Top memory chip supplier denies cancer allegations

Is working on the production line for the world's largest memory chip supplier hazardous to your health?

Since 1997, at least 22 such workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea have been diagnosed with cancers, including many lymphomas. 10 have died.

Family members and their supporters say that factory conditions are to blame, arguing that the environment is unsafe due to carcinogenic factors such as radiation exposure.

Company executives disagree, claiming that there is no evidence to support the allegations and that safeguards protect employees from such exposure. A pair of recent epidemiological studies carried out by the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency would seem to support this. Nonetheless, the Korea Herald is reporting that Samsung will open an investigation into the allegations.

Samsung began manufacturing semiconductors in 1983. Today the company is the largest memory chip maker in the world, supplying chips for many popular devices, such as Apple's iPhone.