PHNOM PENH, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Some 137 female workers at a garment factory in Phnom Penh got fainted due to exhaustion, a local police officer said on Thursday.
Sao Sarith, deputy chief of Choam Chao commune in Pur Senchey district, where the incident happened, said 73 workers of the Berry Apparel (Cambodia) fainted on Wednesday morning and 64 others on Thursday morning.
The ill-fated workers had been sent to hospitals for treatment, and none of them was in serious condition, he said, adding that they were allowed to take a rest until Sept. 4.
"We have inspected the factory and found no problems with it, so it's concluded that they got fainted due to low blood sugar which resulted from not eating enough," he told Xinhua.
The Malaysian-owned Berry Apparel has about 2,900 workers and supplies international brands, including Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company.
Cambodia has some 1,100 garment and shoe factories with more than 740,000 workers, and the current minimum wage for a worker is 153 U.S. dollars per month.
Mass faintings occur frequently in factories mostly due to a lack of nutrition, anemia, hysteria, spirits, and exposure to chemical substances.
