Workplace Health Without Borders (WHWB) is a non-profit charity dedicated to occupational health of workers and their families in all industry. Our membership of certified industrial hygienists, registered occupational hygienists, and other health and safety professionals across the globe are raising awareness of health issues that affect so many people. WHWB invites you to examine these concerns and offer your in-kind donation, corporate sponsorship, or support to volunteer and help us change the world. Thank you.
4. More people die each year from ooccccuuppaattiioonnaall iinnjjuurriieess
aanndd ddiisseeaassee tthhaann ffrroomm ootthheerr mmaajjoorr ccaauusseess tthhaatt aarree
mmuucchh mmoorree vviissiibbllee……....
Sources:
1.ILO, 2013 2. WHO, 2012 deaths 3. WHO, 2010 deaths 4. Amnesty International, 2010
5. World Population Growth
Growth rates of the world's most populous countries
Rank Country Population
2010
Population
1990
Growth (%)
1990–2010
World 6,895,889,000 5,306,425,000 30.0%
1 China 1,341,335,000 1,145,195,000 17.1%
2 India 1,224,614,000 873,785,000 40.2%
3 United States 310,384,000 253,339,000 22.5%
4 Indonesia 239,871,000 184,346,000 30.1%
5 Brazil 194,946,000 149,650,000 30.3%
6 Pakistan 173,593,000 111,845,000 55.3%
7 Nigeria 158,423,000 97,552,000 62.4%
8 Bangladesh 148,692,000 105,256,000 41.3%
9 Russia 142,958,000 148,244,000 -3.6%
10 Japan 128,057,000 122,251,000 4.7%
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7. TTOOPP 1100 RRAANNKKEEDD MMOOSSTT PPOOPPUULLAATTEEDD
CCOOUUNNTTRRIIEESS FFOORR 22000033 AANNDD 22005500
Countries Ranked by Population: 2003
Rank
Country
Population
1 China
1,286,975,46
8
2 India
1,049,700,11
8
3 United States 290,342,554
4 Indonesia 234,893,453
5 Brazil 182,032,604
6 Pakistan 150,694,740
7 Russia 144,526,278
8 Bangladesh 138,448,210
9 Nigeria 133,881,703
10 Japan 127,214,499
Countries Ranked by Population: 2050
Rank Country Population
1 India 1,601,004,572
2 China 1,417,630,630
3 United States 420,080,587
4 Indonesia 336,247,428
5 Nigeria 307,420,055
6 Bangladesh 279,955,405
7 Pakistan 267,813,495
8 Brazil 228,426,737
9 Congo (Kinshasa) 181,260,098
10 Mexico 153,162,145
SSoouurrccee:: WWoorrlldd PPooppuullaattiioonn SSiittuuaattiioonn 11995500--22005500 PPrreesseennttaattiioonn bbyy AAlliiaass AAbbdduullllaahh
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8. EEmmeerrggiinngg NNaattiioonnaall EEccoonnoommiieess
BBRRIICCSS CCoouunnttrriieess
oun
8
Russia
India
Brazil
China
South Africa
Source: WWoorrlldd BBaannkk,, 22001133 CCooppyyrriigghhtt @@ 22001144 WWHHWWBB AAllll rriigghhttss rreesseerrvveedd..
10. Construction and infrastructure
Agriculture; plantations; rural sectors
Informal economy
Mining (coal; diamonds, metal mining)
Food; drink; tobacco
Oil and gas production; oil refining
Forestry; wood; pulp and paper
Basic metal production
Chemical and petrochemical industr
ies
Mechanical and electrical engineering
Transport equipment manufacturing
Textiles; clothing; footwear
Health services Public service
Utilities (water; gas; electricity)
Commerce
Hotels; catering; tourism
Shipping; ports; fishery; inland waters
Transport (civil aviation; rails; road)
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20. Air Pollution (Sand/Dust/Particulate Matter)
Animal Bites (Rabies)
Animal Bodies
Biological Warfare Agents
Chemical Warfare Agents
Chlorine Gas
Depleted Uranium
Excessive Vibration
Fog Oils and Garbage
Human Body, Body Fluids, Body Parts, Dead Bodies
Industrial Pollution - Toxic Chemicals
Insect Bites
Ionizing Radiation
JP8 or Other Fuels
Lasers
Loud Noises
Metal Fragments
Other Exposures to Toxic Chemicals or Materials
Ammonia
Formaldehyde
Nitric Acid
Sodium Dichromate (Hexavalent Chromium)
Sulfur
Paints
Pesticides
Radar/Microwaves
Smoke from Burning Trash or Feces (Burn Pits)
Smoke from Oil Fire
Solvents
Tuberculosis
Vehicle or Truck Exhaust Fumes
Warfare Agents
65. Kajla rubbish dump is one of three landfills in a city of 12M people.
Around 5,000 tons of garbage are dumped daily and >1,000 people
work in the rubbish, sorting waste, and collecting items to sell to
retailers.
