the article says 4 *attempted* suicides, that's a pretty significant difference

Generic Apple fanboy pro-Apple comment. Blah blah Apple could never do anything wrong or be involved in anyway with anything bad blah blah.

Let's not forget… the US Postal Service is worse…

Why is everyone picking on the iPad? They named several companies that Foxconn manufactures products for. Also, 4 suicides out of 300,000 workers isn't particularly unusual.

Well if there are 300,000 employees, the odds are that much higher that some of those employees will be depressed or suicidal - it's like a small city. When I visited Tokyo, I learned that suicides over there are different than in the West - a lot of people kill themselves in public places, because they feel so isolated (paradoxically) by the vast population. It's not a private event, it's a last-ditch effort to connect with other people. Suicides on subway tracks are a problem, for this reason, so perhaps China has a similar prevalence of suicides at work.  Having said all that, the pressure in places like that must be IMMENSE. I'm sure there's no tolerance for errors… it must be a horrible environment. :(  Very, very chilling.

the factory sounds like a setting for some sci-fi thriller.