Radioactive Belts Recalled

And the surprise news story of the day: ASOS have had to recall a batch of radioactive belts after they tested positive for traces of Cobalt-60.

49 of the studded belts have already been sold to ASOS customers in 14 different countries, but at least the online purchase method should make the buyers easy to track down, as the belts manufactured for ASOS by a supplier in India would prove a real health hazard to anyone who has been in contact with one for 500 hours or more.

What are the chances, ey? Well, apparently it could in fact be quite common! In the report from Project Purple Flower reprinted in The Guardian it reads; 'Unfortunately, this incident is quite common occurrence. India and the far east are large consumers of scrap metal for their home and foreign markets. During the refining process of these metals, orphaned radioactive sources are sometimes accidentally melted at the same time. This in turn contaminates the process and traps the radioactivity in the metal as an alloy.' 

A spokesman from ASOS has said that; 'ASOS continues to work with the relevant authorities and is in dialogue with the supplier and the factory workers involved to ensure a satisfactory outcome.' But whilst that's all very well and good, we're still faced with the question how many other potentially dangerous products are out there that we don't know about? Once again we're seeing the importance of where our goods are sourced from. As high as the demand for fast fashion is, health and safety ranks far higher than getting a cheap product.