Attorneys in a major Silicon Valley cancer cluster lawsuit against IBM have uncovered a ‘corporate mortality file” in which IBM tracked the deaths of more than 30,000 workers – and the lawyers claim the company knew its electronics workers were dying of cancer more often than normal. The IBM death records were reviewed by a medical expert hired by former IBM workers ahead of a September 2004 court case. The analysis by Boston University epidemiologist Richard Clapp concludes: ‘By 1975, IBM must have known their manufacturing employees had significantly increased death rates due to cancer and must have known that through the next two decades.’ He says data suggest that IBM workers were much more likely to die from cancers of the breast, blood and lymph than the general population.

San Francisco Chronicle, 24 September 2003. Risks 125.