HAZARDOUS WORKING ENVIRONMENT

[Anchor Lead]

So far semiconductor companies have denied that harmful substances in workplaces were to blame for workers' deaths caused by leukemia and other forms of blood cancer. A ten-year survey conducted by the Korean government has confirmed that workers at semiconductor factories do have a higher risk of contracting leukemia.

[Pkg]

​Hwang Yu-mi died of acute leukemia at the age of 23. She worked at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor factory in Giheung for one and a half years.

[Soundbite] LATE HWANG YU-MI(VICTIM OF LEUKEMIA AT SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS (2007)) : "I got bruises on my body and vomited frequently. I was also fatigued and dizzy."

For more than ten years, victims and their families tried to prove the lack of safety in semiconductor factories' work environment, but to no avail.

[Soundbite] PARK SANG-OK(MOTHER OF LATE HWANG YU-MI (2013)) : "I wish it was over soon. I have to come here every day to fight."

However, proof has been finally found. The government has conducted a ten-year survey on some 200,000 workers at semiconductor factories. The results revealed that they were more than twice as likely to die of leukemia as workers at other factories. What's more, their risk of dying of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, was nearly 3.7 times as high. The risk was found to be especially high in the so-called "cleanrooms," where semiconductors are manufactured and tested. Although semiconductor factories mandate their workers to wear protective gear and thoroughly prevent dust, they still use hundreds of harmful chemicals. Most of the employees working in the cleanrooms are young women. The investigation has found that many female workers in their early 20s were especially prone to blood cancer.

[Soundbite] KIM EUN-AH(OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH RESEARCH INST. ) : "Although we were unable to identify specific causes, we have found that the work environment did contribute to raising the victims' risk of disease."

The investigators believe that most of the workers who contracted the deadly disease began to work at semiconductor factories before 2010, as they were more exposed to harmful substances than others.