Hundreds of workers protesting food poisoning at a Foxconn plant that makes iPhones for Apple have been arrested in India.
Last week, more than 250 workers at a Foxconn India plant in Sriperumbudur, on the outskirts of Chennai, who produce iPhones for Apple Inc, were unwell, sparking demonstrations and demands for improved working conditions.
“Nearly 70 women and 22 men have been detained since Saturday for blocking the highway,” a police official said on Sunday.
A statement from the Thiruvallur district administration on Saturday confirmed the food-poisoning incident at the Apple iPhone production plant.
“There was an outbreak of acute diarrhoeal disease reported among the Foxconn employees,” said the statement.
It went on to say that 159 workers were hospitalised for food poisoning, with 155 of them being released. The rest of the plant workers who had food poisoning were treated as outpatients.
Unofficial social media accounts put the number of victims at 700, alleging that six ladies, all of whom were apparently Taiwanese, had died.
“About 700 women working in a hotel in a private factory (Foxconn) in Sriperumbudur were admitted to hospital due to food poisoning while eating in the canteen yesterday. Today 6 women have died. This is being covered up without being shown by any media.”
A request for comment from the media regarding the incident at the Apple iPhone facility was not immediately returned by Foxconn.
Gas leaked from a plant owned by the Indian subsidiary of the American firm Union Carbide Corporation — a major US manufacturer of chemicals, petrochemicals, and related products such as pesticides — in the central city of Bhopal in December 1984, causing one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
In the days that followed, roughly 3,500 people died, mostly in shanties near the factory, and many more died in the years that followed.
People are still suffering from the disaster’s aftereffects to this day. According to government statistics, at least 100,000 people living near the pesticide plant have developed chronic illnesses.
Respiratory and kidney diseases, hormone imbalances, mental issues, and numerous types of cancer continue to plague the Bhopal victims.
The contaminated groundwater and poisoned milk breastfed to them from infancy by their impacted moms have made current generations unwell.
Webbed hands and feet, weakened immune systems, development abnormalities, and congenital illness are still common in children.
