Samsung Whistleblower Reveals Toxic Chemical Use and Violations at Samsung Vietnam

A former manager of Environmental Health and Safety at Samsung Vietnam has stepped forward as a whistleblower to reveal widespread use of toxic chemicals and environmental violations. South Korean investigative news media, Newstapa, has released five short video reports with English subtitles.¹ Because Samsung is notoriously secretive, the Newstapa reports offer a rare glimpse into how the company’s mobile phone factories actually operate.

In 2017, the Hanoi-based Research Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) and SOMAreleased an unprecedented study on the experiences of women working at two Samsung factories in Vietnam, which documented health and workplace violations by the electronics industry giant. Workers reported experiences of frequent fainting, dizziness, miscarriages, standing for eight-to-twelve hours, and alternating day/night shift work. The Samsung whistleblower’s revelations are consistent with some of the health effects reported by workers. Samsung attacked the CGFED – IPEN report and denied its findings, but the company’s internal documents reveal a pattern of unsound chemicals management documented by a 40-year veteran of the company who became a whistleblower.

¹ 1: Global Samsung’s Dangerous Factory #1: A Safety Manager’s Confession

2: Global Samsung’s Dangerous Factory #2: The Secret of 7 Years of Stench

3: Global Samsung’s Dangerous Factory #3: Evolving Risk

4: Global Samsung’s Dangerous Factory #4: Risk Transferred

5: Global Samsung’s Dangerous Factory #5: A Hole in ‘Samsung Management’

The diagram (to the right) is overlaid on top of the air pollution filter at Samsung’s Bac Ninh factory in Vietnam. The large letters say, “design defect” because the unit was not designed properly and allowed toxic substances to be released into the air. (Photo still from https://newstapa.org/article/E-rbn)

Download the pres release below.