Was Outside Warnings Ignored by Apple's Supplier Prior to Explosion?

Prior to the internet, news was delivered by the radio, newspaper and television news programs. The television news programs showed in the morning, lunch, and at dinner time. The tv news programs were 30-60 minutes long. Then came the 24 hour television news channels (e.g., CNN, Fox). Now with the internet the delivery of news has speed up to a point where the APSB receives an email shortly after an accident happens in an aluminium plant anywhere in the world. The following story revisits the aluminium dust explosions at Apple's suppliers in China. 

News articles have come out this past week detailing advocacy groups warnings to Apple of unsafe practice at their suppliers factories prior to the explosions. A lot of the articles illustrate Apple as ignoring the advocacy groups warnings and putting profits before worker's safety with little or no information to substantiate those claims. The mission statement of the APSB is as follows:

The Aluminium Plant Safety blog informs about accidents and near misses that occur in aluminium plants, cast houses, foundries, smelters, etc. that are around the world. Dust, molten metal steam explosions, fires, moving vehicles accidents, etc. will be covered. It is not this blog's intention to place blame on either company nor worker(s), but the hope that awareness of these accidents brings education and prevention of re-occurrence.

With that said (or really typed) it is not the goal of the APSB to place blame on Apple, nor its suppliers. Both explosions and the resulting injuries and deaths are extremely sad. But, how can one make a judgment of who knew what and what actions were taking before the explosions without knowing all of the facts.

One article had " Just two weeks before the explosion, an advocacy group in Hong Kong published a report warning of unsafe conditions at the Chengdu plant, including problems with aluminum dust. The group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, or Sacom, had videotaped workers covered with tiny aluminum particles. "Occupational health and safety issues in Chengdu are alarming," the report read. "Workers also highlight the problem of poor ventilation and inadequate personal protective equipment."

While another article says "SACOM pinpointed the problem of the aluminum dust in the polishing department in our report in early May," the advocacy group stated, referring to a May 6 report condemning the alleged failure of Foxconn and its partners to improve conditions for workers in the aftermath of a string of worker suicides at Foxconn plants. "Regrettably, Foxconn turns a deaf ear to SACOM's findings. After the spate of suicides, the blast also affirms Foxconn puts productivity of [the] iPad before workers' lives."

APSB wishes that Apple and its suppliers (as well as the manufacturing industry in China) have learned from these aluminium dust explosions. It is our hope that all companies are taking the necessary steps to eliminate the reoccurrence of aluminium dust explosions.

In the aluminium industry small molten metal steam explosions are usually followed by a slightly larger explosion, which continue to get larger in magnitude. Eventually a large catastrophic could result. For instance, we will never know if there were warning signs prior to the Binzhou Weiqiao Aluminum Company explosion. There might have been, but we'll never know.

Typically during root analysis investigations it is noted that warning signs were either ignored or not acknowledged (e.g., the participants did not know what they observed were warning signs forecasting something potential worse).

Please comment if you have a warning sign at your plant that may need to be addressed.