Friday, March 19, 2004
By Daniel Sorid, Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. semiconductor industry, facing allegations
that its members knowingly exposed workers to dangerous chemicals,
will investigate the cancer rates of chip industry employees, its
trade group said Thursday.
The Semiconductor Industry Association said it made the decision
on the recommendation of researchers from Johns Hopkins University's
Bloomberg School of Public Health, which found that an investigation
was scientifically feasible.
The study will aim to determine "whether or not wafer fabrication
workers in the U.S. chip industry have experienced higher rates
of cancer than non-fabrication workers," the SIA said in a
statement. Planning for the study starts immediately, the group
said.
Employee lawsuits against National Semiconductor Corp. and International
Business Machines Corp. portray the chip industry as rife with chemical
safety hazards that the companies overlook in the pursuit of profits.
Both companies dispute those charges. The SIA has pointed to U.S.
labor safety statistics that show the chip industry ranked in the
top 5 percent of all durable goods manufacturing industries.
Existing studies on the risks to microchip factory workers have
raised more questions than answers.
A report on existing health data commissioned by the SIA in 1999
and completed in October 2001 found no evidence to support the view
that work place chemical exposure increased cancer risk, but it
refused to rule out that cause.
A study by United Kingdom health officials of cancer death rates
among employees at a National Semiconductor plant in Scotland called
for more detailed studies to clarify any links to work place conditions.
IBM earlier this month settled a lawsuit related to claims that
an employee's exposure to chemicals in a New York microchip factory
caused her daughter's severe birth defects. In February, IBM prevailed
in a lawsuit by two former workers who claimed their cancers were
caused by chemicals in a California computer hard-disk drive factory.
National Semiconductor also faces litigation in California state
court by former employees who blame the company for various illnesses.
Source: Reuters
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