Court: Studies understate Samsung health hazards

A Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 3, bottom left, and Galaxy Gears, wristwatches with a touchscreen displays, are displayed in a showroom at Samsung Electronics Co. headquarters in Seoul, South Korea on Friday. AP

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court says studies conducted to evaluate safety at Samsung chip factories failed to fully examine workplace health hazards.

The finding by the Seoul Administrative Court is part of a ruling on the case of a Samsung worker who died of leukemia in 2009 aged 29.

A panel of three judges said Friday that a “considerable causal relationship” existed between Kim Kyung-mi’s leukemia and her five years of work at a Samsung memory chip factory, dipping wafers in chemicals.

The judges said Kim must have been exposed to more toxic chemicals than safety studies said existed at Samsung’s factories.

Samsung has cited studies that found no dangerous level of benzene, formaldehyde or other carcinogens to ease public concerns about workplace hazards.