1.3 The environmental impact of the manufacturing of seminconductors  (Page 5/8)

Several semiconductor manufacturers including National Semiconductor and IBM have been cited in the past forholes in their safety procedures and have been ordered to tighten their handling of carcinogenic and toxic materials.

In 1996, 117 former employees of IBM and the families of 11 workers who had died of cancer filed suit againstthe chemical manufacturers Eastman Kodak Company, Union Carbide Corporation, J. T. Baker, and KTI Chemicals, claiming that they hadsuffered adverse health effects as a result of exposure to hazardous chemicals on the job in the semiconductor industry [5]. The lawsuit was filed in New York, which prevented the employees from suing IBM directly. A separate group of former IBM workers whohad developed cancer filed suit against the company in California, alleging that they had been exposed to unhealthy doses ofcarcinogenic chemicals over the past three decades. Witnesses who testified in depositions in the New York state court in WestchesterCounty described how monitors that were supposed to warn workers of toxic leaks often did not function because of corrosion from acidsand water. They also alleged that supervisors sometimes shut down monitors to maintain production rates. When they lodged complaintswith senior officials in the company, they claim to have been told not to “make waves” [6]. Meanwhile, 70 female workers in Scotland sued National Semiconductor Corporation, anotherU.S.-based company, claiming that they, too, were exposed to carcinogens on the job.

These lawsuits and the resulting publicity prompted a groundbreaking study by the Health and Safety Executive,which commissioned a committee to investigate these allegations [7]. The committee found that there were indeed unusually high levels of breast and other kinds of cancer among workers at National Semiconductor’s fabrication facility in Greenock, Scotland. Thecommittee concluded that the company had failed to ensure that the local exhaust ventilation systems adequately controlled thepotential exposure of employees to hydrofluoric acid and sulphuric acid fumes and to arsenic dust. These findings proved to beextremely embarrassing for the company and for the industry. According to an official statement released by Ira Leighton, actingregional administrator of the New England branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

National Semiconductor is a big business that uses a large amount of harmful chemicals and other materials. Our hazardous waste regulations were created to properly monitor dangerous chemicals and prevent spills. In order for it to work, it is important businesses to comply with all of the regulations. Whencompanies fail to do this they are potentially putting people – their employees and neighbors – at risk [8].

Moreover, a study of fifteen semiconductor manufacturers published in the December 1995 issue of the American Journal ofIndependent Medicine showed that women working in the so-calledclean rooms of the semiconductor fabs suffered from a 14% miscarriage rate.