day after a report detailed harsh working conditions at one of Apple's component suppliers in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company cares about every worker in its supply chain and that any suggestion to the contrary was "patently false and offensive."

Workers at an Apple supplier facility in Shanghai.

(Credit: Apple)

Yesterday, The New York Times published an exhaustive report that profiled hazardous factory conditions linked to scores of injuries and a handful of deaths. The report recounted an explosion at a plant in Chengdu that killed four, focusing on the final months for Lai Xiaodong, a 22-year-old who had worked a few months at the Foxconn Technologies plant where the iPad is produced.

One former Foxconn executive told the Times that "Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost." Perhaps more troubling was the insight of a former Apple executive, who said: "We've known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they're still going on."

Apple did not respond to a request for comment from CNET last night, but Cook addressed the issues highlighted in the report in an e-mail sent to employees today, a copy of which was obtained by 9to5mac.