Samsung has disclosed that a study it commissioned by a US environmental and health care consultancy found no relationship between exposure to carcinogenic chemicals used in its semiconductor factories and the incidence of cancer in its workers. The findings reflect the results of two previous studies conducted by the Korean government. Despite claiming no link between the two, the company is considering offering financial help to some of its former employees who have been stricken with disease.
Samsung talked to a third party, ENVIRON, to investigate the situation. Because the facilities in question have been converted from actually making chips to testing chips and producing LEDs, the consulting company could not measure actual exposures. Instead, it looked at analog exposures in other exposed groups. ENVIRON studied six employees who had been exposed to formaldehyde, ionizing radiation and trichloroethylene, chemicals used in chip production and known to be cause cancer. It found that, although carcinogenic, there were not enough of theses chemicals present to have caused an increased risk of leukemia or lymphoma.
Samsung has more than 30,000 employees in its Gihung, Korea semiconductor factories. The company disclosed that 26 of its workers there had been diagnosed with either of these diseases, and that ten of them had died.
Samsung itself is not the defendant in the legal dispute. The case, on behalf of nine Samsung workers is actually being brought against the Korea Workers Compensation and Welfare Service, a government agency.
The company's chips are used in many products beyond its own. Apple and other major third parties often contract Samsung for assembly or use its chips directly, whether for processors or flash memory. [via Reuters]
By Electronista Staff
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