CHEMISTRRY OF ANIMAL HIDES SKIN

The production of leather hurts animals, the environment, and the workers who manufacture it. Huge amounts of fossil fuels are consumed in livestock production as well, and cow-derived leather has almost three times the negative environmental impact as its synthetic counterparts, including polyurethane (PU) leather. By some estimates, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all of the world’s transportation systems combined. Leather has one of the greatest impacts on eutrophication of all materials used for fashion, a serious ecological problem in which runoff waste creates an overgrowth of plant life in water systems, which suffocates animals by depleting oxygen levels in the water and is the leading cause of hypoxic zones, also known as “dead zones.” The EPA has confirmed that factory farms account for 70 percent of the water pollution in the U.S. Runoff from feedlots and dairy farms also creates a major source of water pollution. Animal agriculture and its methane- and nitrous oxide–rich products, including leather, are leading contributors to climate change. This mass deforestation causes habitat loss for millions of species, eliminates the Earth’s tree canopy, and drives climate change.

In fact, in the last half century, 70 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared to make way for pastures or for growing feed crops.

CHEMISTRRY OF ANIMAL HIDES SKIN

In addition, raising the animals whose skin eventually becomes leather requires vast quantities of water and wide tracts of pastureland, which must be cleared of trees. Studies of leather-tannery workers in Sweden and Italy found cancer risks “ between 20% and 50% above expected.” average.Īrsenic, a common tannery chemical, has long been associated with lung cancer in workers who are exposed to it on a regular basis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area near one tannery in Kentucky was five times the U.S. Many die of cancer possibly caused by exposure to toxic chemicals used to process and dye the leather. People who work in and live near tanneries suffer, too. The process of tanning stabilizes the collagen or protein fibers in skins so that they actually stop biodegrading-otherwise, the leather would rot right in your closet. Tannery effluent contains large amounts of pollutants, such as salt, lime sludge, sulfides, and acids.

Chemistrry of animal hides