Basic precautions can halve industrial deaths

Basic safety measures can prevent more than half of the industrial deaths and fatal injuries every year in Bangladesh, experts told an international conference yesterday.   
Between 5,000 and 25,000 fatal accidents occur in all industries together in Bangladesh annually, said Knut Ringen, vice-president, International Social Security Association (ISSA), US. He said precautions could also halve the damage caused by the accidents.
In the construction sector of Bangladesh, Ringen said, accidents annually claim 1,500 and 3,500 lives, of which 60 percent are preventable with basic precautions.
Dhaka Community Hospital Trust jointly with Collegium Ramazzini and Harvard School of Public Health organised the three-day conference beginning Monday on occupational safety in garments, tannery and construction industries in Bangladesh on the hospital premises.
Syed Moazzem Hussain, a representative from German development partner GIZ, said Western Marine Shipyard Ltd had earned international certification on workers' safety by reducing the injury rate by 99 percent through simple but effective cautionary measures.     
Citing ILO findings, Principal of Dhaka Community Hospital Prof Abdul Wadud Khan said around 12,000 workers suffered fatal injuries each year in Bangladesh where the garment sector employed four million registered and 10 million unregistered workers.
Mahbub Jamil, former adviser to a caretaker government, identified tanneries and ship breaking as two most hazardous industries in terms of the health impacts.