According to Hong Kong media, about 62 workers from China's Jiangsu province have been hospitalized for n-Hexane poisoning while they worked for Wintek, an original equipment manufacturing supplier of Apple.
The reports, which also appeared in mainland Chinese media like Sohu.com, state that the workers were working on touchscreens for Apple's iPhone products before they got n-Hexane poisoning and some of them will probably have to stay in the hospital for months because of serious illnesses.
According to a female worker who suffers from n-Hexane poisoning in the factory, her hands became numb and she could not balance herself while walking in the spring of 2009. The woman said her colleagues developed the same symptoms, but it was not until August last year that their illness was verified by the hospital and the company began to stop using the chemical.
It is learned that a manager from the Wintek factory asked workers to use n-Hexane because it works faster than alcohol, regardless that they were working in a place not so well ventilated. The manager has reportedly been fired and the workers have received their medical expenses paid by the factory.
Wintek is a Taiwan-based company that supplies touch panels for Apple's notebook computers and other products.