107 workers at the Sabrina Garment factory in Kampong Speu’s Sambo commune were sent to hospital after becoming dizzy and fainting late yesterday morning.

Choek Borin, the Labour Department’s Kampong Speu bureau chief, said that 107 factory workers fainted, with nearly 60 sent to the provincial federal hospital.

He said that after investigations by officials, it is believed the faintings were caused by a poisonous chemical used to manufacture gloves in another section of the factory building.

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union, traveled to the scene and said that a few workers fainted in the factory after 9am. Two hours later, there was a mass fainting on the factory grounds which affected nearly 100 Sabrina Garment employees.

“Workers were panicked after becoming dizzy and seeing their co-workers fainting, so they rushed out from the building,” Chea Mony said.

Seng Sreng, an employee at the factory who fainted in the factory but later recovered at the scene, said workers smelled a chemical which made it difficult to breathe. Workers were ordered to leave the building to avoid mass fainting.

Sabrina Garment could not be reached for comment.