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Cambodia hosts 2009 ANROAVannual meeting

The land where the world famous Angkor Wat is located, Cambodia, was the venue for the 2009 Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims Annual Meeting. More than a hundred delegates packed the conference room at the Sunway Hotel in downtown Phnom Pehn where the meeting was held from September 21st to the 24th. read more

Asbestos video available in 9 languages

Bangladesh OHS statistics

Deadly collapse of giantchimney in India

Effects of heat on workers’ health and productivity in Taiwan

Two days, three die at Vietnam’s highest building

35 Safety Violations Across Nine Shipyards Islandwide

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Cambodia hosts 2009 ANROAV annual meeting

The land where the world famous Angkor Wat is located, Cambodia, was the venue for the 2009 Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims Annual Meeting. More than a hundred delegates packed the conference room at the Sunway Hotel in downtown Phnom Pehn where the meeting was held from September 21st to the 24th.

Participants came from a total of 14 countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Nepal, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, U.S.A. and Cambodia. Individual activists and various organizations of victims groups, labor non-governmental organizations (NGO), womens group, unions, academe, and other grassroots organizations converge to discuss pertinent

issues of health and safety of the Asian region.

Day 1, September 21, 2009

As most of the delegates were arriving, afternoon of Day 1 saw members of the ANROAV network working on Asbestos - who are also part of the A-BAN or Asia Ban Asbestos Network - starting to share and discuss the current trends of use of Asbestos in the region. Participants of the sub-meeting shared their work after the launching of A-BAN in April of 2009 in Hong Kong.

Day 2, September 22, 2009

The formal start of the annual meeting began with speeches from one of the host of the meeting, Mr. Ath Thorn, President of the Cambodian >>>

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Labour Congress or CLC. A member of the government, the Director of the OHS Department, Dr. Leng Tong also gave a keynote speech.

Updates on the situation of OHS in the region was shared with the participants, along with the activities of ANROAV since the last annual meeting. Selected speakers from the members of the network discussed updates on the various campaigns coordinated and supported by the network, among them Asbestos and

Silicosis, Justice for Bhopal, GP workers cadmium poisoning campaign, Mining, the Samsung workers campaign. Speakers also shared the development of various networks in the region, including the OHS network in Indonesia and India and the continued growth of victims organizations in China.

The afternoon saw the whole conference breaking into simultaneous skill share sessions. Delegates were allowed to choose from Victims Organizing, Occupational Lung Diseases and Effective OHS Training. The Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries or TAVOI facilitated the skill-share session on Victims Organizing. The Occupational Lung Disease session was facilitated by Ban Asbestos Now – Korea or BANKO while the Effective OHS Training was done by the delegates from the Labor and Occupational Health Program of the University of Berkeley.

Day 3, September 23, 2009

The rest of Day 3 saw the delegates continue their intense discussions. Workshop places were done in various areas around the hotel, with some of the delegates even occupying the smoking room. The skill-share used varied forms to impart knowledge to the participants. The Occupational Lung Disease session tackled the topic by sharing various medical tests that can be used to ascertain lung problems among workers.

The facilitators from LOHP used group activities and various action-filled activities to send the message across the participants, while facilitators from TAVOI shared various processes to get the trust of victims which >>>

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is crucial in organizing them. The various sessions were able to overcome the language barrier which is always present in a conference with so many countries attending.

Day 4, September 24, 2009

After the skill-share of Day 2 and 3, session reporters shared to the plenary what transpired during their discussions, along with plan of action charted by the groups. After all the sessions reporters, the plenary discussed various plans and direction of the network for the coming months.

After lunch, the participants all went to a garments factory making sports wear. The tour of the factory showed how workers, mostly women, made high-end sports apparel destined to be exported to outside of Cambodia.

The ANROAV members meeting was held right after the factory visit. The first part was an emotional moment as the conference paid tribute to one of our dear friend and Indonesian OHS activist, Prabowo, who died from complications caused by an occupational accident he suffered in the past.

The day was concluded by the final declaration that the next ANROAV Annual Meeting will be held in Indonesia in 2010.

Day 5, September 25, 2009

Most of the delegates were flying off to their home countries but work for some of the delegates is not yet done. In 2 separate rooms, the ANROAV China group continued their discussion while in another room, a new network of activists, working on Electronics, was being hatched. Indeed, cliché as it may seem, the conference end ushered in a new field of work.

