Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

dropbox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 331 posts

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#21

Post by akira2501 »

hanniabu wrote: post #16

I've called the county environmental service on a plastic recycling plant 0.5 mile's away from my house because any time the wind is blowing our way there's a really thick burning plastic smell that makes you want to gag. It makes it impossible to enjoy outside or open our windows. They try treating the smell as a nuisance complaint rather than a health hazard (tbh probably on purpose). Then they'll send someone to y…

Get with your neighbors and pay a company to sample that air. A report with actual numbers might help considerably.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#22

Post by [deleted] »

peppertree wrote: post #9

I live near Santa Clara area so I scanned the EPA report. It mentioned improperly covered activated charcoal and possible improper storage of chemicals, but no mention of releasing solvent vapor in open air. Apple absolutely should be held at higher standard especially operating near residential and school areas, but in this case it looks like a disgruntled ex employee trying to settle a score. I don't think this bel…

[deleted]

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#24

Post by hanniabu »

vlovich123 wrote: post #15
langsoul-com wrote: post #10

From the thread TLDR; EPA discovered that Apple was: - illegally treating hazardous waste - illegally transporting hazardous waste to disposal facilities - illegally dumping hazardous waste into the ambient air outside the facility (into the apartment windows) - leaving stockpiles of extremely dangerous chemicals unattended on weekends

And they were accidentally tipped off about the inspection when it should have been a complete surprise. I feel like stuff like this should be capable of piercing the corporate veil so that people involved could be criminally prosecuted. As-is, Apple is incentivized to just keep this kind of behavior in their ranks because it’s just the cost of doing business as they usually get away with this kind of stuff.

I worked at a Colgate manufacturing plant and we were given about a week heads up when the FDA would come do an inspection, we would know the exact day about 3 days before, and we would have about a 4hr heads up when they'll arrive.

The way the plant operates normally and when they're there is night and day. We will shut down lines and clean for whole shifts leading up to it and when they're there we'll double the staff to have a whole shifts worth of people just constantly cleaning while the others work.

We'll also slow down the lines to make sure things run smoothly and do more quality checks.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#25

Post by cogman10 »

hanniabu wrote: post #16

I've called the county environmental service on a plastic recycling plant 0.5 mile's away from my house because any time the wind is blowing our way there's a really thick burning plastic smell that makes you want to gag. It makes it impossible to enjoy outside or open our windows. They try treating the smell as a nuisance complaint rather than a health hazard (tbh probably on purpose). Then they'll send someone to y…

Have you contacted the EPA? This sounds like a violation of the clean air act. Your county enforcement might have limited powers vs what the EPA can do.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#26

Post by hanniabu »

akira2501 wrote: post #21
hanniabu wrote: post #16

I've called the county environmental service on a plastic recycling plant 0.5 mile's away from my house because any time the wind is blowing our way there's a really thick burning plastic smell that makes you want to gag. It makes it impossible to enjoy outside or open our windows. They try treating the smell as a nuisance complaint rather than a health hazard (tbh probably on purpose). Then they'll send someone to y…

Get with your neighbors and pay a company to sample that air. A report with actual numbers might help considerably.

We were having trouble finding anybody that would want to help and the costs were astronomical. Like we were getting quotes in the $250k range for the tests and the study.

And even if we did that we'd have to prove that the poor air quality was coming from the plant, which you can't do unless you setup monitoring in their property, which they'd never allow.

The company has a history of violations, but were somehow allowed to expand during COVID. That's when we started smelling it even though they were around for decades. They had air scrubbers before, but I haven't seen any new ones on their roof since the expansion, so all that new stuff from the new building must be just venting out.

I feel horrible for the people that have to work inside. They're all foreigners that don't speak English. It doesn't seem like any of them are given breathing protection either. They're all getting taken advantage of.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#27

Post by walterbell »

hanniabu wrote: post #26
akira2501 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get with your neighbors and pay a company to sample that air. A report with actual numbers might help considerably.

We were having trouble finding anybody that would want to help and the costs were astronomical. Like we were getting quotes in the $250k range for the tests and the study. And even if we did that we'd have to prove that the poor air quality was coming from the plant, which you can't do unless you setup monitoring in their property, which they'd never allow. The company has a history of violations, but were somehow al…

If there's a terrible smell, it should be detected by a $100 off-the-shelf TVOC air quality meter, the type that can detect perfumes. Have you tried one?

If you know which specific gases may be present in the plant exhaust, there may be an existing low-cost (~$50) sensor [1] which can be assembled in a custom DIY air quality monitoring circuit like AirGradient (who post on HN). There are consumer particle counters (0.5 micron) for about $300, which have a serial port for continuous data logging.

> setup monitoring in their property, which they'd never allow

Once there's a low-cost (sub $500) continuous air quality data recording device, then 4 of those devices in different directions from the plant, along with local wind data, could show a pattern over an extended period of time. In theory, wind-borne flying objects like kites and drones could also collect data on air quality indexed by GPS location.

[1] MQ series of gas sensors: https://www.open-electronics.org/presenting-mq-sensors-low-c...

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#28

Post by killjoywashere »

This is in Santa Clara, probably quite close to many HN regulars https://maps.app.goo.gl/WjLPzwrGvqoivBFT9

I personally wonder if this is why I have been occasionally smelling weird chemical odors from time to time. I live about 7 miles away, so probably not, but maybe.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#29

Post by hanniabu »

cogman10 wrote: post #25
hanniabu wrote: post #16

I've called the county environmental service on a plastic recycling plant 0.5 mile's away from my house because any time the wind is blowing our way there's a really thick burning plastic smell that makes you want to gag. It makes it impossible to enjoy outside or open our windows. They try treating the smell as a nuisance complaint rather than a health hazard (tbh probably on purpose). Then they'll send someone to y…

Have you contacted the EPA? This sounds like a violation of the clean air act. Your county enforcement might have limited powers vs what the EPA can do.

I've contacted the EPA and they said contact the county. It seems they want to see a county report before they get involved.

Re: US EPA Enforcement and Compliance on Apple Fabrication

#30

Post by talldayo »

insaneirish wrote: post #20

[flagged]

It's possible to play both sides of the same coin. The pressure is 10x greater on Apple because in many ways, they're 10x larger than their competitors. They should be able to make the right bureaucratic calls, if not then why trust them with anything?

A company like John Deere can lead the industry in fuel efficiency while also destroying the environment with an anti-consumer artificial depreciation policy. The idea that Apple systematically destroying the environment is at-odds with their pro-green marketing is a fallacy. They can (and do) make decisions that harm the environment that they refuse to justify. When your business makes a mistake and nobody is willing to respond or fix it, that's a sign that your bureaucratic body has become a corpse.

Post reply on HN