Samsung Cancer Cases Not Linked to Chips Says Study

Cancers among Samsung workers are not linked to exposure to chemicals used in manufacturing chips, according to a year-long study commissioned by Samsung. The study was led by US-based Environ International which announced the broad findings based on a study of Samsung’s chip plants.

Samsung says it will not publish the full study to avoid compromising trade secrets. It had commissioned the study last July after a workers compensation claim was filed on behalf of six workers alleging that their cancers were caused by exposure to various harsh chemicals used in chipmaking. The compensation tribunal rejected the claims, finding no connection between the cancers and their work at the Samsung plant. That ruling was partially overturned last month by a South Korean court which found that the deaths of two of the women could be linked to their work at the Samsung plant.

Samsung was not a defendant in the suit, but was eager to counter the negative publicity that resulted from it. Last July it retained Environ and experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, among others, and gave them full access to its chipmaking plants.

Samsung is not the only company to have fallen under suspicion of operations that could contribute to cancer among its workers. A case against IBM alleging that harsh chemicals at a disk drive plant had caused cancers in workers was rejected by a U.S. jury in 2004.

Samsung had first announced plans for a health and safety review in April of 2010 after a January workers compensation claim on behalf of six people who developed leukemia and lymphoma they claimed was caused by exposure to radiation and the carcinogen benzene in Samsung’s chip factories. Benzene, a solvent, is one of many chemicals used in chipmaking but Samsung testified that it had never used it, but revealed that between 1998 and 2010 25 chip plant workers were diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma and 10 died. It maintained, however, that there was no risk of contracting cancer at its semiconductor factories.

At the time it announced the investigation, a Samsung statement said the company was commissioning a “complete review that will evaluate general health and safety risks and hazards, use of carcinogenic substances, potential correlations between the workplace and employee illnesses, and other areas that may be independently identified by the inspection team.”

Samsung also said that the study will “determine whether it is feasible to accurately assess the possibility of past chemical and radiation exposure to employees, including a study of the chemicals used in the semiconductor production lines.”

The probe into past practices was the most significant part of the study as the current situation at Samsung’s semiconductor factories is “environmentally good,” said Baak Young-mann, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a trained physician specializing in occupational and environmental medicine.

Samsung took the lead in initiating a discussion of the cancer issue following the March 31, 2010 death of Park Ji-yeon, a 23-year-old woman who worked at a Samsung chip plant and had leukemia. She was the fourth person named in the lawsuit to have died. After her death, however, Park’s family dropped out of the suit, according to Baak, leaving a total of five plaintiffs, two of whom are alive.

The suit was filed against the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service after it refused to pay compensation following an investigation by occupational safety authorities that didn’t find work-related causes for the cancers.