September 3, 2025
In the 1970s and 1980s, Silicon Valley’s fast-growing microchip industry relied heavily on a workforce made up of women—many of them immigrants—who worked long hours in chip manufacturing plants. These workers were routinely exposed to hazardous chemicals without proper safety precautions. Over time, many began to experience serious reproductive health problems, including miscarriages and birth defects in their children.
Even after studies emerged in the early 1990s linking these risks to chip manufacturing, the industry largely avoided transparency and accountability. Today, as the U.S. pushes to bring semiconductor manufacturing back home, critics warn that the mistakes of the past must not be repeated.
Yvette, a former chip factory worker, never knew the risks she faced until long after she left the job. Her son, now 44, was born with intellectual disabilities.
“Looking back, it just gets me so, so upset. I understand they have to make money,” she told The Verge, “but not at the cost of another person.”
Yvette wasn’t alone. Gloves were often optional on the job. Workers handled chemicals that smelled like nail polish remover without any warning of potential harm. No one told them not to.
LeAnn’s story is heartbreakingly similar. She started working at a semiconductor plant in Mountain View, California, in 1980—the same year her son Darryl was born with microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with smaller-than-average heads. Today, Darryl is an adult who loves Sesame Street and reading library books with his mom, though he reads at a fifth-grade level.
“He’s an adult child,” LeAnn said. “We were never warned.”
The risks weren’t just anecdotal. Multiple studies—some even backed by the industry—found elevated rates of miscarriage among women who worked in chip manufacturing:
“Both studies showed a small but significant risk of increased miscarriage associated with fabrication work,” said Marc Schenker, a coauthor of the research and professor emeritus at UC Davis School of Medicine.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, most chip manufacturing moved overseas to countries with fewer labor protections. But now, the industry is coming back—fueled by massive investments through the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocates $52.7 billion to boost U.S. semiconductor production, including $200 million for workforce development.
This push is expected to create more than 145,000 jobs in construction and manufacturing. But experts warn that safety must not be sacrificed again.
“It still takes people to actually make these things run, even though they’re highly automated,” said Ted Smith, founder of the nonprofit Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. “There still is the opportunity for exposure—and it’s never to one chemical, it’s mixtures of chemicals.”
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