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Asia Ban Asbestos Network produces asbestos video in 9 languages

After the launching of Asia Ban Asbestos Network in April of 2009, this ANROAV meeting in Cambodia saw A-BAN producing an informative video on how asbestos enters the body and lungs. The video is a 103 second long and details how asbestos fibers become embedded in a persons lungs.

What makes this video more important for us is very accessible to us Asians since it is available in 9 Asian languages, namely

Bahasa, Bangla, Filipino, Hindi, Khmer, Mandarin, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese. The translation effort was supported by Ban Asbestos Japan (BAN-JAN), Ban Asbestos Korea (BANKO) and Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC).

Interested parties can email the secretariat at anroav2008@gmail.com on how they can get their own file copy, including the text of the video.

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Youtube Channel for ANROAV videos now available

In our effort for us to reach out to a wider audience and share our message, we are currently utilizing new and available technology. The popularity of the Internet and social network, particularly the platform Youtube has prompted us to get our beaks wet in this field.

We have launched the ANROAV Youtube Channel at www.youtube.com/anroav. Here you can view the latest videos from ANROAV. At present, you can browse the Asbestos videos in 9 Asian languages. We will be posting more videos as they come. In the meantime, enjoy watching on the Internet.

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1,273 killed, 1,617 critically Injured at Different Occupational Accidents and Workers Rights Violations in Bangladesh on first 9 months of 2009 Some 1273 workers were killed and 1617 others injured in various work related incidents across the country on first nine months (1 January to 30 September) of 2009. Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) revealed the said statistics after monitoring sixteen national daily newspapers from January 1, to September 30, 2009. Of the total, highest number of causalities (799) took place in the ready made garment sector, followed by transport sector (751) and construction sector (182). It was found in the survey that, 187 workers were killed and 389 critically injured at workplaces due to fall from height, electrocution and explosion, a group of 297 workers killed and 807 injured at work in relation to different workers rights violations (i.e. physical assault by employers/management, police action etc). Some 274 workers were killed and 202 others injured in incidents while traveling to and from the workplaces. Low enforcement of exiting labour law (BLA-2006) at workplaces, weak labour inspections, lack of awareness, sensitization and health and safety training among workers, absence of OSH committee at workplaces level, lack of decent wage and defective industrial relations were some of the key causes for growing occupational accidents, workers rights violations and labour unrests in the country.

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Deadly collapse of giant chimney in India

September 25, 2009

Rescuers were in a race against time on Thursday to free dozens of workers trapped under rubble from a giant chimney that collapsed in central India, killing 20, officials said.

"The death toll could rise. Our team is working very hard to rescue those alive," senior government officer Ashok Agarwal from the central state of Chhattisgarh told AFP by telephone.

A 275-metre chimney under construction at a power plant in the state collapsed in bad weather on Wednesday, killing 20 people instantly and leaving dozens trapped under massive chunks of concrete.

"The chance of finding survivors is getting very bleak," said police officer Ratanlal Dangi by phone from the site of the disaster.

"We are facing great difficulty in removing the concrete. Once the debris is removed, we will be able to rescue people or find bodies."

Police were unable to say how many labourers were trapped but late Wednesday had said it could be as many as 70.

Deadly construction site accidents are relatively common in India, where health and safety rules are routinely flouted, but a builders' labour group said this incident was bad even by Indian standards.

"It is one of the worst accidents in India's recent construction history," Rajeev Sharma, South Asia head of Building and Wood Workers' International, told AFP.

K.C. Gupta, director general of the National Safety Council of India, said the disaster was the latest in a string of fatal accidents in the construction sector.

They include the collapse of a partially built bridge on the flagship Delhi Metro project that killed five in July and an accident during construction of a road flyover in the southern city of Hyderabad. >>>

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No accurate up-to-date figures exist for the number of occupational accidents and deaths in India, but the UN's International Labour Organisation has estimated that 50,000 people die here each year from work-related causes.

A spokesman for Bharat Aluminium Co Ltd (Balco), which was building the plant, said 150 rescuers had been pressed into action and 10 heavy earth-moving machines were also helping to clear debris.

The accident happened in Korba town, 200 kilometres from Chhattisgarh state capital Raipur.

About a third of the chimney had been completed when it collapsed during a storm.

"A probable reason for the incident appears to be the excessive rains and lightning at Korba," said a statement from multinational group Vedanta Resources, the majority owner of Balco.

