Working in Health Hazardous Environment goes Unidentified in Pakistan

Working in Health Hazardous Environment goes Unidentified in Pakistan

¹Dr. Madiha Ijaz ²Dr. Muhammad Naeem

¹PHD Environmental Sciences, CEES, PU, LHR; ²Laureate Folks International

https://laureatefolks.blogspot.com, laureatefolks@gmail.com

WhatsApp: +923334446261

1. INTRODUCTION

Occupational Health and Safety, shortly known as OHS, is lagging behind the fields in industries, especially small-scaled (Gopang, Nebhwani, Khatri, & Marri, 2017), in Pakistan. Both formal and informal sectors are not paying due heed to the safety and health of workers at the workplace (Ahmed, Usman, Nazir, & Shaukat, 2018). Various industries, e.g., construction industry, mining, agricultural, carpet weaving, textile, sports, and surgical are labor-intensive and practice traditional methods, pose a high risk to workers’ safety and health. Respiratory diseases, skin problems, retinal damage, kidney failure are common health problems with ergonomic hazards tip the top of this list. Occupational injuries of workers (OIW) reduce a large number of male and female works from the efficient workforce of many industries of Pakistan (Noman, Mujahid, & Fatima, 2021). These are the hazards that are found in almost every industry. Use of personal protective equipment (PPEs) is not in practice.

The types of occupational hazards evolved with the evolution in industrialization (Alli, 2008). The concept of OHS entered Pakistan with an entry of multinational companies. It started getting little significance in the early 80s, a time when it was all about fire safety (Subhani & Khan, 2017). With an increase in industrialization, the occupational health hazards kept cropping up with increased frequency and in different kinds. The most prevailing type is ergonomic hazards. These are the hazards related to workers’ body postures, cognition, and efficiency at work(Fayomi, Akande, Essien, Asaolu, & Esse, 2021). Work-related musculoskeletal disorder is another most prevailing type of ergonomic hazard in industries of Pakistan (Ijaz, Ahmad, et al., 2020; Jiskani et al., 2020). Heat-induced illness is another most dominating type of occupational hazard (Hamid, Ahmad, & Khan, 2018; Qaisrani, Baig, Rathore, & Yousuf, 2018).

However, at the national level, some measures are being taken to address the issue, yet a lot of research is required to identify the actual causes of workplace-related hazards in our industries. Legislative measures are almost a century old, too old to safeguard workers contributing to the digital economy. Development of the Pakistan Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2018 could be possible with help of the Pakistan Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. The guidelines given in the Act require considerable revision to make them applicable in the current era. The ILO is helping the government of Pakistan to update legislative measures in this regard. As an academic discipline, the subject of Occupational Health and Safety is not found at the top of the list of prioritized subjects. There are only a few universities throughout the country teaching OHS as an entirely independent discipline.

1.1 Research Questions

1. What are the prevailing conditions of Occupational Health and safety in Pakistan?

2. What are the most dominating types of occupational health and safety issues in industries of Pakistan?

1.2 Objectives of the Study

Aims of the study are;

i) to enlist existing potential occupation health hazards in major industries of Pakistan

ii) to suggest possible remedial measures to address these hazards

1.3 Significance of the Study

The foremost significance of the study lies in its effort to highlight what goes unidentified, hence unnoticed. This is a basic type of study related to the identification of the prevailing health hazards stemming from workplaces.

1.3.1 Four tiers of the significance of this study are;

Ø Legislative level

Ø Disciplinary level

Ø Industrial level

Ø Societal level

2. Background and Scope of the Study

Globally, the original idea of OHS was very different from what it has evolved into now. The route of its evolution goes parallel to the track of industrial development-when production shifted from agricultural produce to mechanical manufacturing and from little quantity to mass-scale. And the nature of these health hazards varied with variation in the method of production- from traditional manual means to advance machinery apparatuses (Sileyew, 2020). In Pakistan, the stages of evolution of OHS are quite young and at their primitive phases. A large number of industries are following traditional methods of production and are labor-intensive. These industries hire a large bulk of the population to get their demand for production. The more people are hired, the more the rate of occupational hazards increases. The most prominent of these labor-intensive industries are the mining and quarrying industry(Bhayo, Bhatti, Abbas, Banghwar, & Qazi, 2018), the construction industry (M. W. Khan, Ali, De Felice, & Petrillo, 2019), the agricultural sector (Liu, Amin, Rasool, & Zaman, 2020) and textile industry (Pervez, 2020). According to the report of the survey conducted in 2017-2018, by the Pakistan Labour Force, out of workers suffering from work-related hazards, 41.6% belonged to the agriculture sector, 17.3% to the construction sector, and 16.9% to the manufacturing sector (F. H. Ali, Liaqat, Azhar, & Ali, 2021).

Occupational injuries at the workplace are increasing in developing countries, although developed nations are not free of them (Magnavita & Chirico, 2020) with, however, a relatively improved situation in the latter one, and the reason can be job stability and insurance policies being provided to workers in developed economies (Chen, Hou, Zhang, & Li, 2020). In Pakistan, such occupational injuries of workers (OIW) are rampant. An estimated percentage of employed workers suffering from occupational injuries is given in figure 1- extracted from an already conducted study.

Figure 1. Occupational injuries of workers (OIW) (Noman et al., 2021).

Different industries pose different levels of occupational hazards. Generally, the industries, practicing manual means of production hire a large chunk of the population that is exposed largely to job-related hazards. The construction industry of Pakistan is considered one of the most dangerous for workers’ health and safety. Mining and quarrying industries are also labor-intensive so their work environments are full of risks. Tanneries, textile industries, and agricultural activities also fall in this category.

