By Kate Bartlett
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
More than 1,000 workers in Cambodia's garment factories have fainted en masse so far this year, an increase of almost 200 compared to last year, The Cambodia Daily reported Tuesday.
Mass faintings in Cambodia's garment sector, the country's biggest export industry, have been a common phenomenon for years now, with labor activists and officials blaming the incidents on a variety of ills - from malnutrition and toxic fumes to collective hysteria.
On Monday, 140 workers fainted in three factories in capital Phnom Penh, while over the weekend the same number fainted at six factories.
"We believe that the workers did not faint because we were missing fans or air-conditioning in our factory," Souang Piseth, administrator of the Newpex II factory where some of the faintings occurred, told The Daily.
Rather, he said, the faintings were likely due to hysteria, speculating that seeing some workers faint had had a domino effect on others.
"While they may have fainted after seeing others faint, we accept responsibility," he continued, adding that the Ministry of Labor had ordered his factory to close temporarily.
Pok Vanthat, deputy director of the Ministry of Labor's health department, gave a different explanation for the fainting.
"These garment workers started fainting since Friday at the Newpex II factory, because the factory is very hot and has no fans or air-conditioning," he told The Daily.
The factory will now be fitted with appropriate ventilation, he said.
A factory worker, Seng Sor Phea, 36, blamed the fainting on a bad smell inside her workplace, The Cambodia Daily reported. She added, however, that seeing others collapse had also adversely affected her.
"I got dizzy and vomited after seeing more than ten other workers faint," she said.
Cambodia's garment industry, worth about $5 billion last year, employs around 500,000 people - mainly poor, young women from rural areas. Popular European and American brands such as Gap, H&M, Puma and Adidas all source clothes made in Phnom Penh factories.
Earlier this year, workers held mass protests calling for a higher minimum wage of $160 a month, compared to the $100 they currently receive.
In January, police with assault rifles clashed with protesting workers armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Five people were shot dead in what rights groups condemned as disproportionate use of police force.
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