Electronics Workshop background note and the program
May 9, 2013
Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom
Thursday, May 9
Session 5
9:00 – 13:00
Workshop 1 - Electronics Workshop – Strategy planning and strengthening of work in Asia and OSH and Environmental Groups Meeting (Exchange and identifying common issues for stronger collaboration) Facilitators - Ted Smith (ICRT) and Dr. Jeong-ok Kong (SHARPS)
Background:
Electronics is the fastest growing industry in history and is a very toxic industry using thousands of chemicals in its production. As the industry has expanded to Asia, it has created many well documented worker and environmental hazards. Civil society has responded with a growing movement for economic and environmental justice, with significant activities throughout Asia – China, India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, and elsewhere . There is serious need to build capacity at the grass roots level throughout Asia and globally to deal with these challenges.
Starting in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, the movement for social and environmental justice has grown throughout the U.S., Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe where the impacts of high-tech development have been the most profound. Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), produced the book “Health Hazards in Electronics” in 1985 and the first Global Symposium for a sustainable high-tech industry was held in 2002 in San Jose, California. The International Campaign for Responsible Technology (ICRT) was formed at that meeting and has grown since then, spurred by the publication of “Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry. ANROAEV, the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims, has developed a specific focus on electronics, with participants from throughout Asia. AMRC, ANROEV, ICRT and many other grass roots NGOs are currently working together to develop common strategies to address the hazards throughout the life cycle in the global electronics industry – from mining, to production and assembly, use and end of life (e-waste).
During the past several years, electronics activists have convened to develop common strategies and capacity building in Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Europe, Africa and the USA and the movement continues to grow and to increase its focus on the life cycle of the hazards in the industry. Key points of discussion have included:
- Broadening our network by reaching out to others throughout the supply chain
- Improving communications (internal and external) to put a human face on electronic products
- Mapping and publicizing the global electronics supply chain
- Research to link toxic exposure to occupational and environmental health in electronics
Agenda
- Welcome and Introductions
2.Presentation by Dr Tom Gassert on hazards in the global electronics industry
(Dr. Gassert is the principle author of the 1985 AMRC book “Health Hazards in Electronics”
- Presentation and discussion on tools for hazard assessment –
- facilitated by Ted Smith, International Campaign for Responsible Technology
- CHEMHAT -
- PHAROS -
- GreenScreen -
- Communications planning and strategies –
- Facilitated by Miriam Lara and Todd Jailer of Hesperian Foundation
– how can we improve our ability to focus and magnify our stories and messaging to a broader audience (and also improve our internal communications)
- Next steps