1 killed, 4 injured in chlorine gas leak at Apple supplier Catcher
The incident occurred during "routine work" at a liquid-waste treatment workshop in Suzhou, Catcher spokesman James Wu said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Catcher builds unibody metal cases for Apple's MacBook lineup, and also supplies components to other companies such as Dell and HTC.
Of the employees that are injured, three are said to be in serious condition, while one has reportedly been transferred out of intensive care. The factory where the incident occurred was previously given a worst-possible "black" rating by the Suzhou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
The incident comes after Apple initiated a strong crackdown on its overseas supply chain, following criticism asserting that Apple's devices are assembled by workers who earn low pay and operate in unsafe working conditions.
Earlier this year, Apple became the first technology company to request independent audits of its overseas supply chain from the Fair Labor Association. Initial inspections from the FLA found a number of violations at Foxconn, Apple's assembly partner.
Apple's unibody manufacturing process was detailed in this 2008 video.
This week's incident at a Catcher plant isn't the first time an employee has died on the job at a Chinese plant of one of Apple's partners. Two workers were killed at a Foxconn iPad assembly plant in 2011, while a handful of employee suicides at Foxconn's facilities also gained international attention.
This March, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook himself visited a Foxconn iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, China, to see first-hand the facility. That visit came after a series of reports on Apple and Foxconn stirred up debates about labor rights in China.
For years, Apple has also conducted its own internal audits of its overseas supply chain. The latest report, issued in January, found no intentional underage labor in 229 audits, a marked improvement from the 49 underage workers Apple discovered in its audits released in 2011.
34 Comments
"How dare Apple let this happen. This is entirely their fault."
"How dare Apple let this happen. This is entirely their fault."
Come on, Skil, didn't you know?
Apple is supposed to be everywhere at all times, aware of every possible situation at each of their suppliers' operations, and able to predict every possible eventuality.
(And leap over tall buildings in a single bound.)
Have some dignity and change this phrase: "a handful of suicides"
Handfuls are for trivial things like food and change, not people's lives -- no matter how much you don't seem to value them because it makes your favorite company look bad.
Hopefully, conditions were already being worked on in that plant. I do feel that Apple has been doing more than due diligence as they are having a widespread influence on those who work for them in these factories. You can argue that Apple is not directly responsible, but it's in everyone's best interest to take each individual's life seriously in the chain of those who create these great products and Apple has great power to make positive change in this regard.
No one should die at a factory job for a device of convenience.
[quote name="Quadra 610" url="/t/151567/1-killed-4-injured-in-chlorine-gas-leak-at-apple-supplier-catcher#post_2155565"] Come on, Skil, didn't you know? Apple is supposed to be [B]everywhere at all times, aware of every possible situation at each of their suppliers' operations, and able to predict every possible eventuality.[/B] (And leap over tall buildings in a single bound.) [/quote] And, of course, if they did that, all the whiners would be complaining about how they micromanage things and won't let their suppliers have any autonomy.
What is Apple's proportion of responsibility here? Dell and HP sold several times more notebooks than Apple.