Growing evidence of illnesses and cancer among electronics workers

Brussels, 16 March 2015 – Today, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), an industry association representing over 100 electronics companies, meets in Brussels to discuss chemical management strategies. At this meeting, NGO representatives will deliver a formal Challenge to the electronics industry endorsed by more than 200 civil society groups from electronics production countries and across the globe, urging the industry to take meaningful actions to prevent harm and to be accountable to workers and nearby communities by improving chemical safety.

Cancer at Samsung plants, South Korea

23-year old Yumi Hwang died from leukaemia on 6 March 2007 after having worked for several years in a Samsung chip plant in South Korea. In court, her illness was finally acknowledged as a case of occupational disease, but only after eight years of legal struggle. Thirty-five workers in Yumi’s chip plant and one other plant in South Korea have developed leukaemia or lymphoma. Ten have died since 2007.

Today, electronics workers in Asia and Latin America continue to suffer exposure to harmful chemicals. Civil society organisations report hundreds of cases of electronics production workers who have fallen ill over the past five years in China, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere from exposure to benzene and other highly toxic chemicals used in manufacturing.

Electronics industry challenged

Over 200 labour groups, environmental organisations, occupational health & safety experts, human rights organizations and other civil society groups led by the GoodElectronics Network and the International Campaign for Responsible Technology (ICRT) are presenting a ‘Challenge’ to the electronics industry, which outlines concerns and demands with regard to chemical safety. The Challenge emphasizes the importance of disclosure, substitution of hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives, protection of workers, freedom of association, participation of workers in workplace monitoring, environmental protection, and the need for compensation of workers, communities and the environment for harm done. The industry should assume responsibility and take meaningful action beyond their current weak standards and ineffective auditing systems.

“It’s astonishing that the most technically savvy companies in the world, whose names are on our electronics, say they still don’t know all of the materials used in their own products or in their supply chain production factories,” said Ted Smith of ICRT: “What we need from this important industry is safe jobs and healthy families, where the next generation of children is at least as important as the next generation of chips.”

GoodElectronics and ICRT have invited the industry to give feedback to the Challenge. EICC has set up a chemical task force. Industry representatives, however, admit that their regular corporate audits do not find that work-related chemicals-induced illnesses are a problem. “These corporate audits don’t uncover chemical exposures and other labour rights violations all the way down the supply chain,” said Pauline Overeem, Coordinator of the GoodElectronics Network. “There is a clear disconnect between audits findings and the grim reality in many factories. That’s why we are challenging the industry to clean up its act now.”