This is the presentation I presented as a Guest Lecturer at IoBM

1. Session on
Occupational Safety & Health

2. Flow of the Presentation
Introduction to OSH/ISH
Background
Benefits
Pakistan Industries
Accidents
Occupational Hazards
Discussion
Labor Laws

3. What is ISH/OSH
• It is the inter-relationship between the people
at work, the tasks they do and the
environment in which the tasks are carried out
• It is the field that ensures
– Workers safety and healthy being
– The related laws and regulations are enforced

4. Background
• During and after World War I, Industrial Revolution occurred
– rapid introduction of new industries
– Increasing demand of products and production activities
– Indiscriminate hiring of workers to run the manufacturing processes
• This brought about
– Poor and unsafe working conditions
– serious dangers not anticipated
– exposure to various occupational diseases and serious accidents
aggravated by endemic diseases like malnutrition, worm
infestation, malaria and others
• Hence the origin of Occupational Health as means of protecting the
health and welfare of employees

5. Benefits
• A safe work place ensures less accidents
• Keeps the workers focused on the tasks rather
than worry about chances of mishaps
• Increases productivity and efficiency of workers
• Managing the work force becomes easy and the
workers remain motivated
• A healthy and sound worker is an asset and
contributes towards economic development of
organisation

6. Types of Industries in Pakistan
• Agriculture
– 17,518,204 labor force employed
• Manufacturing
– 6,005,487 workers
• Service
– 10,586,309 working 31%
51%
• Statistics as of year 2011
18%

7. Accidents – Sector wise
60
49.8
50
40
30
20 16.8
14
11.3
10 8.1
0
Agriculture Manufacturing Construction wholesale retail & transport &
trade communicaton
• Pakistan Board of Statistics (PSB): Labor Force Report FY 2010-11

8. Occupational Hazards & Injuries
• Agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Services Industry

9. Types of Occupational Hazards
• Biological
– biohazard means those infective agents
presenting a risk of death, injury or illness to
employees
• Physical
– External environmental factors that directly affect
the physical well being of employees
• Chemical
• Ergonomic

10. Agriculture – Some basic info
• Agriculture has an est. 45% of the total work
force population
– 66% are females
– 25% are children
• GDP contribution – 21% (2011-12)
• They are made to do work in the most abject of
conditions
– No proper safety procedures are followed
– Mostly illiterate so don’t have awareness of
occupational hazards

11. Agricultural Health Hazards
• Biological hazards
– Diseases transmitted by animals during caring and
handling of animal products and wastes
• Examples of such health problems include:
anthrax, brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, bird flu
– Parasitic diseases
• malaria, skin rashes
– Allergic diseases
• asthma, byssinosis from cotton dust, bagassosis from
sugar cane bagasse

12. Agricultural Health Hazards
• Physical Hazards
– Prolonged exposure to heat and sunlight
– dust and fumes
– puncture wounds from sharp instruments and
woods, cuts, bruises and lacerations

13. Agricultural Health Hazards
• Chemical Hazards
– Excessive use of fertilizers cause skin irritation and
digestive problems to farmers
– pesticides and insecticides contain carcinogen and
toxic materials that directly affect the farmers and
indirectly us
– Inhalation of these chemicals causes respiratory
problems, gastro-intestinal issues and also affect
the nervous system

14. Agricultural Health Hazards
• Ergonomic
• Backache resulting from prolonged
bending, heavy load and wrong posture
• Strained joints
– very highly repetitive hand work
(clipping, cutting)
• Poorly designed tools and equipment
• Noise of vehicles, grinding, milling

15. Manufacturing – Basic Info
• GDP contribution – 25.8% (as of 2011)
• Employment contribution – 20.1% (2010-11)
• Main industries are
– Textile
– Cement
– Fertilizer
– Sugar
– Food processing
– Oil & Gas

16. Textile Manufacturing
• Contributes 9.5% to GDP
• Employs 38% of the total manufacturing force
• Abysmal working conditions
• Employees face several hazards

17. Hazards in Textile Manufacturing
• Cotton Dust
– often present in the air during cotton handling
and processing
– Cotton dust may contain many substances
including ground-up plant
matter, fiber, bacteria, fungi, soil, pesticides
– Exposure to it causes respiratory disorders like
chronic bronchitis, byssinosis

18. Hazards in Textile Manufacturing

19. Dust Measurement
• Industrialists and Employers are required to measure every six
months
– or whenever there are any changes in equipment or work practices
• Procedure to measure
– A vertical elutriator or an equivalent instrument must be used to
measure cotton dust
– Measurements must be representative of an eight-hour period
– Measurements must be performed for each shift and in each work
area
– If the levels are above OSHA standards, employers must list in a notice
to employees the steps they will take to correct problems.
– Warning signs must be posted in work areas where the cotton dust
level is higher than the OSHA limit

20. Controlling Dust
• Installing adequate ventilation systems
• Cleaning and repairing the equipment regularly
• Have a Dust Control Program
– cleaning floors with a vacuum or another method that cuts
down the spreading of dust
– disposing of dust in such a way that as little dust scatters as
possible
– using mechanical methods to stack, dump or otherwise handle
cotton or cotton waste, when possible
– checking, cleaning, and repairing dust control equipment and
ventilation systems

21. Chemical Hazards
• Activities of dyeing, printing and finishing
involve the use of chemicals based on
– benzidine, optical brighteners, crease-resistance
agents, formaldehyde and antimicrobial agents
• Studies have revealed links between these
chemicals and diseases like
– nasal cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, respiratory
difficulty and eczema

