Occupational Safety and Health
Assuming responsibility for our employees primarily means prevention and avoiding potential risk. Systematic prevention necessitates a global evaluation of all workplaces – no matter whether in production or administration – according to uniform principles. Based on this evaluation, risk potential is identified and actions to minimize it are defined and taken.
The statistics on occupational accidents document the success we have achieved, demonstrating that our scheme is actively pursued.
And we show evidence: The number of occupational accidents at Infineon worldwide is far below the average registered by the German Work Inspection for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering (Berufsgenossenschaft für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik). A factor reinforcing the significance of this achievement is that we register all occupational accidents leading to at least one workday of absenteeism. In contrast, the comparative values of the German Work Inspection include only those occupational accidents involving at least three workdays of absenteeism. Even in a global environment we thus achieve even better values than the high German standards.
Yet this success does not make us complacent. Our locations report at regular intervals to our Corporate Department for Environmental Affairs and Safety, where the data are evaluated together with our company medical officers. Working together with our experts at the locations, improved schemes for protection are developed on an ongoing basis to maintain a healthy working environment for our employees
Health
Health care and occupational medicine are essential for Infineon Technologies. We act to preserve the health of our employees.
For example, the molding material epoxy resin generally contains one to three percent by weight of antimony trioxide as a flame retardant. This is needed to avoid self-combustion, since semiconductors can get very hot during data processing. If a semiconductor component were to ignite suddenly in a vehicle or a personal computer, the results could be fatal. Although the increased risk of cancer caused by antimony trioxide on humans has not yet been proved, we are not waiting for clear scientific evidence. Instead, we have already taken wide-ranging precautions.
An excellent way of detecting whether our employees are at risk, and to what extent, is biomonitoring - the state-of-the-art method at Infineon Technologies. It enables us to draw safe conclusions about any possible incorporation of the substance. Biomonitoring makes it possible to detect risks long before any possible onset of disease. In 2001, we began evaluating all antimony trioxide biomonitoring data gathered since 1988. We backed this up with a new biomonitoring drive to determine the current status of possible exposures, a measure that continued until the beginning of 2003. The result of our examinations confirm the high standard of occupational safety and health care at Infineon Technologies: None of the employees we examined had an increased antimony level.
In line with the idea of keeping fit, the company’s medical services have launched different initiatives at sites e. g. the “fit and active” initiative in Villach. To encourage employees to take their health into their own hands, this initiative focuses on preventive medicine, exercise and nutrition.