383 killed in workplace accidents in 2010

Some 383 workers were killed in 270 workplace accidents across the country in 2010 showing a sharp rise in death toll compared to 265 during the previous year.
Safety and Rights Society, an NGO working for ensuring safety and rights of workers, yesterday revealed the figures, compiled from reports from 26 major dailies across the country.
Sekender Ali Mina, programme director of Safety and Rights, said the casualty figure is lower than the actual. It is likely that all the workplace deaths had not been reported by the daily newspapers.
The highest number of workers (152) was killed in factories and other manufacturing units followed by construction sites (142), service organisations like hotel, workshop, power supply organisations (63) and others (26).
Some 98 were electrocuted while 92 were burnt to death, 51 died after falling from high places like scaffolds, and 26 workers were killed by suffocation from poisonous gas.
Some 116 of the workers died from various reasons including boiler burst, chemical or gas explosions, earth, roof or wall collapse, hit by hard objects and entangled with machines.
The organisation observes that most of the electrocution deaths occurred when iron rods carried by construction workers came into contact with live electric wire passing near the under-construction buildings.
Workers fall victim of electrocution as they do not take safety measures - wearing helmet, gloves, shoes etc - during the work. The main reason why workers fell from high places was due to poorly made scaffolds (macha).
The organisation suggested proper monitoring of regulatory bodies including RAJUK, factory inspectorate to enforce relevant laws, separate health and safety policy for respective organisations, safety plan before construction work, providing proper PPE (personal protective equipment) free of cost, health and safety training and right technology for right person.