Doctor warns making computers makes you sick

A study by an epidemiologist at Boston University's School of Public Health has raised alarms with current and former IBM employees.

Published in the latest edition of The Environmental Health Journal, the study by Dr Richard Clapp, entitled 'Mortality among US employees of a large computer company: 1969-2001', claims that overall and cancer-related mortality is considerably higher among workers engaged in manufacturing computers and component parts when compared with the general population.

While this phenomenon was generally known, this study includes data from IBM's own 'Corporate Mortality File' – 31,941 records about the deaths of people who had worked at IBM's plants for at least five years.

In the wake of the study, Alliance@IBM, the advocate group for IBM employees, is calling on IBM and local, state and federal officials to carry out health surveillance of all who worked at IBM by the company and appropriate health agencies. It has also demanded an increase in the use of non-toxic substances in all processes and help to alleviate the medical costs of affected IBM employees and their families.

Earl Mongeon, Alliance@IBM vice president and a manufacturing worker at the IBM Burlington Vermont site, said: "This study confirms to those of us working in IBM manufacturing processes that the rumours and talk about high levels of cancers and other health problems from working with toxic substances wasn't just idle shop floor talk."