Labor issues are often at the heart of the most controversial stories concerning the technology industry. In January, Bloomberg exposed working conditions at the Catcher Technology Company factory in China, which makes iPhone casings. It revealed that some workers had to stand for 10 hours a day in a noxious, potentially toxic, environment without proper safety equipment.

This also included some laborers working without earplugs in rooms where the noise levels reached 80 decibels. Employees operating machines where coolant and metallic particles were flying reportedly lacked access to goggles. Even worse, the workers had to sleep in unclean dormitories that lacked hot water and basic washing facilities.

Apple denied the charges, telling Bloomberg that it had not found evidence of improper practices, but that it would also send an additional team of auditors to examine the complex for violations. An unnamed spokesperson said the company "remains dedicated to doing all [it] can to protect the workers in [its] supply chain." It's not the first (second, or third) time that Apple has been singled out with coverage of labor practices in its supply chain. In 2010, a spate of suicides at Foxconn / Hon Hai Precision Industry -- Apple's key manufacturing partner -- received international attention.

At the end of last year, Foxconn was accused of illegally employing 17-to-19-year-old students to work overtime to help build the iPhone X. The interns said they were made to work an 11-hour day assembling the flagship device, in violation of Chinese law. Subsequently, Apple and Foxconn admitted to Reuters that a number of students had worked overtime but said that it was voluntary. The iPhone maker sent additional employees to deal with the fallout and ensure rules were being followed and affirmed its commitment to protect its workers.

A 2013 video from China Labor Watch

Apple, with its high profits and strong brand, is often the easiest target for ethics campaigners, but its labor practices are hardly unique. Foxconn, the supplier associated with all these issues, is used as a contract manufacturer by Sony, Nintendo, Amazon, Toshiba, Motorola, Huawei, Dell, HP, Acer, BlackBerry and many more.

If you thought that Samsung may be a better choice, think again. Back in 2016, the company was accused of poisoning its own workers. Around 200 employees have either died or been stricken with serious illness after working on a Samsung production line. These individuals were diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and MS, despite being in their late 20s or early 30s. Samsung has denied the accusations, telling BBC News that the safety of its workers is its highest priority, but the company has since allowed inspectors inside its facilities. In addition, one of the employees who passed away was awarded compensation by a South Korean appeals court.

China Labor Watch, a non-profit that examines working conditions, has also found instances of child labor on Samsung lines. In 2012, a supplier was found employing children as young as 14 -- who had their pay docked when they were unable to work due to an injury. The company has since outlined a code of conduct for its supplier responsibility practices, which includes a commitment to banning child labor, paying a minimum wage and a ban on inhumane treatment. In 2015, China Labor Watch was still finding failings in facilities used by Samsung to produce its devices.

If you're on the hunt for a smartphone that isn't produced with the sort of intensive labor that most of us would wince at, chances are you're not going to be satisfied. Even smaller companies, like Fairphone, with its public commitment to offering a better deal, struggle with the systemic problems of the industry. Its handset is manufactured in Shenzhen, but as Huhne explains, "if you want to change the industry, you have to go where it is." He says suppliers are often surprised when Fairphone reps ask how they could improve working conditions in partnership.

Fairphone 2 (Jamie Rigg / Engadget)

The work of NGOs like Greenpeace, China Labor Watch and others are, in Huhne's mind, "essential." He feels it's important for companies to work with them, since they're already "on the ground" in some of these crucial regions. There's also the issue of where any organization chooses to focus its priorities: What's more important, conflict materials, sustainability or labor issues? "Just looking at how complex and vast international supply chains are, we had to make a decision on where to focus first."

Smartphones, and consumer technology more generally, don't just have the potential to harm the people building them. There is also the enormous environmental damage caused in the handsets' production, through resource extraction, intensive manufacturing and transport. "If you're wanting to buy a[n ethical] phone right now, your choices are limited," says Greenpeace's Gary Cook, "and Fairphone has done the most in terms of current manufacturers."

The organization found there's plenty of environmental blood that can be laid at the door of the smartphone. In the last decade, production of the devices has consumed nearly 968TWh, enough to power India for a year. In 2017, smartphones, and related products, made 50 metric tons of e-waste -- discarded smart devices and their accessories -- and it's only going to get worse.

Recently, Greenpeace launched a campaign to expose Samsung's use of coal-fired power plants. The organization believes that the company, "despite all its PR talk," only uses one percent renewable energy. It's a comparison that makes Apple seem positively virtuous, given its longstanding commitment to reach 100 percent renewables.

The NGO also took Samsung to task in the wake of the Galaxy Note 7 crisis, in which faulty batteries caused the devices to explode. If the Note 7 hadn't been built as a wholly-integrated device, but instead came with removable batteries, the cost to resolve the problem would have been significantly smaller. Integrated batteries are often the part that fails first, prompting phone users to opt for an upgrade when a replacement would work just as well. Failure to address this is a lesson that Apple is learning right now, to its chagrin.

Repairability and modularity can help users increase a device's lifespan, save money and preserve precious resources. But it's not easy to do, and often people ditch a perfectly-functional phone because of a single failing component. Not to mention that it plays into the gripes surrounding "planned obsolescence," and the theory that companies deliberately build devices that break after two years.

Mark Schaffer formerly managed environmental programs at Dell. He was responsible for pushing the company to adopt EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) standards. Now, he runs an independent consultancy, Shaffer Environmental, and last year, penned a report on environmental standards for Repair.org. Schaffer believes that US electronics standards, which are meant to push manufacturers to do better, have now failed.