KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded its highest minor accidents and accidents causing permanent losses to physical functions cases, as well as deaths, in 2009 and 2010, the accident rate has fallen sharply this year.
Disclosing this here yesterday, Sabah Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) director Mohamad Razak Ismail said a total of 195 cases of minor accidents and accidents causing permanent losses to physical functions were recorded in 2009, and the number dropped to 143 cases last year.
“The years 2009 and 2010 recorded the highest number of cases categorised as minor accidents and accidents causing permanent losses to physical functions.
“We also recorded 46 deaths for the two years,” he told reporters after officially opening the Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems’ (OSHMS) seminar on Indoor Air Quality 2010 and Generic Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA) 2011 here yesterday.
However, Mohamad Razak noted that for the first 11 months this year, the numbers dropped tremendously to 13 cases for minor accidents, accidents causing permanent losses to physical functions (one) and deaths (30).
Touching on the legal side, Mohamad Razak said that the number of employers compounded showed an increase between 2009 and this month.
“For the year 2009, we issued nine compounds amounting to RM5,500, 19 compounds amounting RM46,000 last year and as of November this year, we collected RM70,500 worth of compounds from 34 cases,” he said.
On another development, he said that the plantation sector was identified as high-risk industry as its workers were exposed to health and safety hazards.
“The workers are exposed to chemical and dust due to working outdoors,” he said.
He said a situation gets worse when employers fail to provide safety gears such as mask to protect the employees from unhealthy air and other types of pollution.
Earlier in his speech, Mohamad Razak said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) report disclosed that a total of RM1.549 billion were paid in compensation due to accidents on employees nationwide, which is 19.7 per cent more than 2009’s RM1.3 billion.
On the seminar, he said it would be a platform for participants to gain knowledge and skills on the health and safety measures at work.
“Hopefully it will be practised at the workplace,” he said.
Source : www.theborneopost.com
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