Nike has reduced the amount of potentially unhealthy solvents used in making its sneakers by almost three-fourths in the past three years, company officials said Monday.
Nike has a goal of a 90 percent reduction by 2001, officials said, adding that the company intends to make sure that by the end of this year, no worker is exposed to dangerous levels of vapors.The proportion of workers exposed to dangerous levels of vapors currently averages less than 1 percent per factory, they said.
The company, based in Beaverton, Ore., has installed new ventilation systems.
It also has replaced petroleum-based solvents with water-based chemicals, which have been equal in quality and cheaper to use, said Dick Crosbie, Nike's director of footwear chemical engineering operations.
The effort followed accusations of poor working conditions at the Asian factories where Nike makes its shoes.
Other shoe companies manufacture their products under similar conditions, but Nike attracted the most criticism because of its position as a market leader.
In May, Nike chairman Phil Knight promised to raise the minimum age for workers at Nike's contract plants in Asia to 18, improve factory air quality, allow independent monitoring and provide free education for workers.
Nike shoes are made at 37 factories belonging to contractors in six Asian countries: China, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea. The factories employ 180,000 people in all.
Representatives of Nike's competitors, such as Adidas and Reebok, attended Monday's seminar by invitation. Nike is keen to share its experiences of replacing petroleum-based chemicals with water-based ones, said Dusty Kidd, Nike's director for labor practices.