Health issues in the global semiconductor industry

The microelectronics industry began in the United States less than 50 years ago. It quickly spread to Japan and to a number of European countries and, in recent years, to much of the remaining world. The experience of US manufacturers is that some serious occupational and environmental problems occur, in particular, with the production of semiconductor devices. But before the occupational and environmental problems were adequately addressed, the industry had migrated to many countries around the world, especially to East Asia and Southeast Asia. This paper summarizes the limited number of studies of the health of semiconductor workers conducted thus far in the United States. It is also a call for further research and for caution in the development of the microelectronics industry in areas of the world that lack sufficient regulation and enforcement of laws to protect workers from occupational hazards and the community from environmental hazards that have occurred wherever microelectronics companies have been established.