The Department of Labour’s Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) Unit - is to broaden and intensify inspections efforts in non-mining industries in which workers are exposed to the prevalence of silicosis - part of a drive to totally eliminate the disease by 2030.
Department of Labour Acting Deputy Director-General of IES Tibor Szana told a two-day seminar that ends today (Friday), that there are quite a few companies that are derelict of their responsibility and are producing dusts that could be problematic to the health of the workers.
Szana was addressing a seminar under the theme: “Working towards the elimination of silicosis in the non-mining industry” held in Boksburg.
Silicosis is a lung disease caused by inhalation of dust that contains free crystalline silica. If inhaled over a sustained period it becomes dangerous, disabling, non-reversible and sometimes fatal - but preventable occupational lung disease. As a result of exposure workers are more likely to get tuberculosis.
The seminar is part of the government move to significantly reduce the prevalence of silicosis by 2015 and to totally eliminate Silicosis in workplaces by 2030 in line with the International Labour Organisation and the World Health Organisation’s Global Programme for the Elimination of Silicosis.
Szana said inadequate dust control mechanisms increases the risk of tuberculosis and related diseases. He said in 2010 the Department had embarked on an inspection drive of all silica dust producing companies nationally to ensure compliance with the Act.
He said a total of 208 inspections were done and it was found that only 54 companies complied with the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act and accompanying regulations.
“There were 292 contraventions in regard the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations. The department issued 24 prohibition notices and these were served when there is danger to life and limb,” he said a basic element of managing a business such as risk assessment seems not to be a priority for consideration in the management of business in the non-mining sector.
“The non-mining sector is guilty of not offering training for employees. The lack of no control measures in place is an area of huge concern. Our findings have revealed that employers were not aware of regulations and accompanying legislation.
“The department is keen to assist to make employers understand the importance of legislation and be fully aware of what is required of them. We want to play an active role by concentrating on both employer and employees through training programmes and creating an awareness of the effects of silicosis,” Szana said.
The latest focus on the silicosis industry has been necessitated by escalating worrying trends emerging in the South African context where there has been a rise in deaths and occupational claims in non-mining industries using silica containing materials or where production processes generate silica dust.
Silicosis rates were reported by the department to have declined in the early 2000s, but these have been rising again in the past three years. In 2006, the Occupational Lung Disease rate in the South African mines of the company was 10 per 1,000 employees. Szana said to reduce dust levels and exposure to workers, non-mining industries using silica containing materials or where production processes generate silica dust.
The disease has long been associated with underground mining and now has become a phenomenon in non-mining industries such as agriculture, sandblasting, ceramic, construction, foundries and potteries among others.
Millie Ruiters head of Occupational Health and Hygiene at Department of Labour told the seminar that it was clear that silicosis was an entrenched problem in South Africa.
“However, the extent of the problem and number of deaths caused as a result of the disease are not know in South Africa,” she said there was a huge need for dust measurements to deter worker exposure to high silica levels.
Ruiters said the department had just completed study in Gauteng and was planning to roll-out the initiative nationally to ascertain the extent of the disease, its effect to the economy and cost to human life.
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