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66. Most slaughter house workers are in a continuous state of pain due to the
long hours and repetitive strain injuries due to nature of their work.
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77. THE DAILY NEWS
www.dailynews.com THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE NEWSPAPER - Since 1879
HEALTH HAZARDS GLOBAL EPIDEMIC
Today, hazardous work
kills 2.3 million people
each year and injures
millions more. The rise of
globalization, precarious
work, neoliberal politics,
attacks on unions, and
the idea of individual
employment rights have
challenged protection of
occupational health and
safety of workers world-wide.
In the book Hazard
or Hardship, Jeffrey
Hilgert presents evidence
on the right of refusal and
protection of worker
rights as both a moral
and a human question.
Hilgert finds that the
protection of the right to
refuse unsafe work, as
constituted under inter-national
labor standards,
is a failure and calls for a
reexamination of worker
health and safety policy
from the ground up.
The current model of
human protection follows
a individual employment
rights framework, which
fails to protect all workers
against inherent social
inequalities within frame-work
of the employment
relationship.
To adequately protect
the right to refuse as a
human right around the
world, Hilgert argues that
a broader protection
must be granted under a
freedom of association
framework. Hazard or
Hardship is a welcome
resource for labor and
environmental activists,
trade union leaders,
labor lawyers and labor
law scholars, industrial
relations experts, human
rights advocates, public
health professionals, and
specialists in occupa-tional
safety and health.
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78. Worker illness and death due to
unhealthy workplaces
● 2 million workers die each year from workplace
causes
160 million workers get sick
each year due to non-fatal
workplace-related diseases
Occupational injuries, sickness,
and disease costs the world
economy $2.8 trillion/year USD
Source: IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall LLaabboorr OOrrggaanniizzaattiioonn ((IILLOO))
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79. Workplace Health Without Borders
(WHWB)
A non-profit international organization
Registered as a charity in Canada
Volunteers engaged in workplace health
issues around the world
Partner with organizations of common interest
Members are certified industrial hygienists,
registered occupational hygienists, and other
quahealth and safety professionals
Concerned about all types of hazardous
work environments and working conditions
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81. Workplace Health Without Borders
Goals and Objectives
Promote occupational
health awareness
Increase access to
occupational hygiene
expertise and technology
Build capacity and infrastructure to
support all industries and occupations
Help NGOs integrate OHS into their
work and protect their volunteers
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82. What Issues can
WHWB Address?
Some project examples…
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83. Lead
Exposure
from
Artisanal
Gold Mining
There are estimated 15
million artisanal and
small scale gold
miners in the world.
Human Rights Watch video on
lead poisoning in Zamfara,
Nigeria
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=PLCeUvb70yI
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84. SSiilliiccaa DDuusstt EExxppoossuurree
In the State of Rajasthan,
India, about 500,000 workers
are heavily exposed to silica
in quarrying and agate work
Often whole families are
exposed where workers live
at the work site
Wet methods to suppress
dust are difficult, due to lack
of water in the region
Respirators and personal
protective clothing are not
available
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85. How Can WHWB Help NGOs,
Workplaces and Communities?
Establish whole goals and objectives for
NGOs working on business development
Contribute workplace health expertise to
NGOs working on global health issues
Collaborate with workers, local business,
governments, and communities how to
identify, assess, and control occupational
health hazards
Raise awareness for funding by donations,
corporate sponsorships, and foundations
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86. Partner with Occupational Hygiene
Training Association
• Approved ttrraaiinniinngg pprroovviiddeerr
• DDeevveellooppiinngg ssiilliiccaa mmoodduullee
• RReeccrruuiitt ttrraannssllaattoorrss ooff OOHHTTAA mmoodduulleess
CCooppyyrriigghhtt @@ 22001144 WWHHWWBB AAllll rriigghhttss rreesseerrvveedd..
87. Partner with Occupational
Hygiene Training Association
Write modules on the occupational health
hazards, risk, and control of exposure and
present the best practices
Upload information and available
resources on WHWB and OHTA websites
Offer OHTA courses to universities in host
countries and other NGO organizations
with limited funding and resources
Find volunteer translators and construct
flyers and videos in native languages
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88. Partner with Occupational
Hygiene Training Association
Collaborate with other organizations with
similar sustainable values and goals to
promote solutions for change
For more information on ways to change our thinking about the economy in
a more sustainable direction, we need to start orienting ourselves toward a
new goal - better health?