"The exact cause for this will however be ascertained only after a detailed investigation is concluded."

Photographs of the site showed the body of one man wearing work boots sprawled half-buried in a sea of mud.

Balco is a 51 per cent owned unit of London Stock Exchange-listed resource giant Vedanta. The Indian government holds the remaining 49 per cent.

Balco has been expanding its aluminium operations in the mineral-rich state, which is a hotbed of a Maoist insurgency in which thousands of people have died since the late 1960s.Police on Wednesday said there was no indication of terrorist involvement in the chimney collapse.

AFP

Source URL: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/deadly-collapse-of-giant-chimney-in-india-20090924-g4ot.html

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Occupations and industries at risk of heat stress in Taiwan

Labourers who work in hot indoor or outdoor environments in Taiwan include construction workers (roads and roofs), farming and fishing workers, cooks (in bakeries and kitchens), metal and glass manufacturers (for instance, in steel and bicycle factories), and transportation workers and material movers (for example, postal deliverers and traffic policemen).

Of these, construction (SIC Division C) workers accounted for the largest portion of the labour force that works outdoors, with around 842,000 workers (8.1% of the labour force), whereas agriculture, forestry and fishing (SIC Division A) workers accounted for 535,000 workers (5.1%) in 2008.

A total of 11,000 agriculture, forestry, fishing and construction workers are foreign labourers from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Foreign workers are recruited to Taiwan mainly because of cheaper labour costs, but also on account of the notion that they have greater heat stress endurance than local workers.

Anecdotal stories of sudden deaths, possibly due to excess heat during work, have been occasionally reported in the past. Workers in construction, farming and fishery industries may also suffer from high occupational temperature impacts on health and productivity due to climate change, as suggested by Kjellstrom .

These workers are a potentially high-risk population in Taiwan because they have to work under hot and humid summer conditions, which last for more than five months. More than a million workers are employed in these industries, and they contributed around 3.4% of the real GDP of Taiwan in 2008. The effect of heat on these workers’ health and work output is an important public health issue in Taiwan.

Surveys of employees’ perceptions of safety and health in the work environment have been routinely conducted via questionnaires every three years since 1988, primarily by the Taiwan Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

The most recent survey of 19,000 workers indicated that 42% of employees perceived a risk of excessive heat at the workplace. The proportion of >>>

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employees who perceived risk was particularly high in the construction industry (76.3%) and in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries (71.3%). Compared to data from 2001, these rates were higher in both sets of industries in 2007, whereas the rate for the total workforce decreased slightly. A decrease in perceived risk of excessive heat amongst the total workforce may be due to the increased use of air conditioning in indoor workplaces. Note that the proportion of employees who perceived a risk of excessive heat at the workplace is higher in males (50.97%) and in those with lower educational levels (63.51–78.15% for junior high level or below).

For the full text, please go to: http://www.globalhealthaction.net/index.php/gha/article/viewArticle/2024/2551

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Two days, three die at Vietnam’s highest building

17:55 23/07/2009

VietNamNet Bridge – An occupational accident occurred on July 22 at the construction site of the Keangnam building in Tu Liem district, Hanoi, which will be the highest structure in Vietnam, killing one and injuring another. The day before, two workers died after falling from the 13th floor. According to police, the first accident happened at 10 pm, July 21, with two workers aged 43 and 22. They died immediately after falling from the 13th floor. The second accident was recorded at 4 pm, July 22, with one death and one injured. The names of the victims and the reason for the accident have not been released. The Hanoi Landmark Tower project, invested in by South Korean group Keangnam, was launched in 2007, at a cost of $1 billion, the biggest project in Hanoi at that time. >>>

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This project comprises a twin tower of 48-storeys, totalling 918 apartments and a 70-storey building. In late 2008, as many people were doubtful about the feasibility of the completion of this project, the investor Keangnam affirmed it would finish the construction in October 2010. According to Keangnam, Hanoi Landmark Tower will be the highest building in Vietnam and the 17th-highest in the world. The Hanoi Construction Department’s chief Bui Van Chien said that it is serious to have two occupational accidents occur at the same place within a few days. The department’s experts inspected the construction site today, July 23.

