To die for? The health and safety of fast fashion.

Cost-effectiveness of a workplace-based incentivized weight loss program. Association between wellness score from a health risk appraisal and prospective medical claims costs. last accessed). 29. Kouvonen A, Kivimäki m, Virtanen m et al. Effort-reward imbalance at work and the co-occurrence of lifestyle risk factors: cross-sectional survey in a sample of 36,127 public sector employees. If the world wants an image that sums up the true cost of supplying big-name retailers with cheap, fast fashion, it only has to look at the horrifying images that emerged from Dhaka in April 2013. This is now the deadliest garment-factory accident in history [1]. The death toll from the building collapse at the Rana Plaza complex in the Savar district of Greater Dhaka, Bangladesh stands at more than 1100 making it the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 and worse than the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 that prompted American legislation requiring improved factory safety standards. Since 2005, at least 1800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh alone according to research by the advocacy group International labor Rights Forum [2] and the problem affects many other countries where cheap clothes are manufactured. Prior to the collapse in Bangladesh the factory owners had been repeatedly asked to close the factory because of concerns about the structural safety of the building after cracks appeared and a bank on the second floor of the same building sent its workers home the day before. The building was built three floors higher than it had been designed or licensed for and there were concerns about how building permits were obtained. The Bangladeshi government has publicly acknowledged that as many as 90% of Dhaka's high rise buildings do not meet local construction standards, let alone international rules. In the aftermath of the disaster, thousands of workers demonstrated against poor safety standards. The factory supplied clothing companies Primark and matalan amongst others. There have been repeated building collapses in Bangladesh but fire is the greater hazard in clothing factories. In September 2012 two fires on the same day in separate garment factories in Pakistan killed more than 300 workers [3]. Between 300 and 400 workers were inside the first factory when a boiler exploded and the flames ignited stored chemicals. Officials said that all the exit doors in the factory were locked and many of the windows …