabrics and dyes used by fast fashion companies contain cancer-causing toxins, (Paragraph 75-80)”. The toxic dyeing and fabrics also pollutes people’s water supply and our oceans. The dangerous conditions that the workers of the fashion industry face, go unnoticed by the public unless a terrible tragedy strikes, then the event will be shown to the media.
TRUE COST: REVEALING EVIDENCE OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY’S SHADY SECRETS
The movie, True Cost, describes and shows their viewers of the everyday struggles that sweatshop workers face in their working environment, including showing the terrible consequences that the modern fashion industry caused onto the many innocent lives, homes, and our ecosystem, for the demands of the consumers. True Cost shows viewers how consumers relate to dangerous events within history and how they [consumers] are the reason to pollution and to the many people’s deaths. Consumerism capitalism is more likely to make people unsatisfied and destroys our environment, to produce the products that are demanded by consumerism. Western consumers, are the main reason why garment workers are working and living in terrible environments, because the consumers demand for more products to be made and dumps out the old products onto the many workers’ homes, as Faherty says, “But none of the above are the worst offenders of all. Worse than the factory owners who let their buildings collapse on workers, worse than the foreign governments that wield military force against their own, worse than the Western governments that hold the system together, and worse than the big fashion corporations that orchestrate it all, are Western consumers, (Paragraph 9)”.
WHY THE MEDIA LOOKS AWAY & WHY SWEATSHOPS ARE BENEFICIAL TO ALL
Statistics of the garment workers’ wages and the comparison of their occupation to scavengers, are few of the many reasons why the media looks away from the hazards of the garment industry. Most sweatshops are considered as economically beneficial to sweatshop workers with their future pay and to many large clothing brands. Working in sweatshops are mostly described as volunteer work but in poor conditions and little pay, not enslaved work in terrible conditions. Pierre restates the words of Powell’s, saying, “But the typical sweatshop does not resort to violence. Employees work there voluntarily. And they are happy to have a job there, as interviews by Powell and others show. Voluntary work in poor conditions is not slave labor, (Paragraph 19)”. Sweatshop workers are also more likely better off to work as sweatshop workers than working for the many other services found in their area. The dangers of sweatshops are being ignored by the media because of the inconsiderate actions that many greedy anti-sweatshop activists tend to chose.
UNACHIEVABLE: THE BAN OF GLOBAL SWEATSHOPS
Garment industry inspectors failed to notice the highly potential risks within the factories.

Banning all sweatshops on Earth is viewed as an impossible goal to achieve. The process of banning all sweatshops throughout the world involves a long, complex process. It’s impossible for average, middle-class people to ban sweatshops worldwide, against big and wealthy corporations. As in a written report, it says, “‘Individual customers, especially universities, which often have relatively small production runs, many times have limited influence with factories, as their portion of the factory's production represents a very small portion of the factory's overall business,’ the report says. Before colleges can start having more impact, though, they must answer some questions that seem basic but are immensely complex in the Third World, (Paragraph 43-44).” Meaning that even though people can’t make immediate changes for the better yet, they should refrain from taking action and reconsider to look at the negative effects of the removal of sweatshops and they should question themselves about the pros and cons about the removal of sweatshops, seeing whether the cons outweigh the

pros.
OBSTACLES THAT SWEATSHOP WORKERS FACE
Diseases, breathing problems, stress, and other problems that relate to health issues, are some of the common dangers when working as a garment industry worker. Workers also reduce their daily total of drinking and eating, to earn more pay. “Various occupational health issues, such as breathing problems and respiratory illnesses that result from inhaling cotton dust, are common in the industry. According to an ESIC official, 80 per cent of all tuberculosis (TB) cases registered in 2009 were from garment workers. 2 Silicosis, an incurable lung disease also affects workers engaged in sand blasting. -- Although major accidents are not common, minor accidents such as puncture wounds from needles are a daily occurrence. Health needs to be looked at from the broader context of a worker’s daily routine. -- skip breakfast and other meals to save time, drink less water to avoid visiting the restroom and work without pause to meet high production targets, (Section 2.1: Occupational Health Problems ).” Garment industry workers are not informed of their company’s health and safety policy, having no idea of where and what the company’s health and safety measures are. Only a handful of workers acknowledge the company’s health and safety policy, along with what the procedures are. Because of the increasingly large amount of work unloaded onto the garment workers, the workers eventually started to get a lot of headaches, neck pain, leg pain, etc. Workers also developed allergies over time, including discomfort, boredom, and irritation, when working in these large, dusty factories.
CONCLUSION
Garment workers still suffer in the end, by the hands of big fashion company brands and ignorant Western consumers. Unable to make beneficial changes in their lives, one can only hope to achieve that goal sometime in the future. In the end, the only thing left to do that may help ban sweatshops and end the garment workers’ suffering along with reducing the large depletion of Earth’s resources and Earth’s own suffering, is spreading awareness.

Works Cited
Elrod, Cassandra.

"The Domino Effect: How Inadequate Intellectual Property Rights in the Fashion Industry Affect Global Sustainability." Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, 2017, p. 575+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A516196960/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=050523da. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Faherty, Matt. "The True Cost: a capitalist critique." Reason Papers, vol. 37, no. 2, 2015, p. 239+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A451311610/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=5e07331c. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Lemieux, Pierre. "Defending sweatshops." Regulation, vol. 38, no. 2, 2015, p. 66+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A421322690/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=72a3e552. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.
Van Der Werf, Martin. "Anti-Sweatshop Groups Find It Difficult to Turn Campus Idealism Into Real Change." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Jan. 2001. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A146905888/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=60c06b53. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.
"A Study of Occupational Health & Safety in the Garment Industry in Bangalore." Cividep India, 2 Apr. 2017,

www.cividep.org/2016/02/29/study-occupational-health-safety-garment-industry-bangalore/.