Samsung Announces Environmental Review

The world’s second largest chip maker, Samsung, (Intel is #1) has hired Washington D.C.-based Environ Holdings to conduct a 12-month review of its semiconductor factories after reports surfaced that a number of workers have contracted leukemia, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Earlier this year, a group sued a South Korean government agency seeking classification of cancer-related deaths at the company as a industrial accident, thereby qualifying the victims for compensation. The new review will also be aided by a number of medical schools in the U.S. and South Korea. The company says 10 chip plant workers ave passed away from leukemia or lymphoma since 1998 and 15 others have been diagnosed with illnesses.

Meanwhile, some current and former Samsung chip plant employees claim 60 people have contracted leukemia and 20 died. Jang An-seok of the Guardian of Health and Human Rights of Semiconductor Workers told WSJ that they expected a review but it is long overdue.

Samsung has said that the review will attempt to determine if it is possible to “accurately assess the possibility of past chemical and radiation exposure…” While the chip maker determines this, it has also hired a professor from a medical college in Seoul to run an internal institute that will run continuous research and employee health and safety.