China: iPhone workers poisoned

October 30, 2010
Issue 

“Workers in southern China, who say they were assembling Apple laptops and iPhones, have become seriously ill after using a dangerous chemical.

“The Number Five People’s Hospital in Suzhou has been treating workers who breathed in vapours from the chemical n-hexane.

“According to the workers, the chemical was being used in the production of Apple products and has left them unable to walk … They say they were using n-hexane to glue and polish the logos on Apple products …

“‘At first the symptoms were pretty obvious. My hands were numb. I could hardly walk or run,’ one woman told the ABC.

“‘I think they knew it was poisonous to human bodies but if they had used another chemical our output would not have increased,’ another woman said.”

— October 26 ABC.net.au article.

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