Three contract workers have died at a Tata Electronics factory that makes parts for Apple iPhones in Tamil Nadu, after inhaling gas while inspecting a tank at the plant’s effluent treatment facility. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant deaths happened late on Monday evening, and the three men were declared dead on arrival at a private hospital in Hosur. Apple, Tata and the state authorities will investigate the deaths, according to officials and sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The three workers died during maintenance work on an effluent treatment plant operated by Nalco Water, a company that is part of US-headquartered Ecolab. District official Dinesh Kumar said the deaths happened when the workers inhaled gas while inspecting an external nano-filtration tank. Nalco Water said the three workers were engaged by one of its sub-contractors and that the incident happened in a utility facility it operates at the site.
The three men were named in local reports as Akmal, Sarathi Kumar and Kaveri. One account said Akmal looked inside the tank at about 5.10 pm and collapsed into it, and the other two went in after him, one after the other, and collapsed too. They were taken to a private hospital in Hosur, where they were declared dead. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant incident has raised fresh questions about worker safety at the site, which is a key part of Apple’s iPhone supply chain in India.
Tata Hosur iPhone plant and the gas inquiry
Police suspect the men inhaled toxic gas, though the exact cause of death will be established only after post-mortem examinations. An officer told DT Next that a chemical powder used to keep down the smell in the tank may have released toxic gas, but that is a line of inquiry rather than a finding. The district collector, C Dinesh Kumar, told The New Indian Express there were no proper safety measures in place while handling the effluent treatment plant, and a joint director of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health visited the site.
Tamil Nadu’s Industries Minister, Virudhai Magal Keerthana, said on X that the incident would be thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken based on the findings. A joint team of officials from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health will also investigate the incident. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant deaths will be probed by Apple and Tata as well, and an Apple team is visiting the plant to assist in the investigation.
Tata Hosur iPhone plant production and past incidents
Production was not affected by the deaths, because the facility was closed for the Hindu festival of Deepavali this week. The plant in Hosur, which Tata bought from iPhone assembly firm Wistron in 2023, makes components for Apple’s phones, and Tata’s electronics unit accounts for roughly 40 per cent of iPhone assembly in India, with Foxconn making up the rest. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant site has faced setbacks before, including a fire at the components plant in September 2024 that halted production.
The Hosur site has also faced pollution concerns, and Indian health authorities have accused the plant of contaminating local water supplies. Tata Electronics did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant is one of the largest parts of Apple’s manufacturing base in India, which has grown as the company has shifted more production out of China. The deaths are the latest safety incident to affect that supply chain.
What the Tata Hosur iPhone plant inquiry will examine
The inquiry will have to answer how gas built up in the tank, what safety measures were in place when the men entered it, and who was responsible for the work. The collector’s remark about safety measures and the police line on the chemical powder give the investigators two starting points. The post-mortem results will establish the cause of death, and the findings of the state and company inquiries will decide what action follows. The Tata Hosur iPhone plant inquiry is the latest test of safety standards at a site Apple depends on.