Three workers die cleaning wastewater tank at Tata's iPhone parts plant in Tamil Nadu
Men aged 25 to 32 collapsed one after another rescuing each other, maintenance was subcontracted twice and no safety measures were in place
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A security guard stands at the Tata Electronics factory for iPhone in Hosur, Tamil Nadu (Reuters)
Reuters
Three contract workers aged between 25 and 32 died on Monday evening while cleaning a wastewater tank at Tata Electronics' Marigold facility in Krishnagiri district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a plant that makes components for Apple's iPhones. Police say preliminary enquiries point to toxic gas inhalation, pending post-mortem findings.
The sequence unfolded in minutes. At about 5.10pm a team was cleaning a nano-filtration feed tank that receives wastewater from another part of the factory. One worker looked inside to inspect it and is believed to have fainted after inhaling gas. Two colleagues then collapsed, one after another, as they climbed in after him. A fourth worker raised the alarm. All three men were declared dead on arrival at a private hospital in Hosur.
Krishnagiri district collector C Dinesh Kumar said there had been no proper safety measures in place at the effluent treatment plant. The maintenance work had been entrusted to Nalco Water International, part of the US chemicals group Ecolab, which engaged a staffing agency called Permacorp to supply the workers. Ecolab confirmed the men were hired by a subcontractor and said the incident occurred in a facility operated by Nalco Water. Tata Electronics has been directed to review the safety compliance of those agencies and submit an Action Taken Report.
Tata accounts for about 40 per cent of iPhone assembly in India, with Foxconn handling the remainder, and India now produces roughly a quarter of the world's iPhones as Apple spreads manufacturing beyond China. The Marigold plant sits within Tata's Hosur manufacturing complex, where a blaze at a chemical storage facility in September 2024 left eleven people with respiratory complications and forced the evacuation of all 523 workers on the premises.
Inspectors from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health are now examining confined-space entry procedures, gas monitoring, protective equipment and emergency rescue arrangements. Apple, Tata and state authorities will investigate the deaths, according to state officials and industry sources cited by Reuters. Tamil Nadu's industries minister said in a statement that the safety and dignity of every worker must remain paramount. The effluent treatment plant will be allowed to resume operations once the authorities verify that the required safety measures are in place.