"A Global Toxic Emergency"?
The Story of Stuff people have now released "The Story of Electronics". In it they proclaim "a global toxic emergency" declaring that Silicon Valley is "one of the most poisoned communities in the U.S." and repeat an old canard about the alleged toxic perils of working in high tech manufacturing in general and clean rooms in particular. As is typical of such pieces even the most modern facilities are portrayed as little better than the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Coinciding with the video's release comes the publication of its antidote. In "Cancer Mortality Among US Workers Employed in Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication" the health outcomes of 100,081 semiconductor workers employed between 1968 and 2001 were examined and analyzed. Compared to people in the general population of similar age, gender and race their overall risk of death from all causes combined was cut in half and their risk of dying of any sort of cancer was just three quarters that of other people. As for cancers of the blood referenced in "The Story of Electronics", there's nothing to worry about in that regard either.
The paper concludes "Work in the US semiconductor industry, including semiconductor wafer fabrication in cleanrooms, was not associated with increased cancer mortality overall or mortality from any specific form of cancer."
The exposure assessment for these same workers was also just published and can be found in "Exposure Assessment Among US Workers Employed in Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication".
