Baffling Mass Faintings in Cambodia
It sounds like something from a Victorian novel – hundreds of young women falling, en masse, into a swoon. But this phenomenon has become a bafflingly common occurrence in modern-day Cambodia.
The incidents have been limited to women working in a small number of the country’s many garment factories. But, worryingly, they have been happening with increasing regularity in recent months. Over two days in June, about 300 women reported sick at the King Fashion garment factory in Phnom Penh. In July, about 50 workers at the Huey Chuen footwear factory apparently fainted – three months on from a similar incident involving 200 young women. In August, more than 200 people fell ill at two facilities owned by M&V International. Official figures released this month suggest that a total of more than 1,500 workers have been involved in mass fainting incidents so far this year. The Ministry Of Labour said a variety of factors were involved, including “insecticides, smoke, high temperatures, stress and manual labour of lifting and storing”…
