A while ago I had read a report on Korea’s aggressive drive towards industrialization in the 80′s causing diseases with all the ladies who soldered circuit boards for radios and TVs. I’d think that after 20 years things would change. However, at least to some degree, there may still be some issues.
According to Corporate Social Responsibility employees that cleaned wafers at Samsung’s semiconductor factory are having unusually high cases of cancer. Hwang Sang-gi’s 22 year old daughter, Hwang Yu-mi, worked at the plant and contracted leukaemia. The father at first thought it was bad luck. Then he did a little digging:
… Hwang found other cases where workers in the plant had died of leukaemia and similar diseases. Minwoong Hwang – an engineer in the same factory – died from leukaemia in 2004. In another case, three employees in four-man team contracted leukaemia, malignant melanoma and Wegener’s granulomatosis (a disorder characterized by inflammatory destruction of blood vessels). He discovered what he believes is a pattern within the factory of miscarriages, menstrual irregularities, musculoskeletal pain and disorders, various skin diseases, chronic headaches and nose bleeds.
A short video documentary is available here.
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I wonder it will be determined that an investigation would be bad for South Korea’s economic health? God knows, I myself am still feeling a bit odd since imbibing the last flavor of the month.
Elgin,
Korea still has a long way to go to improve corporate governance and transparency. I can, to some degree, understand why there was a high degree of collusion between government and corporations in the 70′s, 80′s and to some extent the 90′s. However, I believe Korea should do more to make companies have greater accountability to the society in general now that we are in the 21st century.
I also read another article (too lazy to find it now) that states that there are a lot of Koreans who are getting older who may develop health complications from all the unhealthy working environments they worked in during the 70′s and 80′s and this might be a ticking time bomb of sorts, for Korea’s health system. If that’s so, can you imagine the problems China may go through in 20-30 years? I know China will be a richer country then but I know for a fact now that many of their citizens in the nacent factories all across that country work in highly polluted conditions. I don’t know in what degree… but to some extent the chickens may come home to roost.
Oddly enough, a letter came, informing me about the next shareholders meeting. I wonder if anyone will mention this topic (?).
Methinks THIS…
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/iphone-chemical-tied-to-chinese-factory-illnesses/19406011
… is only the tip of the iceberg.
Samsung’s response…
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2010/04/133_64120.html
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