Reveal cause of factory blast, DOSH urged
The Star Online, 3 April 2013
BUTTERWORTH: The MTUC Penang Division is calling on the state Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to make public its investigations into a recent factory blast in the Prai Industrial Area.
Its Health and Safety Committee chairman N. Balakrishnan said the public had the right to know the cause of the fatal incident which claimed the lives of two workers and left three others with severe burn injuries.
“DOSH should also make known what recommendations it had made to prevent similar accidents in the future.
“This is necessary so that factory managements and their employees can be more alert and prepared to avert such incidences,” he told a press conference at his office in Taman Inderawasih, Prai, near here yesterday.
He was commenting on news reports about a fire in an oleochemical factory in Prai on March 25 which killed factory technician Roslan Othman, 40, on the spot.
The following day, fellow worker Jamalludin Ismail, 39, died in the Seberang Jaya Hospital after sustaining 50% burns in the incident.
One of the injured victims, K. Ramis, 41, who sustained 70% burns, is in the intensive care unit of the Seberang Jaya Hospital.
The other two — Baharin Arshad, 49, and Bangladeshi Mustak Kamal, 35 — are warded in private hospitals.
Balakrishnan said companies should strictly adhere to safe systems of work in their workplace as outlined in Section 15 (2)(a) of the Occupational, Safety and Health Act 1994.
He said Section 19 of the Act also provided a penalty of not exceeding RM50,000 against any person who contravened Section 15 of the same Act.
“All factories must take precautionary measures and ensure a Safety First policy is implemented in their premises at all times,” he said.
