IBM workers fear chemical illness

Daniel Sorid

Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: A confidential company survey of IBM San Jose factory workers from 1988 suggests workers feared that skin contact with chemicals and inhaling chemical-scented air might one day make them sick, according to documents filed this week as part of a worker health lawsuit against International Business Machines Corp.

The anonymous, and unsubstantiated, complaints of IBM workers in several facilities echo the allegations of Alida Hernandez and James Moore, cancer-stricken IBM ex-employees whose case against the company goes to trial next week in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Hernandez and Moore both worked in an IBM hard drive facility in San Jose, California.

"If there is a strong smell of chemicals," one unnamed San Jose employee wrote in response to a questionnaire, "management tells us to keep working and that it won't kill us too fast."

Another complained that "my nose constantly drips while I am here. Others have rashes under their noses (dryness), headaches all the time and some have fainting spells."

IBM discounted the relevance of the employee complaints to the court case, and said it regularly polls employees on matters related to employment. "I don't think the survey proves anything," IBM spokesman Bill Hughes said.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Oct. 14, though IBM has asked an appeals court to dismiss the case. Judge Robert Baines threw out two of four cases against IBM last week, but more than 200 worker health cases are pending against Big Blue in courts in three states.

Moore, who developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, complained of "profuse nasal discharge" and headaches while working with chemicals in the San Jose hard drive factory.

"I worked very directly with most of these chemicals, and specifically remember the smell of Isopropyl Alcohol," Moore has said in a declaration to the court. "I was never told that being exposed to the fumes of a mixture, when cleaning up one with another, was more dangerous than using one chemical by itself."

Hernandez, who developed breast cancer, complained to IBM of skin and eye ailments, blackouts and sleeplessness while working at the same hard drive factory.

She said she recalls splashing "disk coating" on herself on several occasions, and using acetone, an organic solvent, to clean her hands. Acetone is not classified as a carcinogen but has caused kidney damage, liver damage and birth defects in animals.

The employee responses, tagged "confidential," were submitted to the court on Tuesday more than a year after lawyers for Hernandez and Moore requested worker complaints.

IBM said it concluded that it "should produce" the records after reading the declaration of a former IBM manager who has asserted that she was told to give stock denial responses when employees asked about cancer.

"THE CHEMICALS ALWAYS GET ON YOU"

While complaints given by workers touched on noise, ergonomics, and disorganization, about one in 10 of the 230 complaints focused on chemicals. A few complained that IBM's health and safety focus was overkill.

Still, some employees sounded unsure, if not uncomfortable, about the health effects of their working conditions. IBM insists that there is no evidence that its places of work are unsafe.

"I have asked some engineers some direct questions about chemicals and got fairy tales for an answer," one wrote.

"With poor ventilation in the building, many people have complained of headaches. What is being done about the ventilation?" another asked.

A few of the complaints related to physical contact with chemicals.

"No matter how careful you are, the chemicals always get on you and completely ruin your skin," a worker at an IBM facility identified only as Building 5 wrote. "They also go through the skin and there is no telling what that is doing to your body. Even though these conditions are not favorable, I am not willing to quit because I have bills to pay."

(C) Reuters