Suppliers to several big clothing brands are polluting two of China's mainrivers with hazardous chemicals, according to Greenpeace.

The new report by the environmental group raises questions about thecompanies Adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M and others do businesswith.

Greenpeace says they take advantage of China's lax environmentalregulations.

It called on the companies to make sure their products did not damage theenvironment and public health.

Greenpeace said laboratory tests on samples collected from two major textilesuppliers, in the Pearl River Delta in southern China and the Yangtze RiverDelta in Eastern China, over a period of a year revealed toxic chemicals inwaste water.

The chemicals found at the Youngor Textile Complex near Shanghai and the WellDyeing Factory near Hong Kong included nonylphenols, a subset of alkylphenolsand perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).

Alkylphenols and some PFCs are banned by the EU, although they are stillwidely used in the textile industry in developing countries such as China.

The chemicals have hormone-disrupting properties that can cause thefeminisation of fish and reduced sperm count in men, the report said.

"Now we have scientific evidence confirming that hazardous chemicals arebeing released into China's rivers to make clothes worn by people around theglobe," said Vivien Yau, a Greenpeace campaigner in Hong Kong, who was part of ateam that compiled the report.

Her colleague, Gloria Chang, campaign manager, said that the report'sfindings were just the tip of the iceberg, as there were hundreds of similartextile suppliers in China.

China has been the world's largest textile exporter since 1995.

Brand power

Greenpeace said the multinationals highlighted in the report had the power topersuade their suppliers to phase out the use of hazardous substances.

The group said that some brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma already hadpolicies that restricted hazardous substances in their finished products and, toa lesser extent, their manufacturing process, but wastewater discharges wereoften overlooked.

The report said the brands that confirmed commercial relationships with thetwo suppliers investigated were Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Bauer Hockey,Calvin Klein, Converse, Spanish firm Cortefiel, H&M, Lacoste, Chinese brandLi Ning, Puma and Chinese casual wear firm Meters/bonwe.

However, when contacted by Greenpeace before the report was made public,Bauer Hockey, Converse, Cortefiel, H&M, Nike and Puma all said that theymade no use of processes involving water of the Youngor Group in the productionof their garments.

Adidas told the BBC that its business relationship with the Youngor Group waslimited to the cutting and sewing of garments.

"The Adidas Group does not source fabrics from Youngor Group, which wouldinvolve the use of dyestuffs, chemicals and their associated water treatmentsprocesses," the company said.

Likewise, Puma, Nike and H&M told the BBC they acquired fabric fromoutside the Youngor Group and did not use Youngor for any industrial processesthat discharge water into the river Fenghua.

Lacoste told Greenpeace it took the matter seriously and would investigateit.

The BBC contacted the other brands named in the report, but they did notrespond immediately to calls for comment.