14 DAY TRIAL // Wintek, the provider of touch panels for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, announced through the Taiwan Stock Exchange this week that its workers had stopped using “n-hexane,” a chemical proved to cause nerve damage and paralysis in humans. The move comes as a response to talk that 44 workers of Wintek's plant in Suzhou, China, planned to sue the company.
All affected workers have been examined and treated, according to DigiTimes. Furthermore, in an announcement released through the Taiwan Stock Exchange on May 17, Wintek said that the China subsidiary had stopped using a chemical known as “n-hexane” that its workers utilized to clean screens for the Apple iPhone. The company declared that those exposed to the chemical were now recovering, while some were back on their feet and had gone back to work.
Not surprisingly, the affected workers claimed that they were actually forced to use n-hexane instead of alcohol to clean display panels. The reason: n-hexane allegedly dries faster and leaves fewer streaks on the glass. The initiative reportedly belongs to a factory manager who has since been fired, reports say. A violent strike at the Wintek plant earlier this year was actually tied to the chemical exposure, AppleInsider reports.
While last week it was revealed that 44 Wintek workers planned to sue the company, it has been reported that some 62 were actually hospitalized since August last year, after being exposed to the dangerous substance.
Earlier this month, around the time Vietnam leaked a second iPhone prototype, it was reported that a worker at Hon Hai Group died after jumping from her rented apartment building in Shenzhen, China. Hon Hai Group, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, assembles Apple’s iPhone. The company was also faced with such bad press in the past, when an employee reportedly killed himself over a missing iPhone prototype.