SHE semiconductor industry makes 220 billion chips a year, but it uses hundreds of millions of gallons of water and produces tons of toxic gases and hazardous solid and chemical wastes each day.
As a result, California's Silicon Valley, the semiconductor industry's birthplace, has more hazardous waste sites - 28 - eligible for federal cleanup funding than any comparable area in the US, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Through the years, toxins in the air within semiconductor fabrication plants were linked to exceptionally high miscarriage rates, and workplace toxins are also at the centre of allegations in a case brought this year by cancer victims who worked at a New York state chip maker.
Toxic by products of the semiconductor industry include phosphine, diborane, arsine, sulphuric acid and nitric acid. With the industry's record as a backdrop, last week's agreement between Intel and the EPA, giving Intel more autonomy on how it controls and monitors hazardous emissions from its chip making facility in Chandler, Arizona, has led some groups to worry about future regulation of the industry.
While the specific Intel pact is praised for several reasons, such as its agreement to recycle 65 per cent of the fresh water it uses and cap overall emissions below current EPA limits, some people fear less favourable pacts will follow.