Chlorine Gas Leak at Apple, HTC, Dell Supplier Kills One

SUZHOU, China – A chlorine gas leak at the plant of Catcher – supplier of uni-body metal cases for Apple’s MacBooks – resulted in one killed and four injured workers.

Catcher’s spokesman James Wu said that the incident took part during routine work at a liquid-waste treatment workshop of the company. The company also supplies companies such as Dell and HTC.

From the injured employees only one is out of intensive care, while the rest are more seriously injured. Previously the same factory got the lowest “black” evaluation from the Suzhou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

This is not the first time that Apple’s vendors report deadly incidents at their plants. Two workers were killed at a Foxconn iPad assembly plant in 2011, while a handful of employee suicides at Foxconn’s facilities also gained international attention.

This incident adds to the general concerns about work conditions in the suppliers of Apple in China. Apple made several internal audits on its vendors and claim that the situation is improving, but after turning to the independent Fair Labor Association, it found a number of violations at Foxconn, Apple’s assembly partner.