Chinese factory workers ask for Jobs' help after n-hexane poisoning

In October of 2010 a report by ABC Australia pointed to Chinese workers being sickened through the use of n-hexane in iPhone and MacBook manufacturing. A new report on Tuesday, Feb. 22 indicated that a number of workers have sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, asking him to help them in their grievances against the same company as in the earlier report: Wintek.

chemical are long-lasting. The chemical can cause long-lasting and even permanent nerve and eye damage. Wintek maintained that it stopped using n-hexane when it discovered it was making workers ill.

The company had chosen to move to n-hexane from alcoholto speed up production of touch screens for Apple products. Wintek has since returned to using alcohol.

The letter to Steve Jobs, which was shown to Reuters, said,

"This is a killer, a killer that strikes invisibly. From when hexyl hydride was used, monthly profits at Apple and Wintek have gone up by tens of millions every month, the accumulated outcome of workers' lives and health."

Apple earlier released its 2011 "Supplier Responsibility at Apple" report. In it, Apple said:

In 2010, we learned that 137 workers at the Suzhou facility of Wintek, one of Apple’s suppliers, had suffered adverse health effects following exposure to n-hexane, a chemical in cleaning agents used in some manufacturing processes. We discovered that the factory had reconfigured operations without also changing their ventilation system. Apple considered this series of incidents to be a core violation for worker endangerment.

The fact that Apple says it found this violation in its 2010 inspections tends to make the statement by Wintek that it stopped using n-hexane in 2009 one that requires questioning.

Also, workers said that Wintek did not provide enough compensation for the illnesses, pressured those who took said compensation to quit, and did not offer assurances to workers that any future issues related to the n-hexane exposure would be taken care of.

Guo Ruiqiang, a worker at the Wintek plant, said he was suffering new symptomsthat he blamed on the n-hexane poisoning.

"We are unable to cope with the medical costs of treatment in the future. We can only stay in the factory and see what happens. We just feel very helpless now."

Via: Reuters