HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:56:42 GMT
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
404 Object Not Found |
More changes in OHSEI
On 28 June Lars Thiesson, Research Officer, left OHSEI to return to Denmark. Future research activities for our member
organisations will be conducted on a consultancy basis until OHSEI’s future is clearer.
Evaluation team recommends:
Following the change of Government in Denmark an Evaluation Team visited Thailand and Malaysia to evaluate this and another occupational health and safety project in Malaysia.
OHSEI wishes to thank the many people and organisations which provided vital support demonstrating that we have made an impact.
It will be sometime before we learn whether the Government accepts the key recommendation of the evaluation team: that no cost/low cost extension be agreed to ensure that OHSEI can become sustainable.
The report of the Evaluation team included the following comments:
The OHSE Institute is not a political establishment. In fact the activities of the OHSE Institute and the idea of establishing such an institute have been lauded by all parties that the review team has consulted. This include, among others, the NICE Director, the ILO, the representative of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, university professors, trade union leaders and members, as well as an employer representative from one of the more progressive factories in Bangkok, with whom the review team discussed these issues.
There is, thus, a need for an institution like the OHSE Institute to disseminate information about OHS directly to the workers and to train, raise awareness and guide the work of the trade unions in the region within OHS.
The establishment of the OHSE Institute as an autonomous institution is, thus, well justified…
The OHSE Institute needs more time to become financially independent and to build up its local training capacity...
The OHSE Institute also needs more time to be recognised in the region and to expand its network outside of Thailand. Until now the OHSE
Institute has concentrated on getting established and to start training activities in Thailand.
However, the Institute has conducted two regional conferences and paid ‘promotion’/ identification visits to some of the countries in the region. Furthermore, it has conducted
|
training in OHS in
Nepal (under the DANIDA funded Environment Sector Programme Support) and at an ILO seminar for Asia, which was held in Turin, Italy.
There is scope as well as need for continuing the project for another two to three years. In regard to finances, this would be possible without additional project funds or with very limited additional funding.
What can you do to improve occupational health, safety and environment outcomes and for OHSEI?
The most important thing which you, the reader of this OHSEI News, can do to improve occupational health, safety and environment outcomes and to ensure OHSEI continues is to take seriously the information provided by the ILO about occupational health and safety. In a press release marking Memorial Day (24 April) the following statement was made:
The ILO estimates that approximately two million workers lose their lives annually due to occupational injuries and illnesses, with accidents causing at least 350,000 deaths a year. For every fatal accident, there are an estimated (to be) 1,000 non-fatal injuries, many of which result in lost earnings, permanent disability and poverty. The death toll at work, much of which is attributable to unsafe working practices, is the equivalent of 5,000 workers dying each day, three persons every minute.
This is more than double the figure for deaths from warfare (650,000 deaths per year). According to the ILO's SafeWork
programme, work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together and the resulting loss in Gross Domestic Product is 20 times greater than all official development assistance to the developing countries. Hazardous substances kill 340,000 per year, with a single substance, asbestos, accounting for 100,000 of those (deaths). Exposure to daily occupational hazards such as dust, chemicals, noise and radiation cause untold suffering and illness, including cancers, heart diseases and strokes.
According to the ILO, at least half of the deaths from accidents could be prevented by safe working practices and all accidents are avoidable and preventable. Agriculture, construction and mining are the three most hazardous occupations in both developing and industrialized countries.
So let’s start making workplaces safe and healthy using our right to decent work as a tool to organise and make workers aware. |
|
|
|
|
HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:56:42 GMT
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
404 Object Not Found |