VietNamNet/VNE

Source URL: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2009/07/859701/

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35 Safety Violations Across Nine Shipyards Islandwide Detected In MOM’s Operation “Seagull”27 September 2009

35 fines and warning letters issued in total

The Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Inspectorate conducted Operation “Seagull”, a weekend ‘after office hours’ inspection at nine shipyards island-wide. The inspectors uncovered 35 Workplace Safety & Health (WSH) violations. The nine shipyards were issued a total of 25 composition fines and warning letters. Eight fines and warnings were issued to the subcontractors within the shipyards. Another two warnings

>>>

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were issued to individuals – a supervisor and a Ship Repair Manager. All parties were instructed to rectify the safety lapses before work can resume in these areas. Please see Annex A for details.

2. Maintaining oversight on ‘after office hours’ work is important as about 42% of workplace fatalities arise from work carried out during these hours, whether at night or on weekends. The marine sector is a key area as it accounts for about 20% of workplace fatalities. Operation “Seagull” was aimed at inspecting work done during weekends in the marine industry, following a successful Operation “Night Eagle” in August which focused on construction worksites that operate round-the-clock.

Action taken by Operation “Seagull”

3. In Operation “Seagull”, MOM inspectors found three main areas of concern in the shipyards – fall hazards, electrical hazards and the lack of safe entry and exit points to and from work areas. Six of the nine shipyards did not have adequate barriers to prevent workers from falling over open sides or through openings within the shipyards or on board vessels. Such fall hazards are dangerous because they can lead to fatal falls from heights. Workers working on board vessels are also at risk of falling and drowning in the waters where the vessels are berthed.

4. About half of the nine shipyards inspected were found to lack safe entry and exit points within certain work areas. Workers were not provided proper means, such as ladders, to reach higher ground or other areas where work was to be carried out. Without the proper access, workers may seek their own ways to reach these work areas in an unsafe manner and injure themselves as a result.

5. Electrical hazards were found in about half of the shipyards inspected. This involved the lack of safe work procedures to ensure safe use of electrical equipment and installations, as well as poor maintenance of the equipment. Workers who need to use such equipment are exposed to the risks of electrocution. For more details on the safety violations, please see Annex B.

Shipyards urged to improve safety in areas of concern

6. “The areas uncovered by Operation “Seagull” are of concern as they are potential risks that can lead to severe consequences, be it >>>

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fatal falls or electrocution from poorly-maintained equipment. The Ministry is concerned about these issues and had since instructed the shipyards and their subcontractors to rectify them. During Operation “Seagull”, our officers also observed that the shipyards had provided adequate supervision during the weekends. This is important as supervisors play a critical role. They can help to ensure that work is carried out safely and keep workers from taking short cuts or ignoring safety rules. Shipyards are reminded to provide high levels of supervision during all work hours and to keep a constant watch over the areas uncovered during Operation “Seagull”. MOM will continue to work closely with the WSH Council and the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) on industry initiatives to address safety concerns and up safety awareness at shipyards,” said Mr Silas Sng, Director of MOM’s OSH Inspectorate.

WSH Council on improving safety in the marine sector

7. “Over the past dozen or so years, together with the MOM and other stakeholders, our marine industry has made good efforts and shown its commitment to improve workplace safety and health for its 150,000-strong workforce. However, Operation “Seagull” shows that current safety standards are still not good enough to achieve our WSH 2018 vision. Much more must be done to ensure the safety of our marine workers. To meet the challenges posed by a varied workforce and the huge number of subcontractors working side-by-side on a daily basis, shipyards will need to further enhance their current WSH management systems and develop a strong WSH culture involving all parties who work within their yards. Currently, some of the industry’s top leaders are already working closely with MOM and the WSH Council to enhance contractor management and safety training for workers and supervisors. Our marine industry must show even stronger commitment to making workplace safety and health a core value in their business model so that Singapore can remain and improve on its position as a global leader in shipbuilding and ship repair.” said Professor Poo Aun Neow, Chairman, WSH Council (Marine Industries) Committee.

MOM to continue enforcement efforts

8. MOM will continue to conduct inspections across workplaces. Besides issuing fines and warnings, MOM officers will also issue stop work orders in workplaces that present immediate danger to workers. Companies that fail to ensure workplace safety may be charged under the Workplace Safety and Health Act which carries a maximum fine of $500,000. Individuals >>>

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can also be charged under the WSH Act for a maximum fine of $500,000 and/or 24 months jail term.

Source URL: http://www.mom.gov.sg/Home/Pages/Press_Release/20090927-35_safetyV.html