watch: The Story of Solutions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkRvc-sOKk
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89. Sponsored a
workshop in
Odisha, India on
silica exposure
among stone
crushers
Helping prevent silica
exposure among agate
polishers in Gujarat India
Projects and
Activities
90. Other WHWB Activities
and Projects
Offer OHTA and other OHS
training
Nigeria
Mozambique
Tanzania
Mentor new occupational
hygienists globally
Work with agate workers in India and other
countries
Assess silica exposure to brick workers in Pakistan
Collaborate and partner with similar organizations
to make the world a better place
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91. WHWB Mentoring Projects
Our mentor program
matches experienced
occupational
hygienists with new
hygienists who want
technical and career
guidance
Canada
Uruguay
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92. Assisting Renaissance
University in Nigeria to start
an undergraduate
Occupational Hygiene
Program
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93. Other WHWB Training
Initiatives
Present occupational hygiene course
to physicians at Maulana Azad Medical College,
New Delhi, India
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94. WHWB Training and Other
Provide OHTA and other
training where it is needed,
including India, Tanzania
and Mongolia
Facilitated equipment
donations to Uruguay,
Pakistan, Tanzania
Initiatives
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95. Inform the OH profession on
important issues related to
global occupational health
Round tables and presentations
on global OH at AIHce and
other conferences
Information sessions at every
monthly teleconference Copyright @ 2014 WHWB All rriigghhttss rreesseerrvveedd..
96. Please Join Us and Help
Mentor and train hygiene practitioners
Communicate useful and timely information
Provide international community outreach
Collaborate with peer professionals on global
occupational health issues
Fundraise and identify support in foundations
and socially responsible corporate sponsors
Write grant proposals
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97. Please Join Us and Help
Administer and synchronize project support
to protect workers and their families
Translate training and other information and
documents into native languages
Collaborate with other organizations,
universities, and institutions
Submit published and peer-reviewed articles
of interest for the global OH community
Website maintenance
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98. Fundraising to Support Our
Activities
www.whwb.org
Our first crowdfunding
campaign at www.giveffect.org
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101. Contact WHWB
E-mail: info@whwb.org
Subscribe to the whwb.org website to follow our
activities
Find us on Facebook, Twitter (@WHWB1) or
LinkedIn
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Editor's Notes
The topic of discussion is Workplace Health Without Borders, a Canadian charity that started in 2011 and has grown to more than 370 members worldwide.
Imagine a world where everyone goes home at least as healthy as when they came to work.
There are 3 billion workers in the world… 2 billion of them work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions
Every 15 seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO), 2008
Every 15 seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease.
Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), 2014
Occupational injuries and disease now out ranks other endemic global hazards like
HIV/AIDs,
Road traffic deaths, and
Armed conflicts and violence
The worlds population grew 30% between 1990 – 2010.
Of the top 10 most populous countries, the most dramatic increases occurred in Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India
The pie chart shows the largest populous countries and areas (2005) – China, India, Asia, and Africa.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division (2004) – World Population to 2300
Three African regions—Eastern Africa, Middle Africa, and Western Africa—will grow unusually fast in comparison to every other region through 2100, even though total fertility will be close to replacement by 2050.
• Southern Africa is seeing a decline in life expectancy to a lower level than anywhere else, but life expectancy will rebound, rise quite rapidly, and overtake other African regions.
• Asian regions will grow fastest to the west, slowest to the east, but in every case with growth rates, at least up to 2100, below Eastern, Middle and Western Africa. By 2100, Asia, instead of being four-and-a half times as populous as Africa, will be only 2.2 times as populous.
• Latin America and the Caribbean is the most homogenous major area, with most of its regions following relatively parallel fertility and life expectancy paths.
Northern America is unusual as the only region that will not experience negative growth, mainly due to projected migration up to 2050. (No migration is incorporated in projections beyond that date.)
• Europe, like Asia, will experience higher growth to the west, lower growth to the east. Eastern Europe stands out with low life expectancy, and even in the long run does not catch up with other regions.
Almost all of the additional 3.7 billion people from now to 2100 will enlarge the population of developing countries, which is projected to rise from 5.9 billion in 2013 to 8.2 billion in 2050 and to 9.6 billion in 2100.
Much of the overall increase between 2013 and 2050 is projected to take place in high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, as well as countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United States of America.
Growth is expected to be particularly dramatic in the least developed countries of the world, which are projected to double in size from 898 million inhabitants in 2013 to 1.8 billion in 2050 and to 2.9 billion in 2100. High population growth rates prevail in many developing countries, most of which are on the UN’s list of 49 least developed countries. Between 2013 and 2100, the populations of 35 countries could triple or more. Among them, the populations of Burundi, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia are projected to increase at least five-fold by 2100.
Population declines expected in 43 countries
In contrast, the population of the more developed regions is expected to change minimally, passing from 1.25 billion in 2013 to 1.28 billion in 2100. The net increase is due largely to migration from developing to developed countries.
