FRANCE: Greenpeace supporters strip off clothes on Champs Elysees to protest against water pollution

Record ID: 325300

  • Title: FRANCE: Greenpeace supporters strip off clothes on Champs Elysees to protest against water pollution
  • Date: 24th July 2011
  • Summary: ACTIVISTS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR AND IN T-SHIRTS READING 'DETOX' POSING FOR PHOTOS PEOPLE WATCHING ACTIVISTS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR AND IN T-SHIRTS READING 'DETOX' POSING FOR PHOTOS (SOUNDBITE) (French) SYLVAIN TARDY, GREENPEACE, SAYING: "These big brands such as Nike and Adidas, but also other textile makers, Lacoste, H&M, Calvin Klein, Puma, have got a few factories amongst
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Environment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Q54G1SUZ3NAH2A0CHOSYO2X5
  • Story Text: The Champs Elysees in Paris is home to a variety of cabarets and burlesque venues, but tourists were treated to a strip-tease with a difference on Saturday (July 23).
    The participants didn't have glitzy costumes or fancy moves, but a dozen Greenpeace activists got down to the bare essentials for their cause and stripped down to their underwear on the main Paris boulevard. Their strip-tease, in front of the store of sports-brand Nike, was to draw attention to what they say is the pollution of rivers by the major sports brands.
    Greenpeace spokesman Cedric Gervet said the environmentalist groups' investigations show the brands had commercial links to facilities in China which they claim are discharging a range of hazardous chemicals into the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas. Gervet urged them to detox and become world champions in fighting pollution.
    "These big brands such as Nike and Adidas, but also other textile makers, Lacoste, H&M, Calvin Klein, Puma, have got a few factories amongst their suppliers in China which pollute rivers with extremely dangerous chemical products which can cause caner and hormonal disorders. So today we are asking Nike and Adidas to put pressure on their suppliers to make them stop polluting the rivers and make them stop using these dangerous chemical products in their fabrication so that they can become world champions in a world without dangerous chemical products," he said.
    Greenpeace say the chemicals not only affect the environment but also humans, damaging the liver and immune system, and disrupting hormones and sperm counts.
    The environmentalists call on the sports-brands to become champions of clean water to "hit a home-run for a toxic-free future".
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