Samsung Ordered to Pay Compensation to Cancer Victims

A court in South Korea has ordered the giant electronics company to pay compensation to the families of two of its employees after they died from acute myeloid leukaemia.

In an action brought by the father of 22 year old Yu-mi Hwang, it was claimed that the working conditions at the company´s semiconductor plant in Gyeonggi Province exposed Yu-mi and an ex-colleague to toxic chemicals and ionising radiation which caused their illnesses.

Mr Hwang had originally been told that Yu-mi had died from a natural abnormality, but when a second employee also died of the disease, he became suspicious and started an investigation. As he dug deeper, he discovered that there had been many more deaths and illnesses suffered by Samsung employees engaged in cleaning the silicon crystals used in the manufacture of integrated electronic circuits.

Samsung denied the claim, stating that there was insufficient scientific evidence to determine accountability, but the South Korean court found in Mr Hwang´s favour, stating “It is fit to say there is a link between their leukaemia and their careers”.

The ruling could have a significant impact in the UK, where it has been claimed since the 1990s that a health risk exists at the National Semiconductors UK factory in Greenock, Scotland. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that women who worked at the plant developed a higher rate of lung, stomach and breast cancer, and men recorded a higher rate of brain cancer.

However, the HSE chose to take no further action – choosing instead to monitor the situation in the semiconductor industry as a whole.