Cambodia probes mass fainting of workers at Puma supplier

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, April 10 (Reuters) - Cambodian authorities began an investigation on Sunday into the mass fainting of about 800 workers at two garment factories, including one that produces footwear for German sporting goods group Puma .

About 300 workers at Huey Chuen (Cambodia) Corp Ltd on Saturday night suddenly fell sick, followed by another 500 on Sunday at Universal Apparel (Cambodia) Co Ltd, labour industry officials and workers said.

Huey Chuen supplies products to Puma.

Union leader blames mass fainting of garment workers on partying (sic!)

Apr 11, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - A trade union leader said Monday the mass fainting of workers at a factory making shoes for German sportswear giant Puma was likely due to exhaustion from pre-New Year's partying.

Cambodia's New Year holiday begins on Thursday, but many factories close early as hundreds of thousands of people visit their families in the provinces.

Chuon Momthol, president of the Cambodian Union Federation that represents all 4,000 workers at the Huey Chuen factory, said they were at the factory collecting their wages on Saturday when several collapsed. Others then started feeling faint.

'They saw three or four get sick and fall down, and then they panicked and became unconscious,' he said, adding that workers had told him their illness was not due to chemicals or contaminated water.

Cambodian moms-to-be chew tobacco for nausea

Thursday, December 03, 2009
By MARGIE MASON
AP

HANOI, Vietnam — When pregnant Cambodian women suffer morning sickness, they often reach for an unlikely source of relief: a wad of chewing tobacco.

Many become hooked, and the World Health Organization warned Thursday it is a tradition putting the health of both mothers and babies at risk.

The largest tobacco survey ever conducted in Cambodia found that about half of all women older than 48 regularly chew tobacco, and about one in five rural women first took up the habit during pregnancy, to soothe their prenatal nausea.

The survey conducted by WHO and other researchers found that midwives are the country's biggest users of smokeless tobacco, with 68 percent chewing it. About half of traditional female healers use it as well.

"Chewing tobacco appears to be strongly influenced by beliefs passed on by older relatives," lead author, Dr. Pramil N. Singh from Loma Linda University in California, said in a statement. "The behavior is seen as a rite of passage into womanhood. Further research is needed to find out whether village health workers actively promote its medicinal use."

The tobacco leaves are typically mixed with lime and betel nut, a mild natural stimulant that produces a bright red juice and has been used for centuries across the Asia-Pacific. Cambodian women place the concoction inside their mouths for an extended period, increasing their risk of suffering oral cancer.

As with pregnant women who smoke, those who chew tobacco also put their babies at risk for problems such as low birth weight, decreased lung function and stillbirth.

"Some women believe that when they chew tobacco, they look better," said Dr. Mom Kong, director of the nonprofit Cambodia Movement for Health. "And some start chewing tobacco when they get pregnant to cope with morning sickness in the first trimester of pregnancy. Some crave something sour. But some women get addicted while using it during the pregnancy."

As many as three-quarters of all men in some Southeast Asian countries smoke cigarettes, but fewer than 20 percent of the region's women ever pick up the habit. While about half of older Cambodian women chew tobacco, only about 4 percent of them smoke, compared to nearly half of all men in the country.

The rate of Cambodian women using tobacco increased with age. Similar trends have been observed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Palau and China.

Dr. Susan Mercado, WHO's tobacco control adviser for the Western-Pacific region, said it's common for women, men and children across the region to chew tobacco with betel nut, especially in the Pacific islands where cigarettes are sometimes unrolled and chewed. However, she was unaware of pregnant women using tobacco to lessen morning sickness symptoms anywhere but Cambodia.

"It's very, very concerning because the impact is not only on the woman but also on the unborn child, and the risk could be quite severe," she said. "Countries need to have very specific programs that target whatever kind of tobacco use is prevalent. Just because everyone is saying the big problem is second-hand smoke ... the problem may not be second-hand smoke for women, it's actually chewing."

The study, conducted from 2005 to 2006, involved about 14,000 adult Cambodians nationwide. It was published online in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Villagers destroy illegal gold prospectors’ acid stockpile containers

26 January 2008
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

On Saturday 26 January, about 200 Kuoy ethnic minority people from 4 villages, living in Rum Tum and Rumany communes, Roveang district, Preah Vihear province, have gathered to confiscate and destroy a container used for stockpiling acid and toxic chemicals that illegal businessmen sneaked into the region to use in illegal gold exploration.

The demonstration against the use of acid and toxic chemical took place after the villagers claimed that the raids conducted by the authorities were ineffective, and that the villagers’ health was affected and several heads of cattle died from this illegal use.

Several hundreds of villagers confiscated a piece of equipment used for grinding soil, and they destroyed a large wooden tank, measuring more than 77-square-meter, for stockpiling acid in the area of O’Bang Bat. The villagers claimed that they have been affected by this toxic chemical. “Two of my cows died. I went to my field, when I came back, the cows were sick and they died ... The villagers are unhappy with this, and they are very angry,” one villager said.

Sam Chheng, a representative of the Rumany commune community, said that villagers in his community are being affected by toxic chemical acid used by the businessmen illegally looking for gold, they dumped these chemicals in the ground and in wooded areas, causing various strange illnesses among the villagers.

Sam Chheng said: “They used so much chemicals that numerous cattle died. The health condition of the villagers is not good, they have stomach ache, nausea.”

Kom Siem, the police commissioner for the Roveang commune, said, on Saturday morning, that he did not receive information about the villagers’ destruction of the equipments belonging to the gold prospectors yet.

Kom Siem added that, in the past, the authority conducted raids also, but they were not successful, and the illegal gold prospecting is still taking place in deep wooded areas: “We raided them in the past, we confiscated some equipments, but they still kept on doing it because of poverty, they kept on going.”

Sam Leang Ny, the director of the department of mining and energy of Preah Vihear province, said, on 24 January, that the raids on the illegal gold prospectors were conducted several times already in Roveang district, but that it is a difficult case because, it seems that some of the police officers are behind these illegal businessmen. Each time, the police arrived for the raids, the prospectors all escaped, but as soon as the authority pulled out, they returned back to their activities again.

Sam Leang Ny said: “I went in to raid twice already. It’s difficult, the information leaked out. Some of the police officers are involved with these illegal businessmen.”

According to villagers from Trapeang Tim, Romchek, Bangkoeun Phal, and Sre Khnong villages, between December 2007 and January 2008, the villagers were affected by the toxic chemical products, and more than 20 heads of cattle died from them.