Ring the changes

I am a user of Apple products. On the day news emerged that some workers at a company that made Apple parts had fallen ill from chemical poisoning, a friend said to me, 'Please throw away your iPhone'. He wasn't joking, because no one should take the health of workers as a joke. It made me think seriously about the responsibilities and obligations of consumers in such matters.

Shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday, Apple Inc released its annual survey of its suppliers, reporting for the first time that the health of 137 workers at a supplier's plant in Suzhou had been 'adversely affected'. While Apple prides itself on its technologically advanced gadgets, these workers in fact suffered harm the old-fashioned way: the n-hexane solution they used to clean touch screens was toxic. Other firms use alcohol for this work, but Wintek Corp, the company that owns the Suzhou plant, used n-hexane to speed up production because the chemical dries faster than alcohol.

The affected workers said they had not received reasonable compensation or sufficient medical treatment for their illness. Their prospects for future employment are also worrying.

Shenzhen's Foxconn, one of Apple's biggest contract manufacturers, said it does not use n-hexane in its operations. This is welcome news. But, of course, Foxconn has had far more serious problems - a spate of worker suicides.

Last October, a report investigating conditions in Foxconn factories was published, the result of a collaboration between teachers and students from universities on the mainland, and in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The researchers found that Foxconn had not resolved the problems that led to the suicides, as earlier media reports claimed. The company is - as before - a large, authoritarian empire that deprives workers of their basic rights. It still requires its workers to put in overtime and cuts their overtime pay, and continues to employ students and disregard labour safety. Workers are still subject to a concentration-camp style of management, making it difficult for them to object to their treatment, the researchers said. Conditions are just as psychologically stressful as they were. There are fewer reported suicides only because the company has become better at identifying workers on the verge of an emotional breakdown, whom they immediately send home, the report said.

This practice is not unlike a big city that thinks itself more civilised for sending away the street vendors and beggars.

I mention the Foxconn suicides because the latest case of worker poisoning in Jiangsu made me think about what I should and can do. The harm suffered by the poisoned workers is upsetting, but is it serious enough that I should throw away my iPhone in protest? In the face of a loss of more than 10 lives, however, this is no longer the question to ask.