Health hazards in semiconductor manufacturing occupations

Health hazards in semiconductor manufacturing occupations is an issue of dispute past and present workers of semiconductor manufacturing have with their employers and associates of their employers.

These are the issues confronting semiconductor manufacturing workers, companies and their suppliers:

• Use of toxic materials expose workers to potential health hazards which include cancer, miscarriages and birth defects.
• Health manifestations due to exposure to toxins may take decades to surface.
• Protective gear that had been issued to workers that had been designed to protect the products and process from contamination by workers but not designed to protect workers from contamination by the process, products and materials.
• The use of vast variety of toxic chemicals in semiconductor manufacturing makes it difficult to evaluate or pin-point the possibilities of contamination. It would require performing exhaustive epidemiological studies which would be too expensive for a highly competitive industry.
• Studies reveals that as much as 38 percent of pregnant women working in the chip industry's clean rooms had experienced miscarriages, which is well above general norms - Journal of Occupational Medicine 1998.

The defence put up by semiconductor industry officials are

• The chemicals are tightly controlled.
• Procedures have been put in place which would make contamination impossible.
• There is comparatively extremely low rate of accidents in the semiconductor industry.
• Semiconductor industry has been ranked the top 5% for workplace health and safety among U.S. companies since 1972.

Semiconductor industry officials state that privacy obligations make it difficult for them to provide data for studies.

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A Scientific Advisory Committee funded by the Semiconductor Industry Association concluded there was no evidence of increased cancer risk to cleanroom workers, although it could not rule out the possibility that circumstances might exist that could result in increased risk. ^{[7] [8]}

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