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Slideshow: The surprising hell of Bangladesh's toxic leather tanneries by The America Tonight digital team (/profiles/d/the-america-tonightdigitalteam.html)

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Of all the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs Bangladeshis do to survive, these men just might have the worst: They are tannery workers, who work engulfed by the nauseating stench of toxic chemicals and rotting animal flesh. America Tonight

On Tuesday's America Tonight, Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reported from Bangladesh on what happens when authorities make no attempt to enforce laws designed to protect the environment and people. Watch an excerpt from his report (http:/author-aljazeeraprod.adobecqms.net/content/ajam/watch/shows/live-news/2013/12/toxic-tanneriescreatedeadzoneinbangladeshwaterway.html). It's  no  secret  that  Bangladesh  is  one  of  the  world's  poorest  countries  and  that  its  laborers  earn  some  of  the  lowest wages.  Its  garment  factories’  dangerous  working  conditions  have  been  well-­documented (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/14/bangladesh-­ strikeswageincreasedealbutprotestskeeprolling.html).  But  there's  another  industry  in  the  country  that  is  even  more threatening  to  workers’  health  and  the  environment:  tanneries  that  produce  leather  for  clothes,  shoes,  handbags, jackets,  belts  and  luggage  sold  around  the  world. Tanneries  are  an  important  industry  for  the  destitute  country,  accounting  for  more  than  an  estimated  $600  million  in exports  each  year.  About  90  percent  of  it  is  produced  in  Hazaribagh,  an  area  in  the  capital  of  Dhaka  that  just  last month  was  rated  among  the  five  worst  toxic  threats  in  the  world (http://www.worstpolluted.org/docs/TopTenThreats2013.pdf)  by  the  Blacksmith  Institute. The  chemicals  used  in  the  tanning  process  can  cause  cancers  of  the  lungs,  nose  and  bladder,  according  Dr.  Khalilur Rahman,  a  radiologist  at  Dhaka  University. And  while  the  cheap  Bangladeshi  labor  lowers  the  cost  of  leather  goods  sold  in  wealthy  countries  like  the  U.S.,  Japan, Spain,  China,  South  Korea,  Italy  and  Germany,  there  is  a  price  paid  in  the  human  misery  of  Hazaribagh. "This  is  a  product  that  is  used  worldwide  for  luxury  goods,  but  for  these  workers  who  are  making  them,  neither  the owners  nor  the  government  are  looking  after  our  health  and  safety,"  Abdul  Malek,  head  of  the  Tannery  Workers Union,  said  through  a  translator. A  Human  Rights  Watch  investigation  (http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/08/bangladesh-­tanneries-­harm-­workers-­ poison-­communities)  last  year  found  no  attempt  by  authorities  to  crack  down  on  polluting  tanneries,  calling Hazaribagh  "an  enforcement-­free  zone." "This  is  because  the  government  wants  only  to  buy  the  argument  of  earning  foreign  export,”  said  Syeda  Rizwana Hasan  of  the  Bangladesh  Environmental  Lawyers  Association.  “So  I  would  say  this  is  a  case  of  total  absence  of governance." For  years,  the  Bangladeshi  government  has  promised  to  move  the  tanneries  out  of  the  densely  populated  slums  of Hazaribagh  into  modern  facilities.  But  so  far  all  those  promises  have  remained  unfulfilled.

Its  latest  plan  calls  for  relocating  the  tanneries  by  the  end  of  next  year.  Government  officials  did  not  respond  to  Al Jazeera's  repeated  requests  for  an  interview. But  the  toxic  threat  of  the  tanneries  isn’t  just  limited  to  the  workers.  About  22,000  cubic  meters  of  environmentally hazardous  liquid  waste  is  emitted  from  them  every  day,  flowing  into  the  Buriganga  River,  Dhaka's  main  water  way. Scientists  say  the  Buriganga  is  a  dead  zone,  and  there  have  been  no  in-­depth  health  studies  done  on  the  people  living in  Hazaribagh  who  use  it  as  a  water  source. "If  you  come  to  the  Hazaribagh  tanneries  and  have  a  look  at  the  tannery  area,  that  should  tell  you  perhaps  how  hell looks  like,"  Hasan  said.

MORE COVERAGE OF THE BANGLADESH'S GARMENT INDUSTRY • Protest by Bangladeshi garment workers shutters 100 factories (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/11/protests-bybangladeshigarmentworkersclosesfactories.html) • Bangladesh factory fire kills 9, underscores safety issues (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/9/fire-at-bangladeshigarmentfactorykills9.html) • Bangladesh reaches wage deal, but garment workers' protest goes on (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/14/bangladeshstrikeswageincreasedealbutprotestskeeprolling.html)

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