Thirty footwear factory workers fainted at the Aerosoft Summit Footwear factory in Battambang province yesterday due to poor ventilation, overwork and unusually hot weather.

Sampov Loun district deputy chief Ly Rom said that 29 women and one man felt nauseous and had headaches before collapsing around lunchtime.

Police took the workers to the Sampov Loun Hospital, where their condition improved. “Some of [the workers] said that the weather was very hot,” said Rom. “And some workers said that they worked an extra hour.”

Some patients also said that the intense smell from the shoes made them feel worse.

“In the morning, we smelled a bad smell and the weather was very hot,” said a worker anonymously from hospital yesterday. “I felt exhausted at the time.”

Aerosoft could not be reached for comment yesterday. Last month, the Ministry of Labour urged the garment industry to take adequate health and safety measures to compensate for the unusually hot dry season.

Almost 80 garment workers fainted last month in incidents blamed on poor ventilation.