90 Garment Factory Workers Faint Over Two-Day Period
About 90 garment factory workers fainted over a two-day period last week at Zhen Tai garment factory in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmei commune, union officials and police said yesterday, though accounts of what caused the mass fainting differed. Thirty workers first fainted on Thursday after damage caused to an electrical circuit in the factory produced a strong smell of gas and workers panicked, according to Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union…Mass faintings are a common occurrence in Cambodia’s garment factories, with human rights groups and union officials blaming such incidents on a variety of factors including the inhalation of chemicals, bad ventilation, long work hours and sometimes even mass hysteria.
