A fire in a factory in Valenzuela in Metro
Manila that killed 72 workers has been blamed mainly on management not
following safety regulations, including the lack of fire exits and fire
extinguishers and the unsafe storage of chemicals.
According
to a welder hired to repair a door, he had asked a factory secretary if there
were combustible materials near the place where he was about to work. He was
told there was none but when he began his welding, the sparks apparently
ignited a chemical in sacks.
While investigations
are ongoing, we should go a step further and look at the larger problem of
safety awareness in the country. Accidents happen all the time without our even
understanding how they are linked to our carelessness… or ignorance.
For
example, the chemical in those sacks was azodicarbonamide, which is used as a
blowing agent to expand rubber. Besides its flammable nature, the chemical has
been identified as a possible cause of asthma. In Britain, it requires a label
“May cause sensitisation by inhalation.” It is also banned in a number of
countries from being used in the manufacture of plastic articles that might
come in direct contact with food.
Beyond
our low scientific literacy, there’s also an underlying cultural aspect to our
lack of safety precautions. We need to build a culture of safety where we are
constantly aware of possible risks, and do things to minimise those risks.
Instead,
our default thinking is “OK lang” or “OK na,” (it's fine) accepting risks as
inevitable, and taking precautions only if the danger is visible and imminent.
As for
culture in terms of practices, it is amazing how many of our housekeeping
“traditions” at home and in offices constantly make us risk life and limb.
Falls
Let’s
look at the “doing” aspect by studying the problem of falls among the elderly,
which happen very often and can be extremely debilitating, even fatal.
Check
your homes and offices and you’ll probably find all kinds of hazards that can
cause falls. There are stairs that are just too steep, or steps that are too
narrow. There’s the bathroom with floors that are always wet.
Here’s
the cultural part. In the Philippines we have the habit of cleaning a bathroom
by dousing the floor, sink and commode with water and then letting these dry on
their own rather than using a mop.
Instead
of mops we seem to prefer rag rugs, the types sold by sidewalk and street
vendors. You’ll see this at the entrances to the house and the bathroom, and in
front of the kitchen sink.
Just last
week while waiting for a take-out order in a restaurant, I noticed both a rug
and rags placed right at the entrance. For about 10 minutes I watched with
amazement, and a bit of horror, at an awkward choreography. Most customers who
walked in would wipe their shoes on the rug, which would move whenever the
wiping happened. Then the customers would spot the rags. Some avoided the rags
while others used a foot to move these aside, irritation at the inconvenience
showing on their faces. Meanwhile, food servers would pass by, each time using
their feet to move the rags back to the centre, some of them moving the rags
forward and backward to clean the floor.
I finally
had to tell the manager that they were inviting accidents, that sooner or
later, someone would slip on those rags.
It can
happen as well in your homes. If you insist on having some kind of rug, use
rubber ones. Add railings around the house, especially in bathrooms and
stairways, for people to hold on to.
Just to
scare you into action, if Lolo or Lola slips on one of those rugs and gets a
hip fracture, the surgery will set you back by at least 100,000 pesos
(US$2,200). And that’s the least of your problems because hip fractures often
result in complications that can be fatal.
Storage
A second
example of culture and safety is the way we store chemicals. The Valenzuela
fire is an extreme example of what can happen but again, look at your homes or
offices and you’ll find other invitations to disaster.
Many
households still keep kerosene to use in lamps. And where’s the kerosene to be
found? In kitchens. And what does kerosene look like? Cooking oil.
Then
there are the insecticides. Where do you keep them? In the bedroom. Check what
you keep next to the sprays.
We invite
poisoning when we put poisonous substances next to food, but it happens all the
time. Just ask the emergency wards of hospitals, and the poisoning control
centre at the Philippine General Hospital.
All this
is cultural in the sense that we’ve grown used to just putting chemicals
anywhere. In part this is because the government does not have strong labeling
rules. Remember the poisoning of the owner and a customer in a milk tea shop?
The poison has been identified as oxalic acid, which is also used as a cleaner.
You can buy little plastic bags of the substance, which looks like sugar, on
the sidewalk.
A
skull-and-crossbones sign and “Lason” (Poison) in large lettering should be
required on the bags to remind people to take precautions.
Now even
if we do have those labels, I suspect we will still be cavalier about it all,
and this is where the attitudinal part of culture comes in. Because we are so
surrounded by risks, we tend to shrug them off.
Food poisoning
An
example is the way we invite food poisoning and diarrheal diseases, especially
during summer. Food spoils much more quickly during the very hot months. And
while food spoils quickly in the heat, we shouldn’t forget that it doesn’t stay
safe forever in the fridge. If your food has been out in the heat for some
time, putting it in the fridge is not going to kill the harmful bacteria.
Spoiled is spoiled.
Schools
and the streets in front of them are frequent sites for food poisoning, and
that’s not just from foods that spoil in the heat but also drinks that use
unsafe water and ice. For both food and drinks, there’s the constant threat of
contamination from vendors’ and food handlers’ hands. There are food safety
laws requiring them to use gloves and hair nets, but the laws are observed more
in the breach.
We
underestimate the harm that can occur. Diarrhoeas can kill, especially when
they affect the very young and the elderly. Among the poor, diarrhoeas are so
chronic that they cause malnutrition, both underweight and stunting.
We need
to make safety consciousness part of our homes and our schools. I have just
returned from a visit to the National University of Singapore, where buffet and
snack tables always carried a sign that gave the time the food was prepared and
when it has to be consumed (four hours after preparation).
Start the
children young with a culture of safety. Get them involved in rearranging
furniture that the youngest child might bump into. Or get them to draw skulls
and crossbones on gummed labels, which you can then put on insecticides and
other poisonous substances. (Adults should be the one to put those labels.)
It won’t
be easy. Even hospitals have to issue frequent reminders to physicians and
nurses about proper hand-washing. But we have to keep pushing for this culture
of safety. Add the lack of concern on the part of some employers—“these are
just workers”—to their lack of a safety culture, and we have a formula for more
disasters.
Michael
L. Tan
Philippine
Daily Inquirer
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
