Title
Health and safety policies for electronics workers
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2015
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
In this chapter, we identify policy goals for making the electronics industry safe and healthy for its workers around the world. We argue that effective change depends upon rethinking the entire life-cycle of electronics, from design and production to recycling and disposal, and even how we measure progress. Achieving occupational health and safety in electronics is not simply a matter of perfecting workplace regulations. While important, these regulations will only be as effective as their implementation, which depends on advancing workers’ human rights to organize and participate in workplace health monitoring, greater transparency of global supply chains to outside scrutiny, taking steps to promote safety at each step of a product’s life-cycle, requiring producers to take responsibility for recycling their electronics in ways the incentivize safer design, and sharing the benefits and burdens of the electronics industry more equitably.
Chapter of
The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media
Editor
Richard Maxwell
Recommended Citation
Smith, T., & Raphael, C. (2015). Health and safety policies for electronics workers. In R. Maxwell (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media (pp. 78-89). New York & Abingdon: Routledge.
