ENVIRONMENT group Greenpeace International yesterday urged sportswear giants such as Adidas, Nike and Li Ning to stop polluting the Chinese rivers with their toxic waste.

A recent report released by the organization revealed that the suppliers of the world's leading sportswear brands, including Adidas, Nike, Puma, Calvin Klein, Lacoste, Abercrombie, Fitch and Li Ning, dumped toxic chemicals into the Chinese rivers.

The chemicals are harmful to human immune and reproductive systems and to the liver. They cannot be removed by water treatment plants. That is why they have been eliminated elsewhere, Greenpeace said in the report.

Nike and Puma promised last week that they would remove harmful substances from their materials, but Adidas and Li Ning have remained silent.