Chinese employees of the manufacturer Wintek, a Taiwanese company that manufactures such as touch screens, wrote a letter to Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, to alert him about the risks to the health of employees in the factory Suzhou Industrial Park. Employees have used Wintek hexyl hydride, also known as n-hexane, between May 2008 and August 2009 to clean the screens.
This product, banned in Europe and the United States because of its carcinogenic nature, is now increasingly used, but the plant employees say their health is still compromised. N-hexane was replaced by alcohol, but the long-term consequences are difficult to assess. "This is a deadly poison," said the letter to Reuters was aware.
N-hexane can cause neurological damage requiring long-term life care that employees can not afford, say the employees in their mail. Symptoms range from excessive sweating to recurring pains in the hands and feet and loss of finger control and constant tiredness. Apple, which released record results in January, declined to comment on this letter, explaining that his report on the working conditions of subcontractors detailed the measures taken.
CHILD LABOR Working conditions among Asian subcontractors Apple, but also in other new technology companies, are the subject of strong criticism, particularly since the wave of suicides that had touched the gigantic factory at Foxconn Shenzhen last year. Described as "quite nice" by Steve Jobs, the plant had been facing a wave of suicides among its three hundred thousand employees.
Foxconn is not an isolated case: the annual audit conducted by Apple with its sub-contractors shows that the specification office of the mark is generally not respected. Child labor, for example, is increasing: on the one hundred twenty-seven workshops inspected, the inspectors identified forty-nine cases in nine factories.
Apple says it terminated its contract with one of them. More generally, whether the management of hazardous substances or the fight against discrimination, only two out of three visited workshops meet the demands of Apple. As the demands on working hours, yet very restrictive (sixty hours maximum and one day off per week), they are only followed by one-third of factories audited. 
This product, banned in Europe and the United States because of its carcinogenic nature, is now increasingly used, but the plant employees say their health is still compromised. N-hexane was replaced by alcohol, but the long-term consequences are difficult to assess. "This is a deadly poison," said the letter to Reuters was aware.
N-hexane can cause neurological damage requiring long-term life care that employees can not afford, say the employees in their mail. Symptoms range from excessive sweating to recurring pains in the hands and feet and loss of finger control and constant tiredness. Apple, which released record results in January, declined to comment on this letter, explaining that his report on the working conditions of subcontractors detailed the measures taken.
CHILD LABOR Working conditions among Asian subcontractors Apple, but also in other new technology companies, are the subject of strong criticism, particularly since the wave of suicides that had touched the gigantic factory at Foxconn Shenzhen last year. Described as "quite nice" by Steve Jobs, the plant had been facing a wave of suicides among its three hundred thousand employees.
Foxconn is not an isolated case: the annual audit conducted by Apple with its sub-contractors shows that the specification office of the mark is generally not respected. Child labor, for example, is increasing: on the one hundred twenty-seven workshops inspected, the inspectors identified forty-nine cases in nine factories.
Apple says it terminated its contract with one of them. More generally, whether the management of hazardous substances or the fight against discrimination, only two out of three visited workshops meet the demands of Apple. As the demands on working hours, yet very restrictive (sixty hours maximum and one day off per week), they are only followed by one-third of factories audited.
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