Populations of 43 countries or areas are expected to decrease between 2013 and 2050; of these, 40 are expected to continue to decrease between 2050 and 2100.
Several countries are expected to see their populations decline by more than 15 % by 2050, including Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Growth of the world population is expected to increase in Nigeria, Bangladesh and China while the US and Indonesia remains the same and some Middle Eastern countries like Pakistan and Asian countries like Japan will decrease.
The World Bank has reviewed global business opportunities for investors. The great areas for prosperity can be found in the so called BRICS countries:
Brazil
Russia
India
China, and
South Africa
There is a huge gap in global occupational health expertise
Occupational hygienists are certified/registered in only 13 countries
In order to provide adequate global manpower, we would need 55,000 more hygienists to match the level of service needed in these countries
The ILO (United Nations) has segmented industry into various groupings
Agriculture; plantations; rural sectors
Construction and infrastructure
Mining (coal; diamonds, metal mining)
Informal economy
Food; drink; tobacco
Forestry; wood; pulp and paper
Oil and gas production; oil refining
Hotels; catering; tourism
Chemical and petrochemical industries
Mechanical and electrical engineering
Mechanical and electrical engineeringe
Transport equipment manufacturing
Textiles; clothing; footwear
Transport (civil aviation; railways; road)
Shipping; ports; fisheries; inland
Utilities (water; gas; electricity)
Commerce
Basic metal production
Health services
Public service
Many workers and children are engaged in hazardous working conditions in
Manufacturing,
Mining,
Construction,
Fishing,
Agriculture,
Farming, and
Other occupations across the globe.
Workers without adequate personal protective equipment and safety training
Women harvesting asbestos from rock
Ship breaking is one of the most hazardous jobs in the world because most ships are used to carry radioactive materials, toxic wastes, extremely poisonous chemicals and oil. Not only does it directly affect the health of the workers, it is an environmental time bomb - as workers strip the ships ...
Mumbai/Bombay, India. Workers used their street clothing as respirators in shipbreaking operations to protect themselves from welding fumes and dust while using blow torches to cut the ship metal hulls.
They work in an environment where electricity, clean drinking water, and basic human necessities such as washrooms are unavailable.
After a rough day, the workforce returns to small huts that serve as their quarters. Many can’t afford shelter and sleep under the open sky.
Workers in a ship breaking yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh remove asbestos lagging from the ship steam pipes and boilers.
Worker carting hand-made bricks to local market
Construction worker cutting cinder blocks exposed to silica dust
Men unload cart from “rat hole” inside a coal mine.
Miners exposed to heat stress, silica and lead dust
A worker and his family mining, separating and gathering coal for sale
Workers are exposed to extreme cold air temperatures and strong gusty winds increases the wind chill factor and danger of frostbite and hypothermia
Exposure to glare from sunlight UV radiation increases skin cancer risk and 24-hours of sunlight impacts circadian rhythms.
These hazards can affect artic scientists and explorers, commercial fisherman, oil/gas drillers, and maritime shippers.
Workers are exposed to a variety of occupational hazards including ergonomics and human factors and physical agents like hand-arm vibration and noise
Even though occupational hazardous such as asbestos are being removed or substituted on ships, new potential carcinogens such as beryllium (used on Product tankers), cadmium, lead etc. have been introduced in to the work place.
The ILO estimates that nearly 6 million people are directly employed by the petroleum industry and over ten times that number of jobs are indirectly created by the industry.
Exposed to harsh working conditions in the industry: long hours work, especially in oil production; increasing amounts of work round the clock, in difficult, remote areas ; scheduling of shifts particularly offshore when rotation patterns are constrained by transport schedules and limits on accommodation.
Oil and gas workers across the globe are exposed to ergonomics-related injury risks, such as lifting heavy items, bending, reaching overhead, pushing and pulling heavy loads, and working in awkward body postures.
Occupational health exposures also include:
Hydrogen sulfide gas
Crystalline silica dust
Diesel fume emissions
NORM
Temperature Extremes
Fatigue
Chemical storage of flammable or combustible liquids, oxidizers, reactive chemicals, explosive powders and dust, and other hazardous waste materials is done precariously without any hazard warnings or precautionary statements.
Safety Data Sheets are not given to workers to understand the health hazards
Military personnel may exposed to a range of chemical, biological, physical, and environmental hazards during military service.
In the developing world, roughly 90% of sewage is discharged untreated into rivers, lakes and coastal areas, with a widespread negative impact on health.
As you can see in the picture, there five areas of environmental pollution.
Discharge from homes
Discharge from transportation services
Swimming in contaminated waterways – streams, rivers
Washing clothes in contaminated waters
Drinking water from downstream rivers and streams
About 783 million people, or 11% of the global population, does not have access safe drinking water.