2.1 Mining and Quarrying Industry

Mining and quarrying industries, in Pakistan, practice traditional methods of production. These methods put workers in dangerous working conditions. Workers of brick kilns industry are mainly exposed to total reparable dust (Raza & Ali, 2021), ergonomic hazards (Ijaz, Ahmad, et al., 2020), and heat-induced illnesses, notwithstanding the other hazards. Male and female workers of the brick industry are surveyed with a high rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Underground coal mines of Punjab are also surveyed and are found strongly related to the disruption in workers’ musculoskeletal (especially upper and lower back) disorders (Ijaz, Akram, et al., 2020) and their lungs. Accidental deaths during work, in underground coal mines, are also at large.

2.2 Construction Industry

In Pakistan, 7.31% of the labor force is occupied in the construction industry (Statistics, 2008). The existing situation of occupational health and safety in the construction industry of Pakistan is not safe (Memon, Soomro, Memon, & Abassi, 2017). Work relate accidents, injuries and even death rates are high in this industry (M. W. Khan et al., 2019). Unsafe working conditions of large laborer forces make them more vulnerable to occupational hazards. For workers in the construction industry, the safety conditions at the worksite are poorly managed in the wake of occupational salvage (Ahmed, Shaukat, Usman, Nawaz, & Nazir, 2018).

2.3 Agricultural Industry

The agricultural sector of our country plays a very significant role in our economy (Chandio, Mirani, & Shar, 2019). It occupies 42% of our workforce and contributes 25% to the national GDP (Mumtaz, de Oliveira, & Ali, 2019). The occupational health and safety conditions of workers in this sector are not up to the mark. Cotton-growing farmers suffer certain disorders because of their job requirements. While plucking cotton, they are exposed to a certain type of pesticides leading to respiratory and skin issues (Bakhsh et al., 2016; H. Yasmeen et al., 2017) and spinal disorders (Badanayak, Vastrad, & Jose, 2021). Workers of livestock suffer so many such health-related illnesses but the gap of research leave them unnoticed (Qaisrani et al., 2018; R. Yasmeen, Ali, Tyrrel, & Nasir, 2020). Sugar cane workers also suffer from similar health hazards. These hazards go unidentified and hence unsolved.

2.4 Textile Industry

The textile industry is also one of the industries which pose high levels of risks to their works. Exposure to different chemicals exceeds their threshold limit values (TLVs). Lung and skin cancer are reported commonly. Workers of textile factories also have musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). In Pakistan, a laborer in this industry bears multiple occupational hazards. Exposure to dying chemicals, organic dust (especially cotton dust), and poor ergonomic conditions are the common sources in Pakistan (like any developing country) behind ailing workers of this industry (Ahmad et al., 2021; N. A. Ali, Nafees, Fatmi, & Azam, 2018; M. Khan, Muhmood, Noureen, Mahmood, & Amir-ud-Din, 2020; Mehta, Azam, Rahmani, Rizvi, & Mandal, 2021)

2.5 The Legislative Background of Occupational Health and Safety in Pakistan

In Pakistan, the history of legislation started soon after independence whereupon we adopted the modified form of the British colonial laws which had mainly the Factories Act, 1934 that governs the health and safety at the workplace (through chapter-III of the act) (Ahmed, Usman, et al., 2018). Other laws about classifications of hazardous works and rules and regulations for workers' safety include Mines Act of 1923, Workers’ Compensation Act, 1923, Dock Laborers Act, 1934, Hazardous Occupations Rules, 1963, Social Security Ordinance, 1965, Shops & Establishments Ordinance, 1969, Dock Workers Act, 1974 and Punjab Factories Rules, 1978.

Health and Safety Act 2018, Pakistan is prevalent law in governing occupational hazards in industries of Pakistan. Having provided the national workforce with a coherent workplace safety structure, this act authorizes the concerned officials to make the compliance with health and safety regulations in their respective spheres of influence/responsibilities. But, as ill-luck would have it, many industries do not hire safety officers, let alone get safety laws implemented. Besides, many small-scale industries and the agricultural sector do not comply with these laws. Thus leaving a large chunk of the laborer class exposed to workplace hazards.

3 CONCLUSION

Occupational Health and safety is a relatively neglected point of concern. Few industries comply with the newly enacted act. The problem arises from small-scale and informal industrial set-ups. There, people are hired largely without any employment contract. Any workplace accident and injury remain unreported and workers are considered responsible for that incident. At the disciplinary level, the picture of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) depicts disappointment. The University of Punjab, one of the biggest universities in the country, could start teaching OHS as a separate discipline only a couple of years ago. At present, the university is teaching enrolling the second batch of students for MS OHS. Whereas many other universities have not introduced this field as a separate discipline. At the government level, a fresh act, Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2018, is implemented which is a good omen. The act not only binds employers to ensure workplace safety of workers but also provides employees with stringent legislative measures to get their fundamental rights.

3.1 Future Recommendations

Despite much advancement, there is room for improvement and the following are the suggestions to improve the situation.

i. Gradual sessions of training on the use of personal protective equipment must be given to workers of different industries, especially small-scale industries.

ii. The subject of occupational health and safety should be launched as a separate discipline throughout the degree-awarding institutions of our country.

iii. Governmental organizations should adopt a stringent action plan for the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2018.

iv. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are recommended to adopt policies focused on workers’ health and safety at work.

v. Last but not the least suggestion is the removal of the research gap about occupational health hazards. Novel researches can highlight more issues with the ray of solution of these hazards too.

4 REFERENCES

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