It is going to be interesting to see if this ruling against Samsung is going to lead to a massive surge in lawsuits against the company:

A South Korean government agency said Friday that working at a Samsung Electronics factory caused the breast cancer of a worker who died earlier this year, only the second time it has recognized a link between cancer and Samsung’s chip plants.

The Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service, which is part of the labor ministry, ruled earlier this month that there was a “considerable causal relationship” between the woman’s cancer and her five years of work at a semiconductor plant near Seoul. The ruling didn’t become public until Friday, when the agency announced compensation for the woman’s family.

Samsung spokesman James Chung said it will not appeal the government’s decision. The company is the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips. [Yonhap via Monster Island]