Samsung, a first-rate company with third-rate disaster response

Posted on : 2013-01-30 11:23 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Deadly acid leak at Samsung factory was followed by bumbling, evasive measures by the electronics giant
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By Kim Gi-seong and Oh Yoon-joo, south Gyeonggi and Chungju correspondents

Samsung Electronics is under suspicion of covering up and playing down a hydrofluoric acid leak that left one dead and four injured. From the occurrence of the accident to its conclusion, the company’s response has been hasty and baffling, making one question if Samsung deserves to be called a “global corporation.” In addition waffling on the explanation of the accident, it has come out that Samsung impeded the police investigation into what really happened, eliciting a storm of criticism about the company’s arrogance.

On Jan. 29 at 2 am, the police summoned the president of STI Service, the subcontractor connected with hydrofluoric acid at Samsung, along with two people responsible for safety and maintenance, and conducted a preliminary investigation that lasted more than three hours. The witnesses stated that they were so busy trying to deal with the leak that they weren’t able to think about reporting the incident.

However, when the leak came to light on the afternoon of Jan. 28, Samsung representatives said, “We brought in staff from the subcontractor for some standard maintenance repairs.” The subcontractor staff said they were trying to deal with a deadly acid leak, but Samsung claimed that nothing of consequence occurred.

Another problem is the amount of acid that was leaked. Samsung claimed that the amount of the leak was insignificant, around 2-3 liters. However, the footage from on-site CCTV cameras that the police viewed reveals a serious situation where “murky gas covered the floor, making it hard to see in front of you.”

On top of this, Samsung said that a worker surnamed Park, 35, who died in the accident, was not wearing protective gear. However, family members tell a different story. “After checking with Park’s co-workers, we learned that it was true that he was only wearing a gas mask at first when there was only a small acid leak,” they said. “But later, when the situation got more serious, they all put on protective gear for their work.”

Samsung responded to this by admitting, “after checking once more, we learned that the statement by the bereaved family is at least partially correct” and altered its original explanation.

The video footage from the CCTV cameras viewed by the police also show that one of the workers leaving the work area was wearing a gas mask as well as protective clothing.

Such inconsistent statements make it difficult to avoid the suspicion that Samsung attempted to pass off the accident as a mere error by the workers or to pass the buck to the subcontractor.

The way that Samsung responded to and dealt with the accident also defies common sense. Not reporting the fact of the accident, even though they knew the lethal toxicity of hydrofluoric acid, apparently wasn’t enough for Samsung. The police investigation revealed that Samsung staff had wrapped plastic bags around the valves of the tanks from which the acid was leaking for more than ten hours.

Further, Samsung closed off the accident site even to the police on the grounds of “security protocol”.

“On the afternoon of Jan. 28, we dispatched a team of investigators. At the time, all we know was that a deadly accident had taken place inside the factory,” said Yoo Bo-guk, head detective at the East Police Department in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi province on Jan. 29. “For about thirty minutes, I couldn’t even get in the front door, let alone reach the site of the accident. It was only after waiting for forty more minutes at the entrance that we were met by a Samsung employee who let us inside.”

Using “security protocol” as an excuse, Samsung stood in the way of police who wanted to move inside out of concern that there might be major human casualties. In addition, the internal first responders at the Samsung Electronics Hwaseong workplace who escorted the workers that had been hurt in the acid leak refused a police summons, saying that they had to first sort things out with the company.

With accusations mounting, Samsung is focusing its energy on shutting down public criticism of the accident. “I have been told that the experts who were working [on the acid leak] made their decisions according to the situation at the scene,” a Samsung general manager said. “Since the police are currently conducting their investigation, we have to wait until those results are announced. If it turns out that a mistake was made, we will take measures to deal with that.”

Samsung has changed their attitude since their original Jan. 28 response, when news of the accident broke. At that time, it eagerly explained the details of the accident and the response procedure and offered a rebuttal to suspicions.

Jun Dong-soo, president of Memory Business at Samsung Semiconductors, Device Solution Units, released a statement. “We grieve for the loss and offer sincere condolences to the bereaved family. Samsung will cooperate fully with the investigation by the relevant authorities into this accident. We will thoroughly reveal the cause of the accident and take measures to prevent it from ever occurring again.”

The police, who set up a team from the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency and the Hwaseong East Police Department, were joined by representatives from the National Forensic Service and the Han River Basin Environmental Office to do forensic work at the scene of the accident on the morning of Jan. 29. In addition, they are also analyzing about 20 hours of CCTV camera footage that they obtained, which reveals the situation before and after the leak.

However, the investigation has not been able to make much progress. This is because the four people, including a worker surnamed Seo, 56, who were exposed to the acid at the accident scene and are being treated at Hallym University Medical Center in Seoul’s Youngdeungpo district, have refused to provide evidence because of their treatment.

The way that Samsung has handled this toxic chemical leak could not be more different from the response shown by Global Display, an SME in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province that supplies Samsung Electronics with LCD screens for its tablets and laptop computers.

When a hydrofluoric acid leak occurred at 9:53pm on Jan. 15 at Global Display, within six minutes the company had contacted the fire department to alert North Chungcheong Provincial government of the fact. Six minutes after that, the province had notified the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety.

After the accident, the 1500 liters of hydrofluoric solution (8% of which was hydrofluoric acid) that had leaked and the 1000 liters left in the storage tank were all collected and disposed of, and the staff, along with the firefighters who arrived at the scene at 10:27pm, were able to prevent the leak from reaching the outside.

The two workers, including one surnamed Joo, 28, who were working at the scene at the time of the accident were both wearing the protective suits mandated by regulations. There was only one injury, which occurred after the incident had been dealt with. Some of the hydrofluoric solution splashed in Joo’s eye while he was removing the protective gear, which caused a minor injury.

Global Display is a medium-sized company that supplies Samsung Electronics with LCD screens for its laptops and tablet PCs. It has annual revenue of 85 billion won (US$78.4 million), and employs 450 workers.

Another acid leak occurred in September 2012 at Hube Global in the Gumi National Industrial Complex in North Gyeongsang province. Even though the accident involved a sudden release of a huge amount of hydrofluoric acid and caused considerable loss of life, the fire department was alerted of the accident only three minutes after it occurred.

Samsung Electronics is widely regarded as a first-rate corporation, but it would be hard to dispute the assessment that its handling of the acid leak was third-rate. It doesn’t even meet the response to a similar situation by the medium-sized company that supplies its parts.

It was not until a day after the accident had occurred and one of the workers had died that Samsung Electronics notified Gyeonggi province of what had happened. Samsung Electronics said, “Since the amount that has leaked was extremely small and nobody was harmed, we were not obliged to report the accident.” This stands in stark contrast to the medium-sized supplier that reported the accident to the authorities within six minutes and had firefighters on the scene dealing with the leak within thirty minutes.

“While there is room for improvement at Global Display, since it was not following certain safety regulations, the company deserves high marks for reporting the accidentally quickly and taking swift measures to minimize harm,” said Ahn Young-seok, deputy manager of environmental policy for North Chungcheong Province.

 

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