Cholera, typhoid, malaria and other waterborne illnesses, toxic chemicals and radiological agents kill 5 million people each year -- 6,000 children every day.
Open defecation is the practice of defecating outside or in public done due to cultural practices or no access to toilets or latrines, which affects one third of humanity (2.5 billion) people causing consequences on human health
Manual Removal and Transport of Biosolids (Malaysia)
A study found that 80% of sewage cleaners in India die before age 60 because of work-related health problems. (Sagar Kaul / Barcroft Media)
At least two to three workers must be dying every day inside manholes across India. Picture shows a worker entering a manhole in Chennai.
Every day Mumbai produces enough sewage to fill 4,500 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Despite the many modern comforts of Mumbai, the sewer system is outdated and is still cleaned by hand. At least once a year the manhole covers are removed and a worker is lowered down with only a helmet for protection.
The worker then scoops out the sludge consisting of both human and industrial waste that has been collecting in the pipes.
It is not uncommon for Indian sewer workers to become ill or die from the toxic fumes.
Indian Parliament recently passed a law in an effort to improve these poor working conditions, but many are doubtful that the new measures will make a difference.
Some of the worst polluted rivers in the world
Red pollution discharge in the Jian River in Louyang, North China - Henan Province
Overflow of detergent foam and toxic gas emitted from the Tiete River in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Some of the worst polluted rivers in the world
An Indian man bathes in the polluted waters of the Yamuna river in New Delhi
Children play in the Jarkarta River, India
Mandalay, Burma/Myanmar
Workers hand chisel statutes made of stone containing high levels of silica dust without any mechanical exhaust ventilation to reduce the dust exposure.
Workers don’t have respirators, personal protective clothing or training to understand the health hazards of silica dust.
In the intense heat, workers mix chemicals in a fireworks factory in Sivakasi town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
Without gloves or masks, sitting on the floor; workers fill paper tubes filled with a mixture of aluminum powder, potassium nitrate and sulfur, and tipped with mud.
Agricultural migrant workers are exposed to:
Intense heat and humidity during the cultivation and harvest;
Wet tobacco plants transfer nicotine through the skin and
Pesticides while working in the fields without gloves or protective clothing.
Every year about 20-50 million tons of e-waste is produced in the world with 70% shipped to China, and the rest sent to India or poor African countries.
In Guiyu, about 80% of the families disassemble electric wire, plastics and circuit boards with their bare hands; then the unprotected workers use fire and mercuric acid baths to extract precious, mostly toxic metals.
These workers and their family were not just working, but also living in mountains of e-waste.
During the Greenpeace campaign, a 165 Guiyu children (Guangdong province, China) were tested for concentrations of lead in their blood, and a devastating 82 percent of the kids had blood/lead levels of over 100 ug/dl, which is considered unsafe by international health experts.
The average blood lead level for the group was 149 ug/dl whole blood.
Jharkhand, India. A young boy carries a chunk of coal into the mining camp where he lives.
Men working on a super volcanic mountain range in East Java, Indonesia.
The workers, many of whom aren't expected to live past 50, breathe highly noxious gases which come out of the Kawah Ijen Volcano without masks, carrying loads of up to 70kg on their backs from a quarry.
Many work shirtless and have huge growths on their backs from the heavy loads. "They carry baskets in excess of 70kg up and out of the crater and down to the collection point, about three kms and most of them do this at least twice a day.”
Workers cut firewood to light an artisanal brick kiln in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Below a worker soaks dry cow dung in a mixture of kerosene and gasoline at a kiln near Amritsar, India. The mixture will be used to ignite the kiln.
Workers pour coal into the fire of a Bull’s trench kiln outside Kabul.
Continual kilns can operate without stopping for months and even years as workers steadily fire fresh batches of bricks.
Brick kilns dot the landscape in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
A 2012 study showed that hydrogen fluoride emissions from kilns in nearby Peshawar severely damaged certain economically important crops.
Coal strip mining can release toxic gases. The orange color indicates a high concentration of nitrogen oxides.
Exposure to the gas can cause respiratory problems, lung damage and even result in death to workers and nearby residents.
Urea fertilizer plants discharge high levels of ammonia and urea, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate (AN), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), oxides of nitrogen and ammonium sulfate nitrate (ASN).
Countries with Worst Outdoor Air Pollution Ranked by WHO (2014)
Pakistan - Average PM2.5 pollution: 101 µg/m3
Qatar - Average PM2.5 pollution: 92 µg/m3
Afghanistan - Average PM2.5 pollution: 84 µg/m3
Bangladesh - Average PM2.5 pollution: 79 µg/m3
5. Iran - Average PM2.5 pollution: 76 µg/m3
6. Egypt - Average PM2.5 pollution: 74 µg/m3
7. Mongolia - Average PM2.5 pollution: 64 µg/m3
8. United Arab Emirates - Average PM2.5 pollution: 61 µg/m3
9. India - Average PM2.5 pollution: 59 µg/m3
10. Bahrain - Average PM2.5 pollution: 57 µg/m3
Cities with the greatest PM2.5 measurements include:
Delhi has the highest level of the airborne particulate matter, PM2.5 considered most harmful to health, with 153 ug/m3.
