Apple Bans The Use Of Two Harmful Chemicals At Its iPhone Factories | TechTree.com

Apple Bans The Use Of Two Harmful Chemicals At Its iPhone Factories

This should make the manufactureing of Apple devices a lot safer for the people building them.

 

Apple for some time now has been engaged in efforts to make the manufacturing process of its devices much safer for the people building them. Its most recent move has come in the form of banning the use of two hazardous chemicals in the factories that produce its iPhone.

Following petitions filed by China Labour Watch and Green America about the use of two known carcinogens (n-hexene and benzene), the company launched an investigation to see how the chemicals were used in its factories.

Sufficient exposure to benzene is known to cause cancer, leukemia, chromosomal damage, and organ damage. On the other hand n-hexene causes vertigo, drowsiness and a plethora of nervous system issues. While benzene is widely used as an anti-knock agent in fuel, n-hexene is used in the production of glues.

When it comes to manufacturing electronics especially, both these chemicals are used as cleaning agents, given how quickly and easily they evaporate without leaving any residue behind. Apple found traces of the two chemicals at four of its 22 iPhone assembly plants, with no evidence of workers health being put at risk.

[Also read: What To Expect From The Upcoming iPhone 6]

The company however has stated that from henceforth the use of both the chemicals will be banned in the final assembly process across its factories. While final assembly is only one of many stages in the manufacturing process, it's a step that utilizes the greatest amount of manual labour, so it can be counted as a pretty significant step.


TAGS: Apple, iPhone, Foxconn, eco-friendly tech

 
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