Accidents at Lankan factories from poisonous gases due to weak safety standards

Recent incidents like the horrifying deaths of five workers from ammonia inhalation at a Horana rubber factory and two others at a spices factory at Dambulla also due to poisonous gases, are due to lack of proper safety and health standards.

Raising these concerns, Ms. Simrin Singh, Director, ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, also said that there is no proper mechanism available in the country where occupational safety and health (OSH) is concerned.

She was speaking at a workshop on “World day for Safety and Health at Work – ‘Improving the safety and health of young workers” held on Friday at the Galadari Hotel Colombo.

This year’s campaign focusses on improving the safety and health of young workers and is part of a joint campaign linked with the 2018 World Day against Child Labour on June 12 to focus on hazardous child labour.

She said that the news of these tragedies should bring the issues of health and safety of workers to the forefront and indicated that these worker deaths have brought the working conditions in the factories across the country under scrutiny and spotlight and stressed the importance of improving OSH for young workers.

Ms. Singh said that OSH for young workers has two benefits: Creating safe and healthy workplaces that meet the needs of young workers, and reducing the number of children engaged in hazardous child labour.
Young workers are identified as those between the ages of 18 and 24 years and ILO statistics show that they suffer much higher rates of non-fatal occupational injuries than adults. In the EU countries it is 40 per cent higher and in the US it is double the amount. (QP)