Badly produced leather can cause cancer - an organic alternative is on the market

Organic food is booming in Britain. Consumers are willing to pay a premium not just for taste, but for the knowledge that their food has been farmed in an ethical and environmentally sound way. The same demand does not exist for fashionable handbags, purses and jackets. ROMP, an ethical leather fashion company, intends to change that. Entrepreneur Greg Sturmer has sunk his savings into ROMP - a company that will only sell clothes made from 'organic' leather. Sturmer says the market is swamped with cheap goods - mainly from Asia - that have originated from inhumane farms via polluting tanneries. Poorly produced leather can even be harmful to the wearer's health. A heavy metal called Chromium 3 is used during the tanning process to prevent the hides from decaying. If handled incorrectly, this relatively harmless chemical can easily degrade into Chromium 6, which is a carcinogen. Greg Sturmer has teamed up with top designer Nina Morgan-Jones to create a fashionable organic leather label. In the UK any product that carries the 'organic' label must pass the Soil Association's rigorous criteria. ROMP has had to go abroad to IUV in Slovenia as its one of the few tanneries that can guarantee to meet exacting standards to treat the hides that come from one of Britain's pioneering organic farms. If the consumer is any doubt, the journey from field to abattoir to tannery to shop can be traced via a specially designed website.

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