A new Greenpeace investigation showed that Youngor Group, China's biggest integrated textile firm supplying Nike, Adidas, Puma and other leading brands, discharged hormone-disrupting chemicals and other toxins into the country's major water systems, The Guardian reported.

Greenpeace also linked hazardous textile plants in the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas to Lacoste, H&M and half a dozen other international fashion brands, despite many of those companies' claims to have high environmental standards in their supply chains.

Greenpeace said the foreign firms need to insist upon higher standards throughout their supply chains.

In addition, the group said the brands have a moral obligation to phase out hazardous chemicals not just in the final product sold to first-world consumers, but also in the industrial processes affecting workers and the environment in developing nations.