Via Khmer Times, the latest incident of a recurrent problem for Cambodian women workers: Pesticides blamed for second day of factory fainting.
More than 140 workers fainted at the Senduno Knitting factory yesterday after nearly 100 workers fainted the previous afternoon in Takeo province’s Bati district.
District police chief Ngann Sari said yesterday the workers were unwell and fainted at 7.15am during their shift.
“We do not know why they fainted, but we suspect it could be due to their feeling when they came back to work after many workers fainted on Tuesday,” he said.
Mr Sari added some of the workers who fainted yesterday had also fainted on Tuesday, when 86 female workers fainted.
District governor Ouk Ry said there were more than 143 workers who fainted, nine of whom were in bad shape and sent to the provincial hospital.
“We don’t know the reason yet. We will have a meeting this evening with the committee on fainting research and prevention to find out,” he said, adding that workers were immediately sent to hospital.
Soun Vannak, a provincial National Social Security Fund official, said some workers were tended to at the scene and some were sent to hospital.
He said the workers fainted because farmers had been spraying pesticides on their rice fields since Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Kandung commune chief Srey Sambo said the 86 workers had fainted due to the smell of pesticides that had been sprayed on nearby fields.
According to an NSSF report, the number of workers fainting in 2017 decreased 28 percent when compared with 2016, with incidents happening in 18 factories around the country. A total of 1,160 workers fainted in 2017, of which 1,159 were women.
