Chinese workers making touch screens for Apple complain about chemical poisoning

PanARMENIAN.Net - Chinese workers at a factory making touch screens on contract for Apple have urged the U.S. company to help address their grievances over a chemical poisoning they said could still harm their health.

Wintek, the Taiwanese company that owns the factory in east China's Suzhou industrial park, has said it used hexyl hydride, also called n-hexane, from May 2008 to August 2009, but stopped after discovering it was making workers ill.

"This is a killer, a killer that strikes invisibly," said a Chinese-language copy of the letter meant for Apple CEO Steve Jobs that workers showed Reuters. An English version had been sent to Apple.

"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," said the letter, signed by five workers claiming to represent employees.

Wintek said it had used the chemical, which evaporates faster than alcohol, to speed up production of touch screens for Apple products. It has since gone back to using alcohol.

Apple, which announced blockbuster profits in January, has been dogged by criticism of work conditions at its China-based suppliers. Last year, its main China supplier Foxconn was hit by over a dozen apparent worker suicides that critics blamed on harsh factory conditions.

The poisonings were mentioned in a recent report from Apple, which sources many of its strong-selling iPhones, iPads and other devices to contract manufacturers in China. That report said 137 workers had been hospitalised because of poisoning but had all recovered, a conclusion also offered by Wintek.

Apple declined to comment on the workers' letter, Reuters reported.