After hearing reports that women workers at the National Semiconductor microchip factory in Greenock were suffering cancers, fertility problems, reproductive illnesses and

miscarriages, local advice worker Jim McCourt set up Phase 2 – People for Health and Safety in Electronics – a group representing sick employees. Here, he describes the company’s response to his concerns – a dirty tricks campaign that included spying on McCourt and the sick and dying women who worked at the company. In a report in Hazards magazine, the campaigner noted: “The whole episode has had a profound effect on my family, so much so that I have resigned from my job. After I finish in my current post I intend to expose fully all those complicit in the communications plan, make them accountable to me.”

Production lies: Revealed! US chips firm’s secret PR strategy to undermine Silicon Glen health campaigners, Hazards, number 76, October-December 2001.