Samsung accused of poisoning over 200 workers, then withholding information on toxins it exposed th

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One of Apple's largest component suppliers, Samsung Electronics, is the subject of a new investigative report regarding its withholding of critical information about the toxic chemicals its employees were exposed to while working in the company's factories.


Samsung's factory in Brazil hit with $108M suit over labor issues


According to a report by Youkyung Lee for the Associated Press, a worker safety group has documented over 200 cases of serious illnesses among former Samsung employees working in semiconductor and LCD factories.

Employees in their 20s and 30s have developed leukemia, lupus, lymphoma and multiple sclerosis, and at least 76 have died. However, the South Korean government has both made it difficult for poisoned workers to get any compensation related to occupational disease, and allowed Samsung to withhold from its employees any details about their exposure to toxic chemicals.

On 22 year old worker reported being offered 1 billion won ($864,000) to remain silent before she died of leukemia. Another, who lost her sight after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, reported that "there was never any education [at the factory] about what kind of chemicals could be bad so that we could be more careful."

A Samsung chip worker who developed breast cancer complained that Samsung "brought uninformed kids from the countryside and acted like money is everything, using them as if they were disposable cups."

Apple and Samsung



As Apple rose in stature as an international device manufacturer over the past decade, it began working to enforce standards among its suppliers, including Samsung, regarding the safely and treatment of workers and the handling of environmental toxins. Even so, media reports have regularly castigated Apple over employee suicides that occured among its contract manufacturers, while giving Samsung a pass for exposing its own workers to toxins.

In January 2013, after a hydrofluoric acid leak occurred in a Samsung plant resulting in the death of a worker, the local government initiated an investigation into the "coverup" of the incident after finding that the company didn't report the matter until ten hours had passed.

The incident was only reported as a curiosity among a few tech media blogs, even though the government eventually fined the company for its inaction. Lower margin Android products cut corners and take expedient shortcuts to deliver cheap products

That year, and every year since, tech media outlets have regularly suggested that there was no real difference between Apple's iPhone and the manufacturing of much lower margin Android products, which cut corners and take expedient shortcuts to deliver cheap products.

While reports of toxic exposures are swept under the rug by Samsung in South Korea, the manufacturing standards, worker welfare and toxic materials used by even lower-end Chinese manufacturers including Xioami, OPPO, Viva and Huawei are never even mentioned by Western journalists, despite a well known track record of Chinese companies cheating at benchmarks and environmental rules--including those reported as being caught and corrected by Apple's own Supplier Accountability standards.

Denials, deaths and apologies



Two years ago, Lee reported that more than 30 Samsung employees had filed active claims with South Korea's Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, alleging a link between factory working conditions and rare forms of disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors, but few have seen their claims honored. At least another dozen have claims on appeal after having their cases rejected by the agency.

In December 2012, the agency ruled in favor of a 36 year old woman who died from breast cancer after working for years at a Samsung plant that exposed her to radiation, benzene and other carcinogens. Earlier that year, the agency also compensated a Samsung worker who developed aplastic anemia, and in 2011 Korean courts ruled in favor of two employees who linked their cancer to Samsung factories after the workers' comp agency rejected their claims.

In 2014, Samsung was accused of strong-arming Korean media to suppress coverage of the film "Another Promise," which depicted the struggle of Hwang Sang-ki, a father with a daughter who contracted leukemia at Samsung. The film portrayed events as occurring at a fictional company, albeit clearly modeled after Samsung.

Samsung denied trying to quash the film, and later offered apologies. The Wall Street Journal noted that a Seoul Administrative Court eventually ruled "that toxic chemicals at Samsung plants 'had caused or, at least, expedited the illness' of two workers, including Mr. Hwang's daughter" as portrayed in the film.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 62
    brakkenbrakken Posts: 687member
    Paid shills everywhere are freaking out.
    ss and goog need to be cleared away.
    lollivercapasicumpatchythepirateintrepidfosterDan Andersenlatifbplordjohnwhorfinjony0jbdragon
  • Reply 2 of 62
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,103member
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    stourquerevenantcapasicumpacificfilmcnocbuijay-tpropodnolamacguytopper24hourscharlesatlas
  • Reply 3 of 62
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Why am I not the least bit surprised? I'm not even 1% surprised by this news. :#
    latifbpcaliDeelronintrepidfosterradarthekatmac_dog
  • Reply 4 of 62
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    Hillary, who is financed by shady foreigners and terrorists, would gladly take a donation from Samsung, and then lie to the faces of the victim's families.
    edited August 2016 macseekersirlance99redraider11revenantfotoformatzeus423wonkothesanecapasicumSpamSandwichmike1
  • Reply 5 of 62
    Baldwyn said:
    I guess it's better for Apple that their workers kill themselves at Foxconn? Typical Cupertino propaganda. 
    So much wrong with this post....

