"Sandblasting scandal in Chinese jeans factories", 17 March 2015

American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch told jest-style that recent audits found no evidence of sandblasting or sandblasting equipment at a factory in China where the deadly process is said to be used to make their jeans. Their feedback comes in response to a year-long undercover investigation by Al Jazeera...which claimed factories across China are still using the sandblasting process.

American Eagle Outfitters says it "thoroughly investigated the factory Dongguan Tim Cheung and heave verified that all sandblasting equipment has been removed from the factory."

While A&F says audits in March 2014 and February 2015 "found no evidence of sandblasting being used by Dongguan Tianxiang or the presence of sandblasting equipment. Any violation of this directive will be treated as a serious matter." It adds: "We will review available evidence from the videos when they are released and will take appropriate action."

Both US denim retailers have banned the use of sandblasting during the manufacturing process... [also mentions Target, Levi Strauss, H&M, Gucci, Benetton & Esprit]