In 1998, the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) backed a study into health fears at the National Semiconductor plant in Greenock (Scotland). The researchers concluded that female workers ran no increased risk of miscarriage. The way the study was conducted received stinging criticism in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hazards but no review was ordered by the Government and the matter slipped out of the media.

Reports of cancers, fertility problems, reproductive illnesses and miscarriages continued. A workers group, Phase 2, was set up to push for further investigation. It has since documented more than 170 current and ex-workers who linked their illness to working at the site. In response, another HSE study, this time into alleged cancer risks, was set up, but immediately condemned as “preposterous” by Dr. Joe Ladou of the University of California’s School of Medicine (US) and other eminent occupational health specialists. They claimed that the study’s design wouldl not involve sufficient numbers of workers or job types to measure the true risk of cancer at the plant.

National Semiconductor did all that they could to avoid further investigation. Rather than look into Phase 2’s claims, they employed a local public relations company, Beattie Media, to help co-ordinate a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign. This included:

• Beattie Media female workers posing as clean room workers in an attempt to dupe journalists and a BBC TV investigation

• surveillance on Phase 2’s founder Jim McCourt and his employer, The Inverclyde Occupational Heath Project, in order to gather information “to undermine the credibility of such individuals and groups”. Jim also reported that his office was broken into and ransacked and that he was roughed up early in the campaign