The Dark Side of the Chip

By Chip Hughes

When Maria, a 32-year-old technician in Phoenix, first started at the sprawling TSMC fab, she thought she had landed a dream job. The recruiter promised steady hours, solid pay, and the pride of helping power America’s “chipmaking comeback.” Within a year, though, her body was telling her a different story. Chronic rashes, nosebleeds, and crushing fatigue became her new normal. Doctors later flagged concerns that repeated exposure to solvents and acids could compromise her long-term reproductive health. Maria’s symptoms echo the grim history of semiconductor workers from Silicon Valley in the 1980s to Korea in the 2000s — and they’re showing up again in Arizona today.

On October 8, 2025, a national coalition of labor, environmental and community organizations will be joining together to sponsor a conference entitled “The Dark Side of the Chip”. The conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, which has emerged as ground zero for the fight to hold large multinational tech conglomerates accountable for the environmental harms from the manufacture of semiconductor chips that power and operate our many digital devices.

Who is fighting back: Chips Communities United

That’s where Chips Communities United (CCU) comes in. CCU is a coalition of labor, environmental, social justice, civil rights, and community groups working to make semiconductor production accountable to the people who live and work closest to it. The coalition’s vision is simple but urgent: if taxpayer money is subsidizing this industry, then the jobs must be safe and family-sustaining, the factories must be environmentally responsible, and the surrounding communities must not be left to bear the hidden costs.

CCU’s advocacy spans:

• Worker protections: demanding enforceable exposure standards, safer chemical substitution, and union rights for fab workers.
• Community health: pressing for transparent reporting of toxic emissions, mandatory water-recycling, and PFAS phase-outs.
• Environmental justice: organizing residents in fab-heavy regions like Phoenix, Peoria, and Essex Junction to oppose unsafe practices and to insist on investments in renewable energy and climate resilience.
• Policy reform: urging Congress and the Commerce Department to tie CHIPS Act subsidies to strict health, safety, and environmental benchmarks, not just production targets.

The hidden hazards inside the fabs

Semiconductor production is often marketed as “clean” manufacturing because fabs (short for fabrication plants) are supposed to be dust-free and workers wear white suits. But behind the sterile image is a heavy toxic load. Fabs use thousands of chemicals — photoresists, solvents, acids, etchants, and fluorinated gases — many of them carcinogens or reproductive toxins. Most OSHA exposure limits date back to the 1960s and remain far higher than what biomedical research considers safe. In practice, protective gear and training are uneven, and workers are often exposed to multiple hazardous substances at once.

Emerging concerns make the picture even darker:

• PFAS “forever chemicals” used in coatings, membranes, and photolithography persist in the environment and accumulate in human bodies. Linked to cancers, birth defects, and immune suppression, they are now found in wastewater near chip plants from Vermont to Arizona.
• Fluorinated greenhouse gases such as NF₃ and SF₆ are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide, with atmospheric lifespans measured in centuries. U.S. electronics manufacturers released the equivalent of 4.4 million metric tons of CO₂ in fluorinated gases in 2023 alone — the same climate impact as powering more than a million homes.
• Nanomaterials and engineered particles used in advanced processes may carry new toxicological risks that science is only beginning to understand.

The community price tag

The environmental footprint of fabs is just as alarming. Each large semiconductor plant consumes between 10 and 20 million gallons of water per day. In Phoenix, TSMC’s new site is projected to use roughly 35 million gallons daily once all three fabs are online — more water than 100,000 households use in the same period. Arizona’s groundwater basins are already critically overdrafted, and state regulators recently halted new housing permits in some areas due to water scarcity.

Energy use is equally staggering. A single advanced fab can draw between 200 and 300 megawatts of electricity — as much as a mid-sized city. Nationally, the semiconductor sector is now among the fastest-growing industrial consumers of electricity. In Arizona, where the grid already strains under extreme heat, the expansion of fabs and the data centers they attract is projected to increase statewide electricity demand by more than 10% in the next decade. If that power continues to come from fossil fuels, the climate burden compounds.

Waste streams add another layer of risk. PFAS-laden wastewater is legally discharged into rivers or municipal plants unequipped to filter it. Sludge from those plants is sometimes spread on farmland, transferring contamination into food systems. Air releases, too, are frequent: in 2021, Intel’s Oregon plant vented caustic gases into neighborhoods for nearly two months after its pollution controls were accidentally shut off.

A Crossroads Moment

The semiconductor industry tells us these impacts are simply the cost of progress. But progress for whom? Billions in public subsidies have flowed to some of the richest corporations on earth, while workers like Maria face health risks, and Phoenix residents face the prospect of running out of water.

The way forward is clear as championed by CCU and other worker and environmental justice advocates:

• Modernize safety standards to reflect today’s science, not yesterday’s compromises.
• Require full chemical disclosure and third-party monitoring of emissions.
• Invest in PFAS-free substitutes and technologies that destroy toxic waste at the source.
• Guarantee water and energy accountability — recycling, conservation, and renewable integration should be non-negotiable.
• Empower workers and communities with enforceable rights in every public funding contract.

Maria’s story is not just a personal tragedy — it’s a glimpse of what happens when we treat fabs as symbols of progress without asking who pays the price. If the U.S. really wants to lead in semiconductors, it must do so without sacrificing worker health, draining aquifers, or fueling the climate crisis. The dark side of the chip can be brought into the light — but only if workers and communities are at the center of the story.

Registration information: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-semiconductor-con-the-dark-side-of-the-chip-tickets-1607423359539?aff=oddtdtcreator

📊 The Chip Fabrication Industry by the Numbers

Water Use

• Each large fab consumes 10–20 million gallons of water per day.
• TSMC’s planned Phoenix complex could use 35 million gallons daily once fully built — equal to the needs of more than 100,000 households.

Energy Demand

• A single advanced fab requires 200–300 megawatts of electricity — as much as a mid-sized city.
• Semiconductor fabs and associated data centers are projected to raise Arizona’s electricity demand by 10% in the next decade.

Toxic Chemicals

• Among the 81 most common electronics manufacturing chemicals, 30 are known carcinogens and 45 are reproductive toxins.
• PFAS “forever chemicals” are used in thousands of chipmaking applications and are linked to cancer, immune suppression, and infertility.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• S. electronics manufacturers released fluorinated gases equal to 4.4 million metric tons of CO₂ in 2023 — the same climate impact as powering over 1 million homes.

Jobs vs. Subsidies

• CHIPS Act funding and tax credits total $150+ billion.
• Permanent jobs created: fewer than 64,000 — about $2.5 million in public money per job.

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Chip Hughes began his career in September 1972, as a writer, researcher and organizer with the Institute for Southern Studies, a social justice organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1990, Hughes began a 30 year career as program administrator with the federal government, directing the Worker Training Program (WTP) in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), designing training programs for vulnerable workers in high risk occupations. He is now a Senior Advisor to MDB, Inc. supporting the NIEHS WTP