SIA ISSUE BACKGROUNDERS

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Issue: Occupational Health and Safety is an important consideration in the production of semiconductor components. For both wholly owned facilities and foundries, it is important for customers to know that parts they purchase are produced in safe, healthful environments.

Importance: The SIA offers a unique forum for dealing with health and safety issues that may impact manufacture or sale of semiconductors domestically and internationally. SIA's Occupational Health Committee, comprised of senior technical and management representatives of the SIA member companies, is charged with reviewing domestic and international health and safety issues. Based on its assessment, sub-teams are established to bring focused, central response to identified issues. This allows issues to be addressed by SIA as an organization and avoids the need for companies to address issues individually. This process is an effective way to deal with common issues both from the standpoint of cost effectiveness and identification of consistent, consensus approaches.

SIA Position/Action: Key initiatives underway include the following:

• Manage industry-wide injury/illness database: This database, which is administered by the SIA consultant who developed the program (Occupational Health System, OHS), is used to characterize illness/injury data and related details.  Since its inception, this system has demonstrated that the data for SIA participants are substantially better than those for all manufacturers, and also better than data for all semiconductor workers (including non-OHS companies). The most recent data, 2004, for all semiconductor workers identify a rate of reportable injuries/illnesses of 1.8/100 workers.  The comparable number for SIA participants was 0.93/100 workers.  The number for all manufacturers in 2004 was 6.6/100 workers.
  
  
• Fund and administer industry-wide worker health studies: In 1989, in response to concerns raised about the use of ethylene-based glycol ethers in photolithography chemicals with regard to spontaneous abortion among female cleanroom workers, SIA undertook one of the largest epidemiology studies ever undertaken by an industry. To oversee the project, a Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) was selected which consisted of world renowned health and industrial hygiene experts. A representative of NIOSH (National Institutes for Occupational Health and Safety) also participated as an ex-officio member of the SAP. The work, performed by the University of California, Davis and others, identified that women working in photolithography and potentially exposed to ethylene-based glycol ethers had a higher risk of miscarriage than women working in other areas of the cleanroom when compared to a non-exposed population. As a result of this work, the SIA member companies and, eventually, most semiconductor manufacturers worldwide elected to voluntarily phase out ethylene-based glycol ethers from photolithography.

In 1999, in response to media articles and the desire of the SIA Board of Director to substantiate that cleanroom workers were not subject to excess cancer risk, the SIA under took an evaluation of existing data to identify if an assessment of risk could be made and whether or not sufficient data was available to perform retrospective epidemiology. To perform this evaluation, a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) consisting of seven experts in health and industrial hygiene was retained. NIOSH representatives agreed to serve an ex-officio role in this effort. The SAC concluded that there is no affirmative evidence of increased risk of cancer among U.S. semiconductor factory workers. The SAC also reported that insufficient data exists at the present time to conclude whether exposure to chemicals or other hazardous materials has or has not increased such a risk of cancer.

In 2002, acting on the SAC recommendations and those of the SIA committees supporting this effort, the SIA Board of Directors agreed to support and fund three initiatives as part of a new Worker Health Project:

• A retrospective cohort scoping initiative to evaluate if sufficient data existed to perform retrospective epidemiology;
  
  
• A health surveillance initiative to judge if it is feasible to identify a common language for classifying worker information to a common format and to perform a survey of health surveillance activities at non-semiconductor companies;
  
  
• A primary prevention initiative to identify ways to provide better chemical and better process information prior to introducing new chemicals into the semiconductor manufacturing workplace.

The project status is as follows:

• A Project Manager was contracted to manage the three initiatives.
  
  
• An RFP for retrospective scoping was developed and broadly distributed.
  
  
• Johns Hopkins University was selected to perform the Retrospective Scoping Study.
  • Dr. Jean Matanoski- lead investigator for epidemiology
  • Dr. Peter Lees- lead investigator for exposure assessment
    
    
• A Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) consisting of an independent group of prominent scientists in the fields of medicine, industrial hygiene, epidemiology and toxicology was created to provide objective scientific and medical advice to the SIA's Worker Health Project committee for all three initiatives. The SAB is made up of the following scientists:
  • Dr. Nurtan Esmen- University of Illinois, Chicago, Industrial Hygiene
  • Dr. Grace LeMasters- University of Cincinnati, Epidemiology
  • Dr. Gary Marsh- University of Pittsburgh, Epidemiologist
  • Dr. Jack Moore- Toxicology Consultant
  • Dr. Marc Schenker- University of California at Davis, Occupational Medicine
  • Dr. Bob Spear- University of California at Berkeley, Industrial Hygiene
    
    
• An RFP process for the lead investigators for the other two initiatives was completed, and lead investigators identified as follows:
  • Health Surveillance Initiative - Dr. Don Lassiter
  • Primary Prevention Initiative
    • New Chemical Introduction - Weston Solutions
    • Opportunities for further reducing potential exposures during equipment maintenance - EORM
      
      
• Studies were conducted by the respective Lead Investigators and completed during the first quarter of 2004
  
  
• Results from the Retrospective Scoping Study were reported to the Project Management Committee, the SAB, and subsequently to the SIA Board of Directors.
  • Retrospective epidemiology is feasible
  • A meaningful retrospective cohort epidemiology study can be conducted
    
    
• At the March 18, 2004 meeting of the SIA Board of Directors it was decided to fund and conduct a retrospective cohort epidemiology study to determine if wafer fabrication workers in the semiconductor industry have experienced higher rates of cancer than non-fabrication workers. Members of the Project Management Committee are currently preparing a new Participation Agreement and a new Request for Proposal for the proposed Epidemiology Study. The Board also approved the release of the Retrospective Scoping Final Report and the two PPI Final Reports for posting on the SIA website. These documents should be available for viewing on the SIA website in the next few weeks.
  
  
• The PMC prepared and posted a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the epidemiology study on the SIA Website. Additionally, the RFP was advertised in the EpiMonitor and posted on the Duke University Web Server.
  
  
• In 2004, Dr. Jack Moore resigned from the SAB and was replaced by Dr. David Eaton, a noted toxicologist from the University of Washington.
  
  
• A new Participation Agreement was prepared and distributed to PMC members. To date, completed agreements have been received from enough participants to proceed with the study.
  
  
• On August 2, 2005, SIA announced that it had signed a contract with Vanderbilt University to conduct a retrospective epidemiological study to determine if there is an increased cancer risk among wafer fabrication workers compared to other semiconductor industry workers and the general population.
  
  
• The Key Vanderbilt researchers were identified
• Dr. Joseph McLaughlin- PI Epidemiology
• Dr. William Blot- PI Epidemiology
• Dr. John Fryzek- Project Manager
• Don Marano- Exposure Assessment Lead Investigator
• The multimillion dollar study will span 30 years of activity
• The study will include a review of approximately 85,000 worker records
• The project, which officially started in August, 2005, is expected to run until mid-2009
• Dr. John Frysek left the study team and was replaced by Drs. Lisa Signorelli  and Thomas Bender
  
  
• Study, now nearing the midway point, is still in the data collection phase and is running according to schedule.