Health hazards in the semiconductor industry. A review.

The development of semiconductor production has been accompanied by an increased use of toxic production materials and an increased release of potential toxic wastes, which are harmful to health and environment. This paper gives an overview of occupational health hazards resulting from production materials in the microelectronics industry and from waste products originating as gases from plasma etching processes in photolithography during semiconductor production. The paper proposes methods for using experimental toxicology to investigate the occupational risks from complex mixtures of chemicals in the semiconductor industry.