How Bangladesh’s Toxic Leather Industry Is Poisoning People And Rivers | Risky Business — Transcript

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1. 0:01Narrator: This cocktail of toxic chemicals
2. 0:04is what turns raw hides into leather.
3. 0:08But years of exposure without protection
4. 0:12can also cause cancer and other deadly diseases.
5. 0:17Mohammad Daud Ibrahim has been working in the industry
6. 0:20since he was 10.
7. 0:28Narrator: Leather goods are the country's
8. 0:30second biggest export.
9. 0:32But tanneries dump 5.2 million gallons
10. 0:36of untreated liquid waste every day.
11. 0:40Still, nearly a million people work in an industry
12. 0:44that studies have found will kill 90% of them
13. 0:47by the time they're 50 years old.
14. 0:50So how has an industry that is so destructive
15. 0:54gotten so big?
16. 0:58There are more than 200 tanneries in the capital, Dhaka.
17. 1:04And most of them are in the neighborhood of Hemayetpur,
18. 1:07where Daud lives.
19. 1:21Narrator: He freelances at different tanneries every day.
20. 1:26Daud peels off any jagged skin hanging off the rawhides.
21. 1:33He says it doesn't smell as bad as you'd think.
22. 1:42Narrator: In some tanneries,
23. 1:43workers submerge the hides in chemicals
24. 1:46to get rid of any lingering hair.
25. 1:51But at other tanneries,
26. 1:53these rotating drums do the same thing.
27. 1:59Three days of spinning turns the hides
28. 2:02into this whitish gray color.
29. 2:06Workers mix in calcium hydroxide
30. 2:08to split apart the layers of the hides.
31. 2:12Then, they organize the hides into these bundles.
32. 2:18They're stored under a plastic tarp
33. 2:21until the tannery is ready to process them.
34. 2:29The hides bake out in the sun for at least a day.
35. 2:34Drying is typically a job reserved for women,
36. 2:37because it doesn't require as much strength.
37. 2:40But they're hunched over for hours in the scorching heat.
38. 2:48Once the hides are fully dry,
39. 2:50Daud cuts off any dangling pieces
40. 2:52to smooth out the edges again.
41. 2:57He says everyone who works here must be 18 or older.
42. 3:10Narrator: But we filmed at five tanneries
43. 3:12and saw children at all of them,
44. 3:15including the one Daud was at.
45. 3:18Kids over 14 are allowed to work at factories in Bangladesh,
46. 3:23but some in the industry are as young as 7.
47. 3:28And according to a recent report,
48. 3:3090% of workers don't live past the age of 50
49. 3:34because of all the chemicals they're touching.
50. 3:46Narrator: The hides then go through
51. 3:48another round of refining.
52. 3:50Some tanneries rely on these shaving machines
53. 3:53to take off the top layer of fibers.
54. 3:56It gives the leather an even surface.
55. 3:59The scraps are sent to a landfill later on.
56. 4:05Workers load the pieces into drums
57. 4:07for a process known as bluing.
58. 4:14This step uses a violet powder,
59. 4:16chromium sulfate,
60. 4:18which preserves the hides
61. 4:20and prevents them from rotting in the future.
62. 4:24After spinning for as long as three days,
63. 4:28the hides turn a lighter bluish shade.
64. 4:32The process helps create soft, stretchable leather,
65. 4:37but the hides are still a little damp.
66. 4:43So they hang them up to dry.
67. 4:52At another tannery,
68. 4:54workers use a different technique
69. 4:55by clipping and hanging the hides to dry them out.
70. 4:59They work fast and can align dozens of hides
71. 5:02in just an hour.
72. 5:04Then, a split machine helps thin out the leather
73. 5:07so it's even before it's colored.
74. 5:12The final and most dangerous step is known as tanning.
75. 5:19Workers have to soak the hides in tanning agents,
76. 5:21which are often a mixture of formaldehyde,
77. 5:24azo colorants, and pentachlorophenol.
78. 5:28These chemicals protect the hides
79. 5:30so they don't lose their texture,
80. 5:34but they're all potential carcinogens.
81. 5:38Sometimes, workers contract bronchitis
82. 5:40or pneumonia from exposure.
83. 5:44Inhaling the vapors can also burn the eyes and throat.
84. 5:51While the health risks here are plenty,
85. 5:54the pay is not.
86. 6:10Narrator: They earn about one or two cents
87. 6:12for each hide they process.
88. 6:15Daud makes $4 on a good day.
89. 6:19That's enough to buy 4 liters of milk in Dhaka.
90. 6:23Government officials come by sometimes
91. 6:25to check if people are getting at least the minimum wage,
92. 6:28which is about $65 a month.
93. 6:31But Daud says workers often make much less than that.
94. 6:45Narrator: And workers say
95. 6:46they don't get any medical help.
96. 7:08Narrator: The leather industry has turned
97. 7:10Dhaka's Hazaribagh neighborhood
98. 7:12into one of the most polluted places on Earth,
99. 7:16with more than 150 tanneries packed
100. 7:19into just 50 acres of land.
101. 7:23They regularly dumped chemicals,
102. 7:25including chromium salts and acids into the waterways,
103. 7:29creating poisonous rivers.
104. 7:33Visitors who weren't used to the smell
105. 7:35said the whole town wreaked
106. 7:38of rotting carcasses and sulfur.
107. 7:43For a fresh start,
108. 7:44the government moved the tanneries
109. 7:46and their 25,000 workers
110. 7:48to a new district, Hemayetpur,
111. 7:51but little changed.
112. 7:53The government's filtration system was supposed
113. 7:55to process all of the wastewater.
114. 7:58Still, in the last six years,
115. 8:00it's never functioned at full capacity.
116. 8:12Narrator: The toxins are leaking
117. 8:14into the groundwater, too.
118. 8:19The government said it's working on solutions,
119. 8:22but it refuses to shut down the tanneries
120. 8:25in fear of what that might do to the economy.
121. 8:31By 2030, Bangladesh wants to earn at least $10 billion
122. 8:35from the export of leather goods,
123. 8:37compared to the $1 billion the industry is worth now.
124. 8:42These days, most of its leather is sold in China.
125. 8:55Narrator: Bangladesh still isn't
126. 8:56one of the world's top leather producers,
127. 8:59but it's quickly grabbing global markets
128. 9:01because labor costs are so low.
129. 9:07That comes at the expense of tannery workers like Daud.
130. 9:26Narrator: Daud has been working
131. 9:28since he was 10 years old.
132. 9:30He couldn't finish school,
133. 9:33so he has few other options.
134. 9:36That's why he wants a different life
135. 9:38for his 1-year-old son, Noor Mohammad.
136. 10:02Narrator: And he says if conditions don't improve
137. 10:04for leather workers,
138. 10:06he'll try his best to send his son abroad.