During Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent visit to China, a Beijing-based environmental organization – the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs - brought up the rather sensitive issue pertaining to the working conditions in the company’s supplier factories in China, and urged the company to pay a closer attention to the condition of the workers.

According to Ma Jun, the director of the private nonprofit organization, even though there have been some improvements in the working conditions ever since the issue was highlighted in media reports, the situation still continues to be somewhat touchy.

Ma revealed that it was essentially after the complaints from local communities that the organization initiated investigations into the conditions of workers at Chinese factories. With there being reports about the workers suffering the ill effects of chemical and other dangerous wastes, the organization started its probe into the health hazards at Apple as well as some of the other multinational company suppliers in China in 2009.

Ma further said that the organization was “shocked” when Apple denied disclosing any information about labor, health, and environmental conditions at its Chinese suppliers, saying that it followed a policy of nondisclosure about its suppliers.

However, noting that Apple finally consented in January this year to allow independent audits of two of its suppliers, Ma said that even though the issue of working conditions at Apple’s Chinese suppliers is still a thorny one, local communities and government officials have confirmed that “things are getting better.”