With the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 5 announced today, it seems as if technological innovation has reached an enormous height. Yet, hidden behind such revolutionary advancement is a production practice with severe ethical issues.

On the Indonesian island of Bangka, workers are extracting a third of the global supply of tin, in both legal and illegal mines, by hand. Most of the tin mined in Bangka will be melted into solder, which will then be used in our smartphones and tablet computers by companies such as Foxconn Technology Group (Apple and Sony’s main manufacturer).

As a result of unsafe working conditions in these dangerous mines, an average of one worker per week died in last year. The number is staggering, with most of the deaths caused by the absence of routine safety checks.

The use of the tin from Bangka by companies producing smartphones and tablets raise strong ethical questions. Should companies who use Indonesian minerals in their products be allowed to do so without disclosing their use of resources from that region? And if companies did begin releasing this information, would it bring awareness to this ethical issue and put pressure on Bangka’s government to regulate tin mines?

Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-23/the-deadly-tin-inside-your-ipad#p5 (graphic in the article, page 5)
http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2012-08-22/tin-in-your-smartphone-threatens-life-on-bangka#r=lr-fst
http://agmetalminer.com/2012/08/28/with-conflict-minerals-law-passed-what-can-indonesian-tin-mining-teach/