A Korean court has ordered Samsung Electronics to compensate the family of two former employees who died of leukemia, ruling that there was likely a link between their deaths and exposure to chemicals at the company’s semiconductor plants. The ruling by Judge Jin Chang-su overturns a 2009 decision by the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service to not pay survivors benefits and funeral costs following the deaths of former employees Hwang Yu-mi, who died at 23, and Lee Suk-yeong, 30. The court found that, even if the cause of leukemia “has not been clearly ascertained in medical terms, it is possible to deduce that the leukemia arose or was expedited through her continued exposure to various hazardous chemicals” at the semiconductor plant. Hwang died of acute myeloid leukemia in 2005, two years after she started working on a chip-making production line at Samsung’s plant in Gyeonggi Province. Lee spent ten years at the same factory before dying of the same type of leukemia in 2006. While Samsung has denied any link, Yale Environment 360 has reported that workers groups in South Korea say an unusually high number of employees at the company’s semiconductor and other electronics plants have contracted serious diseases.
Court Orders Compensation in Deaths of Samsung Plant Workers
More From E360
-
Climate
Scientists Are Trying to Coax the Ocean to Absorb More CO2
-
INTERVIEW
Marina Silva on Brazil’s Fight to Turn the Tide on Deforestation
-
Solutions
Solomon Islands Tribes Sell Carbon Credits, Not Their Trees
-
INTERVIEW
With Sea Turtles in Peril, a Call for New Strategies to Save Them
-
RIVERS
Jared Kushner Has Big Plans for Delta of Europe’s Last Wild River
-
Energy
A Nuclear Power Revival Is Sparking a Surge in Uranium Mining
-
OPINION
Despite Official Vote, the Evidence of the Anthropocene Is Clear
-
INTERVIEW
At 11,500 Feet, a ‘Climate Fast’ to Save the Melting Himalaya
-
Oceans
Octopuses Are Highly Intelligent. Should They Be Farmed for Food?
-
Climate
Nations Are Undercounting Emissions, Putting UN Goals at Risk
-
Solutions
As Carbon Air Capture Ramps Up, Major Hurdles Remain
-
ANALYSIS
How China Became the World’s Leader on Renewable Energy