Not far behind is another Indian city, Patna with 149 ug/m3.
Half of the top 20 most polluted cities were in India.
Indoor air pollution is a major health risk throughout the world.
In China, tens of millions of rural households still burn coal directly inside their homes to cook.
But in India and Africa, wood and charcoal are far more common.
Moravia and Silesia is one of Europe’s most polluted regions due to heavy industry located on both sides of the Czech-Polish border. Air pollution is a problem especially in the winter months, when the situation is aggravated by coal heating.
And in countries like Kenya or Ethiopia where wood is scarce, animal dung or crop waste is used.
Different fuels lead to different health problems.
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today highlighted the dangers of burning fuels like unprocessed coal and kerosene in the home, and issued targets for reducing emissions of health-damaging pollutants from domestic cook stoves, space heaters and fuel-based lamps.
According to WHO, nearly 3 billion people worldwide still lack access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking, heating and lighting.
And an estimated 4.3 million people worldwide die every year from indoor air pollution emitted by rudimentary biomass and coal cook stoves.
They die from strokes, and heart and pulmonary diseases, such as childhood pneumonia and lung cancer. Women and children are particularly vulnerable.
These diseases are primarily caused by high levels of fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide released by the burning of solid fuels such as wood, coal, animal dung, crop waste and charcoal in inefficient stoves, space heaters, or lamps.
The 50-year-old has silicosis, a wasting lung disease that he contracted inhaling deadly silica dust as a grinder of agates — colorful, semi-precious stones commonly used in jewelry, rosary beads and home decorations sold in North America.
The young Indian workers who grind the gemstones that go into our jewelry work one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The grinding process creates clouds of silica dust, which the workers breathe in, condemning them to early painful deaths of silicosis
A 13-year-old child labors in a silver cooking pot factory in Old Dhaka for 10 hour days in hazardous conditions in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Jainal works in silver cooking pot factory. He is 11 years old.
He has been working in this factory for three years.
His work starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m.
For his work he gets 700 taka (10 USD) for a month.
His parents are so poor that they can not afford to send him to school.
According to the factory owner, the parents do not care for their children; they send their kids to work for money and allegedly don't feel sorry for these small kids. Dhaka 2008
Guangdong Province. Chinese denim factory workers sandblast blue jeans, despite hazardous exposure to crystalline silica dust.
Children at a brick factory in Fatullah - for each 1,000 bricks they carry, they earn a wage in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ten-year-old working in a door lock factory in Old Dhaka.
Unlike his colleague, the co-worker works without a mask to protect against exposure to metal dust.
Above 8-year-old child labors in a rickshaw factory for 10 hours a day.
Children work long working hours with inadequate or no rest period.
They are exposed to vapors and gases from cleaning metal parts without ventilation.
Eight-year-old works in a metal components factory.
When the production often stops due to lack of electricity, he has time to play
Often working children operate in hazardous conditions without safety precautions.
This Bolivian boy in La Paz is preparing to saw a heavy iron bar.
Bangladesh’s tanneries are concentrated along the banks of the Buriganga River.
Every day these factories discharge thousands of liters of toxic liquid waste into the river.
Many workers handle barrels of chemicals without gloves and walk barefoot on floors covered in chromic acid.
A Bangladeshi worker processes tannery waste
A Bangladeshi worker sorts tannery waste for poultry and fish feed in nearby river
Migrant rural worker from China’s Sichuan province, uses a sledge hammer for demolition on one of many construction sites in the city of Chongqing.
Just as a 100 years ago, houses are often demolished with sledge-hammers.
No consideration is given for their occupational health exposure.
At the Anyuan coal mine in China, a miner makes his way to the shower.
Coal dust on his face suggests he does not wear a respirator.
China has strict rules on asbestos use, but these are often ignored in small-scale, unregulated workshops.
More than 100 “asbestos enterprises” close by in Yuyao and neighboring Cixi are mostly family-run businesses.
All use chrysotile white asbestos, the only kind of asbestos now allowed in China.
Nearly 93% of the workforce in India is where workers are routinely exposed to asbestos.
Asbestos products are present every building.
When workers go back home, their families are exposed from the contaminated street clothing.
Garment and rug workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh are exposed to harsh ergonomic and human factor hazards.
Cocoa, the raw ingredient for chocolate, is responsible for about 40% of global export.
In Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa, workers operate hazardous machinery, mix and apply chemicals to cocoa trees; harvest ripe cocoa pods with knives and carry heavy bean sacks for processing.
When things go wrong onboard, workers like these in Thailand have to be able to undertake urgent engineering and repair work, often at sea and in hostile conditions
Bangladesh’s shrimp industry documents examples of hazardous working conditions health and safety violations, and excessive hours.
A 10-year-old child works under unhealthy conditions at a garbage dumping site in Demra, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He cannot afford any shoes and is vulnerable to sickness, injuries, and disease.
A 7-year old girls support her family by scavenging for items on the Kajla rubbish dump.
It is one of three landfill sites in a city of 12 million people.
Around 5,000 tons of garbage are dumped here each day and more than 1,000 people work among the rubbish, sorting through the waste and collecting items to sell to retailers for recycling.
Most slaughter house workers are in a continuous state of pain due to the long hours and repetitive strain injuries due to nature of their work.
Workers in the business of raising animals for food can be affected by the swine flu or avian flu from livestock
WHO
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi; the diseases can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases of animals that can cause disease when transmitted to humans.
Infectious diseases kill more people worldwide than any other single cause. Infectious diseases are caused by germs. Germs are tiny living things that are found everywhere - in air, soil and water. You can get infected by touching, eating, drinking or breathing something that contains a germ. Germs can also spread through animal and insect bites, kissing and sexual contact. Vaccines, proper hand washing and medicines can help prevent infections.
There are four main kinds of germs:
Bacteria - one-celled germs that multiply quickly and may release chemicals which can make you sick
Viruses - capsules that contain genetic material, and use your own cells to multiply
Fungi - primitive plants, like mushrooms or mildew
Protozoa - one-celled animals that use other living things for food and a place to live
Source: NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Workers will decant the liquid fuel and oxidizers stored at an abandoned chemical storage site in Tripoli, Libya.
Eventually, the fuel will be burnt and the oxidizers will be neutralized and converted to fertilizer for farming.
In the Philippines, underwater mining is done on a more individual and dangerous scale, with children as young as 5 working in a particularly dangerous form of shallow water gold mining
Filipino divers disappear into water as opaque as chocolate milk as they blindly dig in search of gold trapped in muddy sediment. It's risky business: As miners go deeper, underwater tunnels could collapse or the compressor that provides air may fail.
At the surface, the tunnel opening is small — barely large enough to fit a person. Once inside, the divers dig down as much as 40 to 60 feet. They can’t see a thing — it’s just muddy water The technique is called compression mining, because to stay underwater for up to three or four hours at a time.
Divers breathe through a tube that is connected to a small compressor, often made from a beer keg. The compressor is powered by a small diesel motor.
Compressor mining was inspired by Filipino fishermen who use compressors to breathe underwater while catching reef fish. The beer-keg compressor is connected to a small motor designed for pumping water from wells. The miners loop the air hose around their shoulders and hold the end in their teeth.
Estimates indicate that 1 million children worldwide who work in the hazardous occupation of compression mining, according to ILO, an agency of the United Nations
If flecks of gold are found in the soil, the workers up above processing it by mixing the gold with mercury. Gold binds to mercury. “[They] process it a number of times until they’ve got as much gold and mercury together as they can.
Then they will squeeze that out — it’s still sort of a liquid form — and try to solidify it into a lump that’s sometimes known as an amalgam. Next, the workers burn the lump, using a blowtorch.
During this process, the mercury is vaporized, leaving just the gold. Burning mercury is one of the biggest dangers in this form of mining.
Mercury is highly toxic and exposure is known to cause tremors, memory loss and brain damage, among other symptoms. It is especially hard on young, developing children — often the age group most likely to be working with it.
Miners are negatively impacted by poor working conditions and mercury exposure.
A man washes off mud from a pit wall with a hose along a roadside near Airanyir in Thailand.
Two men check their yield of tin in a pit after a day's mining at a site near Samfur, Bangka.
Workers use rafts with rubber tubes to look for tin in a large pit at an illegal mining site in the forests of Bangka, Thailand.
A man shows his yield of tin after a day's mining in a pit along a road near Airanyir, Merawang-Bangka, Thailand.
Worker checks sand pumped up from the sea floor for tin off the island coast of Bangka, near Tanjung Gunung.
Similar work sifting through the ocean floor sediment is done for gold in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
A worker handles smelted tin from a refractory oven before turning it into ingots.
Tin ends up as solder in millions of mobile phones, laptops and computers in Europe, US and Asia
Divers work in contaminated environments including:
Oil and chemical spills;
Salvage of sunken barges carrying hazardous materials;
Inside confined spaces;
Government facilities where uranium is enriched;
Pipelines with municipal raw sewage, and a wide array of other chemically contaminated environments.