    1.  Have there been any documented suicides at Foxconn since 2011?
    2.  The workers at Foxconn are Foxconn's not Apple's.  The reason there are no longer suicides are because of positive changes Apple brought about in the last several years.
    3.  Are you sarcastically implying that it's actually better to die a long and terribly painful death due to employer negligence and coverup over choosing to end your own life (for whatever reason) speedily and essentially painlessly?
    latifbpbaconstangcalipscooter63macseekermejsricDeelronmobiusfotoformatmagman1979
  • Reply 6 of 62
    apple ][ said:
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    Hillary, who is financed by shady foreigners and terrorists, would gladly take a donation from Samsung, and then lie to the faces of the victim's families.
    Please fcuk off with your cheap political crap. Most obliged. 
    edited August 2016 calibaconstangadrayvenlostkiwimagman1979pacificfilmcnocbuidsdsingularitydasanman69
  • Reply 7 of 62
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    Baldwyn said:
    I guess it's better for Apple that their workers kill themselves at Foxconn? Typical Cupertino propaganda. 
    So wrong in many levels and I never could respect people who wished death of others. You are straight to my ignore list.
    edited August 2016 calipscooter63mejsricDeelronnapoleon_phoneapartadrayvenmagman1979pacificfilmdsddasanman69
  • Reply 8 of 62
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Engadget and all these trash tech sites better report this sh*t like they did the lies about Apple being somehow connected to Foxconn suicides(who manufactures for pretty much everyone.)

    Baldwyn said:
    I guess it's better for Apple that their workers kill themselves at Foxconn? Typical Cupertino propaganda. 

    How is truth propaganda?

    Apple DOES NOT own Foxconn. That's as stupid as blaming McDonald's for suicides committed at a corn field because McDonalds uses high fructose corn syrup using corn distributed from that field.

    Foxconn IS NOT an exclusive Apple manufacturer. They manufacture Android knockoffs, game consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo and tons of other electronics.

    The suicide rate at Foxconn is way LOWER than all U.S. States.

    Most of Foxconns suicides were made outside Apple manufacturing facilities.

    So I'm unsure if you're stupid or plain ignorant.
    edited August 2016 mejsricDeelronbaconstangjkichlinemobiusericthehalfbeemagman1979capasicumpacificfilmdsd
  • Reply 9 of 62
    pscooter63pscooter63 Posts: 1,080member
    Baldwyn said:
    I guess
    I'll hand it to the AI community, there are some trolls here who provoke serious thought, or even humor even as they do what they do.  And in their own way, make the community better, and richer.

    This post, on the other hand, is up there with picking your nose and staring in wonderment at what you find.  In public.  It adds NOTHING.

    Dislike, my ass.  Flagged.
    edited August 2016 mejsricbaconstangDeelronmobiusRayz2016magman1979tmaydsdintrepidfosterpropod
  • Reply 10 of 62
    Then Samsung has the gall to blame Apple for worker conditions at third party suppliers to Apple.
    igorskyrovertjbdragon
  • Reply 11 of 62
    apple ][ said:
    Hillary, who is financed by shady foreigners and terrorists, would gladly take a donation from Samsung, and then lie to the faces of the victim's families.
    Please fcuk off with your cheap political crap. Most obliged. 
    Was his post worse than the initial political crap he was replying to?  Shouldn't your anger be directed at the person who started the political garbage (or at least be equally directed at both)?  This way it looks like you have an agenda...
    edited August 2016 macseekerapple ][SpamSandwichstevehpatchythepiratelkruppboopthesnootmac_dog
  • Reply 12 of 62
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    One little minor question: How can a dead worker change careers? Just curious. The article mentioned that 76 people died. From the article: "However, the South Korean government has both made it difficult for poisoned workers to get any compensation related to occupational disease, and allowed Samsung to withhold from its employees any details about their exposure to toxic chemicals." Trump is not the President of South Korea.
    mac_dogjbdragon
  • Reply 13 of 62
    wigbywigby Posts: 692member
    apple ][ said:
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    Hillary, who is financed by shady foreigners and terrorists, would gladly take a donation from Samsung, and then lie to the faces of the victim's families.
    Isn't it great that you ignore an actual quote from Trump to cast doubt on a political opponent through conjecture and assumptions. Don't get me wrong-they're both scumbags. The difference is Trump is proud of the fact and Hillary tries to hide it. I can only assume from your mudslinging that you're proud of it too.
    lostkiwitmaypacificfilmstourquerovertbaconstangtopper24hoursmac_dogdysamoriarevenant
  • Reply 14 of 62
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,103member
    macseeker said:
    Trump would tell them to 'just change careers, it's a free market baby'.
    One little minor question: How can a dead worker change careers? Just curious. The article mentioned that 76 people died. From the article: "However, the South Korean government has both made it difficult for poisoned workers to get any compensation related to occupational disease, and allowed Samsung to withhold from its employees any details about their exposure to toxic chemicals." Trump is not the President of South Korea.
    Trump's road to riches includes getting rid of regulations. Then American companies can keep their employees in the dark as to the dangers at work (among other things).
    He'd really make a great dictator of a 3rd world hellhole.  Wish he'd apply for that job.
    singularityroverttopper24hoursdysamoria
  • Reply 15 of 62
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Baldwyn said:
    I guess it's better for Apple that their workers kill themselves at Foxconn? Typical Cupertino propaganda. 
    Name one Apple employee that committed suicide at Foxconn.  Just one.

