More than 100 female workers reportedly fell ill at a garment factory inside Adamjee Export Processing Zone in Narayanganj on Saturday, prompting dozens to seek medical attention and raising fresh concerns about workplace health conditions for women in Bangladesh’s garment industry.
The incident occurred at Universal Menswear Ltd in Siddhirganj on August 22, according to United News of Bangladesh and Jago News.
Workers on the second and third floors of a new factory building reportedly began feeling sick one after another after noon. As the number of affected workers increased, many were taken to the BEPZA Medical Centre inside the export processing zone for treatment.
The exact cause has not yet been established.
What happened inside the factory?
A worker who spoke anonymously to reporters said female employees on the two floors started becoming ill one after another during the afternoon.
The situation reportedly caused panic among other employees.
Because of the incident, workers were released at around 7:30pm, earlier than their scheduled 9:00pm closing time, according to the worker.
However, there are differences in the numbers described by different people connected to the incident.
Universal Menswear General Manager Billal Hossain told reporters that he had initially learned that seven or eight workers had suddenly become sick, while more employees were also feeling unwell.
He said the company had not yet been able to determine the cause and that affected workers were receiving treatment.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority at Adamjee EPZ said around 20 workers were receiving treatment at the medical centre at that stage.
News reports, based on accounts from workers, put the overall number of women who became ill at more than 100.
The difference makes a formal assessment of how many workers were affected — and what caused their symptoms — particularly important.
Was it heatstroke?
Nasrin, an additional executive director of BEPZA at Adamjee EPZ, told reporters that the workers initially appeared to have suffered from heatstroke.
But this was a preliminary assessment, not a confirmed medical finding.
No detailed medical diagnosis explaining why so many workers became unwell had been publicly released at the time of publication.
That distinction matters.
When a large group of workers becomes sick at the same workplace, determining the cause requires more than assumptions. Authorities may need to examine temperature and humidity, ventilation, access to drinking water, working hours, food or water safety and other possible environmental or medical factors.
Until that assessment is completed, SheFront is not identifying heatstroke as the confirmed cause of Saturday’s incident.
One of Adamjee EPZ’s biggest garment operations
Universal Menswear is a major garment exporter.
Just days before the incident, The Business Standard reported that the Romania-Bangladesh joint venture employed 5,739 people, including 5,699 Bangladeshi employees.
The approximately 535,000-square-foot facility produces suits, blazers, trousers and other garments for international retailers and exported products worth about $97.88 million in the 2025–26 fiscal year, according to BEPZA data cited by the newspaper.
The facility has also received LEED Gold certification for its environmentally friendly production system.
The scale of the operation makes understanding what happened on Saturday particularly important.
Heat is already an occupational-health concern in Bangladesh’s garment sector
The possibility of heat-related illness cannot be viewed in isolation from a wider challenge facing garment workers.
Research published in The Lancet Planetary Health on Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry notes that workers can face hot and humid indoor conditions, limited access to drinking water and insufficient rest breaks, all factors that can increase heat strain. Women make up a substantial share of Bangladesh’s garment workforce.
Earlier this year, garment workers and labour advocates also reported dizziness, nausea, cramps and fainting during periods of high heat and power disruption in industrial areas around Dhaka.
The International Labour Organization has warned that increasing heat stress poses a growing challenge to Bangladesh’s workforce and productivity as temperatures rise.
But these broader concerns do not establish what caused the Adamjee EPZ incident.
That still needs to be determined.
Why this is a women’s workplace issue
Bangladesh’s garment sector has transformed economic opportunities for millions of women.
For many families, a woman’s factory income pays for food, housing, healthcare and children's education.
That economic contribution makes workplace health protection especially important.
A safe workplace is not simply one where major fires or building collapses are prevented.
It must also protect workers from less visible risks — excessive heat, dehydration, inadequate ventilation, unsafe drinking water, chemical exposure and delayed access to medical care.
When dozens of women become sick during the same shift, workers deserve a clear explanation.
What needs to be answered next
BEPZA and the factory management should establish:
how many workers actually became ill;
what symptoms they experienced;
whether any workers required hospital admission;
the medical cause or causes of the illnesses;
temperature and ventilation conditions on the affected floors;
whether workers had adequate access to safe drinking water and rest;
and what changes, if any, are required before normal operations continue.
The findings matter beyond Universal Menswear.
Bangladesh’s garment factories supply some of the world's most recognisable fashion brands. Protecting the women who make those clothes must remain part of the industry's definition of responsible production.
Saturday’s incident may ultimately have a straightforward medical explanation.
But until the cause is known, the question should not simply be why did more than 100 women reportedly become sick?
It should also be:
Were the workplace systems strong enough to protect them — and what will be done to prevent it from happening again?
SheFront Source Note
This report was independently developed by SheFront News Desk using reporting from United News of Bangladesh and Jago News, recent BEPZA-linked information reported by The Business Standard, and occupational-health research on heat exposure in Bangladesh’s garment sector.
At the time of publication, the cause of the workers’ illnesses had not been officially confirmed. Heatstroke was described only as an initial assessment by a BEPZA official. SheFront will update this story if a formal medical or regulatory finding is released.
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