22. Ergonomic
• Too much noise in the work environment
– Workers often have impaired hearing and later on
suffer from hearing loss
– Leads to
stress, fatigue, absenteeism, anxiety, reduction in
efficiency, sleep disorders
– The Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) is 85dB
to 90dB for a 8-hour work shift

23. Maximum Time of Exposure

24. Other Ergonomic Issues
• Dark and poor lighting
• Improper furniture, work stations lead to
Musculoskeletal disorders
– like carpal tunnel syndrome, forearm
tendinitis, lower back pain, neck pain, shoulder
pain, and osteoarthritis of the knees
• Lack of essential safety practices

25. Minimum Illumination Intensities
Foot Candles Lux Area of Operation
5 53.76 General construction area lighting
General construction areas, concrete placement,
excavation and waste areas, access ways, active storage
3 32.256
areas, loading platforms, refueling, and field maintenance
areas
5 53.76 Indoors: warehouses, corridors, hallways, and exitways
5 53.76 Tunnels, shafts, and general underground work areas
General construction plant and shops (e.g., batch plants,
screening plants, mechanical and electrical equipment
10 107.52 rooms, carpenter shops,
rigging lofts and active store rooms, mess halls, and
indoor toilets and workrooms.)
30 322.56 First aid stations, infirmaries, and offices

26. Cement Manufacturing
• GDP contribution – 10% to 12%
• Employment – 5% of the total employed force
• Potentially a fatal industry

27. Cement Dust
• High levels of dust can be produced when cement
is handled
– for example when emptying or disposing of bags
• Contact with cement dust can lead to Skin
disease, e.g. Dermatitis
– Irritant dermatitis is caused by the physical properties
of cement that irritate the skin mechanically
– Allergic dermatitis is caused by sensitization to the
hexavalent chromium (chromate) present in cement

28. Cement Dust
• Diameter of cement particles range from 0.05
to 5.0 micrometer
– They are respirable in size
– Inhalation of these particles lead to
• chronic cough,
• impairment of lung function
• carcinoma of lung, stomach and colon
• laryngeal cancer

29. Physical Hazards and Injuries
• Sprains and strains
– particularly to the back, arms and shoulders from
lifting and carrying cement bags, mixing mortar
etc.
– More serious damage to the back can be caused
in the long term if workers are continually lifting
heavy weights
• Slipped, tripped or fell on the same level

30. Occupational Diseases
• Other diseases suffered in industries include
– vibration problems and white finger diseases.
– Traumatic deaths, amputations, fracture and eye
loses.
– Cardiovascular diseases (including myocardial
nifarction, stroke and hypertension).
– Neurotoxic illnesses
– Dermatologic problems (including
dermatoses, burns, and lacerations).
– Psychological disorders

31. The Dilemma
• Majority of the workforce in Pakistan is illiterate
and not trained in occupational safety and health
• Moreover OSH is not included in any curricula in
Pakistan
• The number of occupational health physicians
and nurses is far less compared to the total
workforce in Pakistan
– This means that occupational health system is not
established in the country (career opportunity)

32. Number of Industrial Accidents
by Nature
Nature of
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Accidents
Total 354 404 415 438 460 449 326
Fatal 32 34 38 50 85 108 45
Serious 103 68 101 106 130 92 62
Minor 219 302 276 282 245 239 219
Source: Report on Labour & Human Resource Statistics 2000 - 2010
Government of Pakistan, Dept. Ministry of labour and manpower (HRD wing)

33. Pakistan Labor and Human Resource
Statistics
• The number of industrial accidents increased
from 354 to 449 during 2000 to 2008 27
%
• In year 2011 alone, the reported number of
fatal accidents went up to 101

34. Labor Laws
• The only legislation on health and safety is the
‘Hazardous Occupation Rule 1963’ under the
Factories Act 1934.
• Practically, the above mentioned laws are
obsolete and do not conform to international
practices
– It does not give coverage to the workers in the
agriculture sector, informal/house-based and
seasonal workers

35. Factories Act 1934
• This act consolidates and amends the laws relating to the regulation
of labour in factories in the country
• It includes preliminary including definitions, role of labour
inspection, restrictions on the working hours, holidays with
pay, special provisions for adolescents and children, penalties and
procedure
• This act also contains a chapter (Chapter III) on health and safety of
workers and hygiene conditions at the workplaces
• Chapter III of this act provide factory inspections, hygienic
conditions (ventilation and temperature, dust and fumes, artificial
humidification, lighting, overcrowding, drinking water, sanitary
facilities), precaution in case of fire, machine guarding, pressure
vessels, precautions against dangerous fumes, eye
protection, safety of building, machinery and manufacturing
process and so on

36. Labour Policy 2010
• Objectives
– Promotion of employee’s social security and social insurance
programme
– Adequate security of jobs should be available to the workers
– Conditions should be created so that workers and employers are
committed to enhancing labour productivity
– Promotion of higher jobs be ensured at all levels based on
suitability and merit
– Forced labour in all its forms to be eliminated
– Just and humane conditions of work be guaranteed to all
workers

37. Labour Policy 2010
• Initiatives
– The government has increased the minimum wages
from Rs.7,000 to Rs.8,000 per month
– Consolidation of labour laws is underway
– Mine workers, whether contracted or permanent, will
be provided with the same protection as other
workers
– Elimination of gender discrimination
– Special emphasis on education of workers children
– Regulate and control child labour

38. • Pakistan has ratified the ILO Labour Inspection
Convention, 1947 (No. 81) in 1953
• Under this convention Pakistan is bound to
educate and inform employers and workers on
their legal rights and obligations concerning all
aspects of labour protection and labour
laws, advice employers and workers to comply
with the requirements of the law and enable
inspectors to report to superiors on problems and
defects that are not covered by laws and
regulations.

39. Your Suggestions
• How to improve the current situation?