    Moron.
    baconstangRayz2016magman1979capasicumSpamSandwichpacificfilmstevehintrepidfosternolamacguyrovert
  • Reply 16 of 62
    macseeker said:
    One little minor question: How can a dead worker change careers? Just curious. The article mentioned that 76 people died. From the article: "However, the South Korean government has both made it difficult for poisoned workers to get any compensation related to occupational disease, and allowed Samsung to withhold from its employees any details about their exposure to toxic chemicals." Trump is not the President of South Korea.
    Trump's road to riches includes getting rid of regulations. Then American companies can keep their employees in the dark as to the dangers at work (among other things).
    He'd really make a great dictator of a 3rd world hellhole.  Wish he'd apply for that job.
    I'm talking about Samsung and South Korea.  Not about the current Presidential election in the U.S.  Trump nor Clinton aren't mentioned in the article.
    jbdragon
  • Reply 17 of 62
    revenantrevenant Posts: 621member
    it is actually a little worse than what is written. One Korean newspaper did a spot on a father and his daughter of 20 something age who died of leukemia (and it was a Samsung owned paper so the article naturally disappeared). First Samsung was apologetic and took care of all the bills and tried to compensate the father after the death of his daughter. They were overly kind until the father said it should be reported. Then things went very sour and Samsung became very hostile to the man. What I have a hard time with is if you ask any Korean on the street about this, they are very mad about it- but they STILL buy Samsung stuff. I thought Americans were patriotic- the East has a jingoistic fervor that is unmatched.

    And whereas this is horrible, let us not forget that this kind of terribleness of hiding chemicals is native to Korea and Samsung. There have been children in the Midwest States who were becoming ill and died due to chemicals in fertilisers. A lot could be said about miners as well. Except these people are never even considered for compensation. This type of crap happens around the world (I believe it is worse in China and South America). Safety regulations and capitalism are not hand in hand, but profits and coverups sure are.
    baconstangmacseekermagman1979tmaycapasicumstourquepatchythepirateintrepidfosterrovertjbdragon
  • Reply 18 of 62
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Baldwyn said:
    I guess it's better for Apple that their workers kill themselves at Foxconn? Typical Cupertino propaganda. 
    You're butt hurt, I get it, but the difference is very clear. 

    Apple does its best to protect the health and quality of life of the people who manufacture their gear, even though these workers are not employees. 

    Samsung meanwhile is routinely killing its employees in the pursuit of profit and using those profits to cover it up. 

    If you can't see the difference then no one here can help you. 
    baconstangmagman1979capasicumpacificfilmroverttopper24hoursDan Andersendick leswunderjbdragonanton zuykov
  • Reply 19 of 62
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    sirlance99 and cnocbui better get in here with that evidence of the cover-up of multiple stubbed toes at the Campus2 site.

    baconstangmagman1979capasicumericthehalfbeepatchythepiratenolamacguyrovertjbdragon
  • Reply 20 of 62
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Please fcuk off with your cheap political crap. Most obliged. 
    Was his post worse than the initial political crap he was replying to?  Shouldn't your anger be directed at the person who started the political garbage (or at least be equally directed at both)?  This way it looks like you have an agenda...
    Indeed. I had no intention of bringing any political crap into this thread, I was merely responding to political crap.
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