By Kim Yoo-chul
YONGIN, Gyeonggi Province — A U.S. environmental specialist Thursday claimed no link was found between six leukemia-stricken former Samsung Electronics employees and their working conditions.
“We found that occupational exposure in manufacturing areas evaluated are significantly below levels developed by the scientific community,” said Paul Harper of Environ International. Environ was commissioned last July by Samsung to improve the safety of its factories.
“But Environ didn’t find a link between exposure to cancer-causing chemicals and the health conditions of six employees,” the Environ executive told reporters.
Environ has inspected three Samsung chip plants — Line 5 in Giheung, Line 12 in Hawseong and Line 1 in Onyang — and looked at medical records of six Samsung employees to find out if there was any firm evidence of cancer-causing chemicals.
The rebuttal came weeks after a court ruled that two of the six plaintiffs had cancer following exposure to hazardous materials while working at Samsung factories. The ruling came with an order for monetary compensation.
Civic and lobbying groups claimed that they had evidence to confirm there was a pattern of cancer amongst workers who worked in Samsung’s semiconductor plants.
Samsung said that it couldn’t agree with the court’s finding.
“Samsung plans to release a full report on the findings but it is not for gaining an edge in legal battles. We wanted to know whether we have any problems that may threaten the health of our employees at chip plants,” said Lee Ki-ok, a vice president of Samsung’s legal team.
The legal fight is continuing after the deaths of Hwang Yu-mi and Lee Suk-yeong who used to work at Samsung’s chip plants.
Civic groups claim that Hwang and other workers were exposed to toxic chemicals like benzene, while manually washing semiconductors in a chemical solution to remove unnecessary substances.
“Samsung has fully acknowledged a differentiation in view for leukemia-related debates. We will welcome civic groups, if they want to form an alliance with Samsung for a joint inspection,” said the executive from the company’s legal team.
Twenty-six Samsung employees have suffered from leukemia, so far.
Meanwhile, Samsung plans to increase the number of its health experts to 23 by the end of 2013 from the current 8 as part of its promise to further improve the working environment.
“Samsung will fully open the results of intensive inspections of working environments at our chip facilities, soon, ” said Samsung’s top chip officer Kwon Oh-hyun.
Kwon has been leading the newly-created device solutions unit that encompasses Samsung’s semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) businesses since early this month from a rare mid-year management reshuffle.
Samsung has never used hazardous chemicals such as benzene, which some believe causes leukemia, as well as trichloroethylene (TCE), which is associated with nervous system disorders, during its chip-making process, Kwon said, Thursday.
“All Samsung’s materials suppliers state that materials that they provide are totally safe in terms of health,” said Kwon.
The news conference, which was held at its chip facility in Yongin, on the outskirts of Seoul, packed with more than 100 local and foreign media with representatives of civic groups, comes after an international consultancy released its own results over the working environment of Samsung’s chip facilities.
Kwon said it will provide financial support to ex- and current Samsung employees who have or had been suffering from any diseases linked to the work environment.
“Details for updated financial programs for our ex- and current employees suffering from cancer and other diseases will be announced soon,” said Kwon.