Better late than never as Apple shames manufacturers

Apple Inc released its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report 2011 Tuesday, marking the first time that the tech giant disclosed the name of two Chinesesuppliers caught endangering their workers. Meanwhile, industry watchers criticized Apple for increasingly shifting responsibilities onto its suppliers.
In the report, besides responding to a spate of suicides at Foxconn, Apple announced that 137 workers at a Suzhou facility of Wintek, one of Apple's suppliers, had suffered adverse health effects following exposure to n-hexane, a chemical in cleaning agents used in certain manufacturing processes.
"We required Wintek to stop using n-hexane and to provide evidence that they had removed the chemical from their pro-duction lines," said the report.
"It is a little bit late for Apple to address the poisoning issue," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public &Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based domestic non-governmental organization.
Media first shed light on the issue in 2009, but Apple did not mention it in its 2010 fiscal report, showing Apple had weak control over its suppliers, Ma added.
Moreover, insiders said that Apple already knew staff at the factory were exposed to the deadly chemical. "Apple assigned its staff to the factory to check the production and technology standards regularly, even when this fatal chemical was used from August 2008," said Jia Jingchuan, an employee in the Suzhou facility of Wintek. The Suzhou factory is an affiliate of Wintek Corporation and a major supplier of components for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.
The staff was required to use n-hexane solvent instead of alcohol to wipe mobile phones, causing in them poison symptoms such as muscle pain. The factory only stopped using it till staff were in hospital, Jia added, who has worked in the factory for more than four years, and also suffered from the toxic solvent.
From October to December, Apple witnessed a 78 percent jump in net income reaching $6 billion, driven by record sales of the iPhone and iPad.