Staff at computer factories could be at increased risk of contracting cancer because of working environments containing high levels of chemicals, metals and electromagnetic fields, according to findings of a long suppressed US study. IBM fought for several years to prevent release of the study done by Richard Clapp, a Boston University professor of environmental health. The study analyses data collected by IBM itself on the ages and causes of death of nearly 32,000 people who had worked at IBM and died between 1969 and 2001. Dr Clapp got hold of the data, known as IBM’s “Corporate Mortality File,” as an expert witness who analysed it for lawyers in California. They had sued IBM on behalf of a number of workers at a disk-drive plant in San Jose who got cancer.

Richard W Clapp. Mortality among US employees of a large computer manufacturing company: 1969-2001, Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, volume 5, number 30, October 2006.