http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/374088.html


Semiconductor manufacturing deaths – will they be swept under the rug?
Occupational Safety and labor activists Ted Smith and Amanda Hawes

The Hankyoreh Newspaper - http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/374088.html
Yijonggeun News




American labor activists Amanda Hawes (left) and Ted Smith' talked about the problem of leukemia in Samsung semiconductor workers during an interview at the Seoul Garden Hotel on August 28, 2009. News yijonggeun root2@hani.co.kr


"Semiconductor factory workers are exposed to too many chemicals!”
Ted Smith and Amanda Hawes, industrial safety activists from the U.S., met with “The Hankyoreh" Newspaper to express their strong concerns about occurrence of cancer among the Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant workers. "This looks very similar to what happened at IBM in the U.S. It’s a real problem that Samsung does not conduct and disclose the results of any health investigation and yet still claims that nothing is wrong,” said Hawes. “But if the company did not even conduct an investigation, it is an even bigger problem," she said. They were in Korea to attend a meeting of The International Metal Workers (IMF) union to discuss health and safety problems in the electronics industry in Korea and around the world.
'Semiconductor manufacturing is hazardous’ says attorney Hawes, who waged a legal battle against IBM because workers there developed cancer after being exposed to toxic chemicals. "Samsung factory leukemia cases require that there be a follow-up health investigation. “

Hawes and Smith have been battling IBM and other U.S. high-tech giants in Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the semiconductor industry (semiconductor chips are the 'rice’ of the electronics industry.) Smith explained the hazards of the organic solvents used by the industry and said that data published in the United States has been well documented, as he pulled out a thick book [“Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry.”]. "Even though the toxic chemical substances were found to be below the legally allowable limits, the women working in the Clean Rooms still suffered higher rates of miscarriages,” explained Hawes.

The reason why she can confidently assert this is because of the materials that she was able to obtain through legal battles. Attorney Hawes obtained information from IBM which contains 30 years of health tracking data from semiconductor plant workers. When she got the data from IBM, she did an analysis and found that "The occurrence rate of blood cancers and brain tumors in those regularly exposed to toxic chemicals in IBM factories showed much higher rates than other workers," she said. Smith added that there is continuing evidence about the dangers of semiconductor processes, and mentioned the high cancer rates in the semiconductor plants in Scotland.
They recently met with South Korea's Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant workers and learned about those who had died of leukemia and other cancers. It’s probably the same in Korea as it is in the U.S. where the employer tells the workers that there is no problem, they said. "The important thing is not just to compensate the families for their loved ones who have died – it’s important to make sure that these things never happen again” said Hawes. “Samsung must inform the workers what chemicals they are being exposed to and do a better job in protecting their health, investigating the health hazards, and preventing future harm.
In the 1970’s, California attorney Hawes was engaged in representing fruit processing women workers in the canneries. Many of these women started working at semiconductor plants as the industrial structure began to change, and Hawes discovered that many of them suffered from health problems, including miscarriages. Observing these developments opened her eyes and led to her awareness of the industrial health problems in the electronics industry. As Smith noted, "The electronics industry must pay more attention to these problems and value the next generation children as much as the next generation of chips.
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