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OSHA targets injuries/illnesses in cut stone industries
The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched a new outreach and enforcement effort aimed at preventing and reducing injuries, illnesses and fatalities among workers in New England's cut stone products industries.
The new regional emphasis program will focus on workplaces that cut, shape, finish, handle or distribute granite, marble and other natural or engineered stone or stone products. The industry, primarily made up of smaller employers, has grown rapidly in the past few years, prompted by an increased demand for countertops and other stone products. At the same time, fatality and injury rates among its workers have increased. In New England, six workers in the industry have died since August 2004, five of them crushed by stone slabs.
Hazards to which industry workers can be exposed are crushing by improperly stored or handled stone slabs; silicosis and other lung diseases from exposure to airborne concentrations of silica caused by grinding and cutting; amputation hazards from unguarded machinery; musculoskeletal injuries from using pneumatic tools; and hearing loss from noise overexposures.
"The need for direct intervention is clear," said Marthe Kent, OSHA's New England regional administrator. "This program seeks to persuade employers to take effective steps to address hazards before they harm workers and focus appropriate enforcement action toward those employers who do nothing."
Over the next two months, OSHA offices in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will conduct outreach activities to inform industry employers and employees of the program, promote their awareness of the hazards common to their workplaces and provide information on possible abatement methods. This will include contacting employers to encourage them to schedule a free safety and health audit by their state consultation service.
Those employers who take no action will be placed on a primary list for random, unannounced OSHA enforcement inspections. Those who use the safety consultation service and take steps to correct any hazards found will be put on a secondary inspection list. OSHA will still conduct inspections in response to complaints, referrals and accidents.
Silicosis: Radiologists ‘missing in action’, gram mitras don medical hat
DAHOD: Pleas for appointing radiologists ‘go unheard’, 459 gram mitras trained to detect probable silicosis patients in villages so as to give them timely treatment
Shubhlakshmi Shukla
Vadodara, June 17: WITH cases of silicosis going undetected owing to dearth of radiologists, Dahod district health authorities now plan to rope in gram mitras. Of the suspected 200-odd cases of silicosis, only 15 were confirmed in past two years.
At a day-long training camp held on June 10, 459 gram mitras who have no medical background and are only graduates in a non-medical discipline were trained to detect probable silicosis patients in the villages so as to give them timely treatment.
“Gram mitras will create awareness about silicosis, an occupational disorder which can only be detected through detailed study,’’ says Dahod Chief District Health Officer (CDHO), Dr Dhanlakshmi Rathod.
When asked about the nature of their work, she said that gram mitras will check clinical symptoms of patients working at silica quarries or mines and give details on new cases in their localities.
On a query whether silicosis could be detected symptomatically, Ahmedabad-based National Institute Of Occupational Health (NIOH) official answered in negation.
“It is only through pulmonary test and X-rays that . For that, government officials need to pay attention and provide proper infrastructure,’’ he says.
Speaking to the Express NewslineRathod says, “We have appealed to the State Health Department to appoint radiologist just few months ago.’’
While there is a dearth of field workers and radiologists in the district, the tuberculosis department is mulling to take services of gram mitras in spreading awareness about silicosis in Dahod which mostly comprises tribals.
“There is no other alternative for the villagers than to work at silica quarries and earn their livelihood,’’ say district health authorities.
“In three families, all the male members have succumbed to this occupational hazard,’’ says Jadish Patel who heads People Training and Research Center that held a workshop recently.
Also, the district has been without a radiologist for two years.
Dr R M Patel, civil surgeon in charge, Dahod District Civil Hospital said, “Though the post of radiologist was sanctioned two years ago, no appointments have been made so far.”
Repeated appeals have been made by the district tuberculosis department to recruit radiologist and experts in the district to the State health authorities, but in vain, say district Civil Hospital officials.
“Let alone radiologist, there is no trained paramedical for checking lung functions test (one of the important measures for diagnosing tuberculosis patient),’’ say tuberculosis department officials.
“If there are no resource and equipment for the diagnosis, how is the efficiency going to increase?’’ asks a department official.
According to the tuberculosis department officials, sputum of identified patients will be tested followed by further details and gram mitras, based on their training, will identify silicosis patients.
Meanwhile, the departments are busy passing the buck. For district tuberculosis department, it is the responsibility of NIOH authorities to bail them out when the State health officials are not responding to their repeated pleas for radiologists.
On their part, NIOH authorities say, “Although we take steps to make people aware about the diseases such as tuberculosis, we are not responsible to ensure recruitment of radiologists,’’ says a NIOH official, adding that when district health officials are “too tardy in learning about this rampant disease, there is nothing they can do about it.”
“Silicosis is a 100-year-old occupational disorder which is listed in their medical curriculum, therefore, every medical officer should know about it. However, it is their sluggish approach which stops them to identify the minute X-ray detail of the patient,’’ he adds.
* No radiologist in Dahod district for two years now. Tuberculosis Dept says State health officials not responding, so National Institute Of Occupational Health should bail them out. NIOH authorities say they are not responsible for recruitment of radiologists
* Gram mitras to check clinical symptoms of patients working at silica quarries or mines, give details on new cases in their localities, says Dahod CDHO. But NIOH officials say silicosis can be diagnosed only through pulmonary test and X-ray; ‘if district officials are slow in brushing up on disease, there’s nothing we can do’
MINE HEALTH
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Parties in AngloGold employee case meet to set court date
By: Mariaan Olivier
16 Jul 07 - A new court date for the multi-million court case brought against South African gold producer AngloGold Ashanti had been set for October 2 to October 5, human rights lawyer Richard Spoor said on Monday.
The case, which was to have been heard on June 12, was postponed to allocate a dedicated senior judge to the case.
In October 2006, AngloGold Ashanti was served a R2,6-million lawsuit on behalf of a former employee, Thembekile Mankayi, who claimed that he contracted silicosis while working underground between 1979 to 1995.
Silicosis is an occupational lung disease caused by the inhalation of free silica dust, mainly present in mines and quarries where quartz concentrations are high, as is the case in many deep-level gold mines.
AngloGold Ashanti is defending this action on the basis that avenues for compensation exist in terms of South African legislation, and that Mankayi was precluded in terms of this legislation from recovering damages from the company.
Under South African law, a worker can not sue his or her employer for injury sustained at the work place. A compensation commission assumes responsibility for claim payouts to workers or their families for injury or death incurred at the workplace.
But, should the court rule in favour of the sick former employee, the local mining industry could be flooded with claims of former workers.
Spoor said that he was in the process of preparing a similar claim for another worker who allegedly contracted silicosis while working for Africa’s second-largest producer Gold Fields.
“We are slowly lining up all the major players,” he said, urging stakeholders in the gold mining industry to examine all options to bring an end to the “monstrosity”.
“This should not be litigated, it should be negotiated,” Spoor added.
The South African mining industry is committed to bring down 95% of all exposure measurement results to below the occupational exposure limit for respirable crystalline silica of 0,1 mg/m3 by December 2008.
After December 2013, using current diagnostic techniques, the industry was aiming for no new cases of silicosis among workers that entered the mining industry after 2008.
Edited by: Liezel Hill
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