Our comprehensive employee health and safety management system is led by trained and credentialed employees who are dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of our employees, partners, customers and the communities in which we work. It is through this system that we enforce the highest standards in workplace safety and operate cutting edge practices in chemical management, process safety management, and employee education and training in our semiconductor fabrication facilities worldwide. This is why we have more than 500 EHS employees overseeing factory operations and compliance initiatives, including a team of 80 experts and engineers overseeing chemical safety and accident prevention.

But, we know that health and safety can always be improved, and so we invest significantly every year to continuously enhance our health and safety infrastructure. We also launched the Samsung Electronics Health Research Institute(SHRI) in April 2010, the first research organization of its kind in the industry, to inform continuous improvements to health and safety in the semiconductor workplace. SHRI has worked on 180 research projects and presented its studies at more than 70 international conferences since its launch in 2010. Topics include toxicology of potentially hazardous materials, study of work environment and workplace epidemiology.

We stand firmly by these commitments, and will continue to champion the well-being of our employees and communities.

Samsung takes great efforts to use nonhazardous materials; however, manufacturing semiconductors sometimes involves the use of chemicals and potentially hazardous materials. To safeguard our employees and communities at and around all of our semiconductor facilities worldwide, Samsung operates the most advanced chemical management systems and enforces the most stringent regulations.

Chemical management starts well before chemicals even arrive at our facilities. Before a new chemical substance is introduced it is analyzed for physical and chemical characteristics, potential health hazards and risks. Following analysis, appropriate health and environmental safety controls and measures for storage, use, disposal and recycling are implemented. We require that all our suppliers comply with Samsung’s strict hazardous materials policy and test every chemical they supply us for compliance. We then test the materials again once they are delivered to our facilities.

We follow a globally-consistent process to closely monitor and regulate chemical use and exposure throughout our manufacturing processes, from initial storage to safe disposal. Chemicals are stored outside of the cleanroom building and are fed directly into corresponding cleanroom equipment without coming into direct contact with workers. Out of an abundance of caution and strict management of our chemical management, we keep our exposure standard to 1/10 of legal requirements to ensure that exposure levels remain significantly below any level that could cause harm to humans and the environment.

While we meet industry EHS standards across all of our semiconductor manufacturing facilities, our true obligation is to invest in finding better standards for ourselves and the industry. Samsung has innovated many of the processes and controls that are now standard in the industry and continues to look for enhancements. For instance, in addition to being the first to develop and implement real-time, 24/7 chemical monitoring in 2007, we have advanced air and water quality systems and monitoring of chemical air composition.

The company has earned and maintains the ISO 14001 (1996~) and OHSAS 18001 (1999~) certifications, and adheres to strict international standards for our global business practices, affirming that we implement effective environmental and employee safety controls over our business processes and activities.