NEXT month, amid the usual hoopla, Apple will unveil its latest gadget: the much-awaited iPhone 4G. Halfway round the globe from the company's California headquarters, a young worker who has spent months in a Chinese hospital wants consumers to look beyond the shiny exterior of such gadgets.

''People should know what we do to create these products and what cost we pay,'' said Bai Bing. She is one of scores of young workers in the city of Suzhou who were poisoned by the chemical n-hexane, which they say was used to clean Apple components including iPhone touch screens.

Wu Mei - who, like the others, asked me to use her nickname - recalled her fear as her health suddenly deteriorated. At first, she thought she was simply tired from the long working hours at Wintek, a Taiwan-owned electronics giant. She was weaker and noticed she could not walk as fast.

''Then it became more and more serious. I found it very hard to go upstairs and if I squatted down I didn't have the strength to get up. Later my hands became numb and I lost my balance - I would fall over if someone touched me.''

By the middle of last year, she was admitted to hospital, where doctors struggled to diagnose the cause. ''I was terrified. I feared I might be paralysed and spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair,'' she said.