Salt pan workers from Marakkanam,Tamilnadu work with the harsh sun beating down upon them under the open sky.
The site is located at Vedaranyam, Tamil Nadu.
HEALTH HAZARDS and HARDSHIPS are a GLOBAL EPIDEMIC
The rise of globalization, precarious work, neoliberal politics, attacks on unions, and the idea of individual employment rights have challenged protection of occupational health and safety of workers world-wide.
In the book Hazard or Hardship, Jeffrey Hilgert presents evidence on the right of refusal and protection of worker rights as both a moral and a human question.
The current model of human protection follows a individual employment rights framework, which fails to protect all workers against inherent social inequalities within frame-work of the employment relationship.
To adequately protect the right to refuse as a human right around the world, Hilgert argues that a broader protection must be granted under a freedom of association framework.
Worker illness and death due to unhealthy workplaces
2 million workers die each year from workplace causes
160 million workers get sick each year due to non-fatal workplace-related diseases
Occupational injuries, sickness, and disease costs the world economy $2.8 trillion/year USD
A non-profit international organization
Registered as a charity in Canada
Volunteers engaged in workplace health issues around the world
Partner with organizations of common interest
Members are certified industrial and registered occupational hygienists, and other health and safety professionals
Concerned about all types of hazardous work environments and working conditions
Our Vision - A world where workers do not get sick because of their work.
Our Mission - To engage the occupational health and hygiene professions in ensuring that workers and employers throughout the world have the knowledge and technical means to prevent work-related disease.
Global Reach - Network of 300+ people from around the world - Meet monthly by teleconference and planned annual meetings
Promote occupational health awareness
Increase access to occupational hygiene expertise and technology
Build capacity and infrastructure to support all industries and occupations
Help NGOs integrate OHS into their work and protect their volunteers
Some project examples…
Lead Exposure from Artisanal Gold Mining
There are estimated 15 million artisanal and small scale gold miners in the world.
Silica Dust Exposure
In the State of Rajasthan, India, about 500,000 workers are heavily exposed to silica in quarrying and agate work
Often whole families are exposed where workers live at the work site
Wet methods to suppress dust are difficult, due to lack of water in the region
Respirators and personal protective clothing are not available
Establish whole goals and objectives for NGOs working on business development
Contribute workplace health expertise to NGOs working on global health issues
Collaborate with workers, local business, governments, and communities how to identify, assess, and control occupational health hazards
Raise awareness for funding by donations, corporate sponsorships, and foundations
Partner with Occupational Hygiene Training Association
Approved training provider
Developing silica module
Recruit translators of OHTA modules
Write modules on the occupational health hazards, risk, and control of exposure and present the best practices
Upload information and available resources on WHWB and OHTA websites
Offer OHTA courses to universities in host countries and other NGO organizations with limited funding and resources
Find volunteer translators and construct flyers and videos in native languages
Collaborate with other organizations with similar sustainable values and goals to promote solutions for change
Sponsored a workshop in Odisha, India on silica exposure among stone crushers in Gujarat, India.
Helping prevent silica exposure among agate polishers in Gujarat India
Offer OHTA and other OHS training
Nigeria
Mozambique
Tanzania
Mentor new occupational hygienists globally
Work with agate workers in India and other countries
Assess silica exposure to brick workers in Pakistan
Collaborate and partner with similar organizations to make the world a better place
Our mentor program matches experienced occupational hygienists with new hygienists who want technical and career guidance
Collaboration with AIHA International Affairs Committee and Mentoring Committee
Assisting Renaissance University in Nigeria to start an undergraduate Occupational Hygiene Program
Present course on occupational hygiene to physicians at Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India
Provide OHTA and other training where it is needed, including India, Tanzania and Mongolia
Facilitated equipment donations to Uruguay, Pakistan, Tanzania
Inform the OH profession on important issues related to global occupational health
Round tables and presentations on global OH at AIHce and other conferences
Information sessions at every monthly teleconference
Mentor and train hygiene practitioners
Communicate useful and timely information
Provide international community outreach
Collaborate with peer professionals on global occupational health issues
Fundraise and identify support in foundations and socially responsible corporate sponsors
Write grant proposals
Administer and synchronize project support to protect workers and their families
Translate training and other information and documents into native languages
Collaborate with other organizations, universities, and institutions
Submit published and peer-reviewed articles of interest for the global OH community
Website maintenance
Fundraising to Support Our Activities
Crowdsourcing and individual donations
Sustainable memberships
Corporate sponsorships
Foundation support
International NGO outreach
Now let’s reimagine a world where everyone goes home as healthy as when they came to work.
It’s very possible with your help.
Join our growing international membership!
E-mail: info@whwb.org
Subscribe to the whwb.org website to follow our activities
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