Defining your next gadget's real price
It hasn't been a very good week for Apple. Well, at least, not for the people that make its shiny computers for it over in Asia. According to stories in the press, workers at a Chinese plant owned by Apple supplier Wintek have been poisoned by n-hexane. n-hexane is a gas used to clean those lovely big flat-screen displays. Wintek also supplies Nokia, and others.
Apparently, 62 workers in the company's plant in Suzhou, China found themselves getting sick from the toxic gas. It causes muscular degeneration and vision problems, and the reaction can be delayed. And there are reports that one worker died from poisoning, although Wintek denies it, saying instead that he had a heart attack. Hmm.
Such is the extent of the problem that a fifth of its 10,000 workers apparently went on strike to protest the use of toxic chemicals at the plant. Wintek now claims to have discontinued the use of the gas, but that won't reverse what's already happened.
One interesting aspect of modern electronics supply chains is that they're so exploded, and elongated. There are thousands of steps in between mining the necessary raw materials for manufacturing, using them to make basic components, fixing them into subassemblies, and then gradually building up the finished device. And that's even before it makes the long, final journey to your local Apple store or Future Shop.
It makes it very difficult to see the upstream effect of what we're consuming. How well are the workers treated? How much water is used in manufacturing? How much carbon is emitted? And now, how many people get sick, come down with cancer, or die as a result of lax practices driven by a demand for volume?
But few people think of this, because we're entranced by the LED screens, the shiny black bezels, the touch-sensitive controls and the 'unboxing experience' that comes with purchasing a modern piece of electronics. We're encouraged to look no further. And as long as we sell it on or take it to a recycling plant when we're finished with it - well, then we've done our social and environmental duty, haven't we?
Except we haven't. Not at all.
The problem, as always, lies with consumption, rather than disposal. But it also lies with visibility. I've spoken to manufacturers who said that their supply chains were so complex that they couldn't possibly monitor each of the hundreds of companies that contribute to their products as they rattle quickly through the supply chain.
In the technology sector, we're essentially where the clothing industry was ten years ago in terms of accountability. Labour rights? Environmental effects? "We don't really know," they say. "We're doing our best."
But some companies are getting better. HP is trying its hardest to produce corporate social responsibility reports that focus on areas such as labour rights and environmental impact, for example.
The next time you're shopping for that printer, phone or laptop, it might be worth surfing to the 'corporate citizenship' part of the vendor's web site - assuming they have one - and reading up on what they're doing to keep tabs on their suppliers. And their suppliers' suppliers. The results may surprise you.
Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets
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