"Internal Samsung documents reveal poor chemical management and environmental pollution", 7 July 2024

… For the first time, an industry insider has come forward as a whistleblower, providing internal documents and photographs that expose Samsung’s polluting practices, worker health and safety issues, mismanagement, harm outsourcing, double standards, and breaches of UN human rights principles.

The whistleblower’s findings are disclosed in an unprecedented, detailed study released today by Supporters for the Health and Rights of Workers in the Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS) in South Korea, the Research Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) in Vietnam, and IPEN. The whistleblower, who worked for forty years as a manager of environmental, health, and safety matters at Samsung, conducted internal investigations of the company’s factories and suppliers in Vietnam from 2012 to 2021, documenting ongoing pollution issues.

… Samsung Electronics is a dominant force in Vietnam’s electronics sector, where it produces appliances and approximately half of its mobile phones globally. The majority of the workforce in Vietnam’s electronics industry consists of women working on assembly lines. A 2017 survey of women workers at Samsung’s mobile phone factories reported incidents of fainting, dizziness, miscarriages, high noise levels, and inadequate knowledge of chemical safety.