HON Hai Precision Industry, the parent company of Shenzhen-based Foxconn, said there was no link between 13 cases of leukemia found among employees at Foxconn’s Shenzhen factories.

    The announcement came after Britain’s The Daily Mail reported Sunday that Apple is investigating its supply chain after the discovery of a cluster of leukemia cases among young workers at the factories in Longhua and Guanlan where millions of its iPhones are made.

    The Mail said that at least 13 young workers, aged between 19 and 24, have been diagnosed with leukemia after falling sick at the massive factories in Shenzhen since 2010. Five of them have since died.

    Families and a labor welfare group suspected the leukemia cases were caused by exposure to a chemical agent used to clean iPhone and iPad panels, the Mail reported.

    In response to the report, Hon Hai said the workers who were diagnosed with leukemia worked in different departments, denying they were all exposed to cleaning chemicals. It said it would provide better financial help to the workers than required by law.

    Apple, which celebrated the launch of the iPhone 6 last week, said it is looking into the issue at the Shenzhen factories, where about 2 million iPhones a week are made by about 230,000 migrant workers, the Mail said.

    Details about the 13 leukemia cases were revealed after Apple last month announced it was banning the use of two potentially toxic chemicals, benzene and n-hexane, in the final assembly of iPhones and iPads.

    Taiwan-based Hon Hai, which also makes products for other electronics giants, said it had not used benzene and n-hexane for many years, the Mail reported.

    According to the newspaper, the leukemia cluster emerged after families visiting sick relatives in the cancer ward of Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital noticed other Foxconn workers being treated there for the same disease.

    The Mail said a doctor at the hospital thought chemicals at Foxconn might be to blame.

    Families of the sick workers told the Mail that the workers were dismissed and denied continued medical coverage.

    A woman surnamed Cheng, the mother of sick worker Yi Long, told the Mail that she had a message for Apple CEO Tim Cook. “If you have a conscience, Apple should at least make sure my son’s disease is treated. I don’t want compensation. I just want his medical bills to be covered so that he can fight his disease and he can have a chance to live.

    “I know that without a bone-marrow transplant my son will probably die, but we don’t have the money to pay for it.”

    (SD News)