Workplace Safety

MANILA, Philippines – Agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao will be the most affected sector if the ban on aerial spraying in banana plantations pushes through.

Four persons were killed and six others were hurt when a bus driver fell asleep at the wheel, causing his vehicle to swerve and slam into a van on the opposite lane of the national highway in Gerona, Tarlac on Thursday before daybreak. Initial reports reaching Camp Crame, Supt. Salvador Destura, Gerona police chief, said…

CEBU, Philippines – Lack of safety measures has been blamed on the firecracker blaze that killed at least three people – including two children – and injured six others in Mandaue City on Christmas Eve.  

Three people were killed in a fire that gutted 15 stores selling pyrotechnics at the Oval Plaza here shortly before dawn yesterday as Christendom was celebrating Christmas.

Last month Health Sec. Francisco Duque urged President Arroyo to issue an executive order banning aerial spraying of fungicides. Four causes were cited in his memo:

Assessing health risks in the workplace Next to their homes, most people spend much of their time in the office—enough reason to make the workplace a safe environment as possible.

The relatively warmer air temperature felt the past few days in Luzon is only temporary, meteorologists of the state-run Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said Sunday.

BUTUAN CITY , Philippines  – Three small-scale miners in a gold mining tunnel at gold rush areas in Agusan del Sur were killed due to toxic poisoning Saturday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Aboitiz Group and a number of foreign power firms have joined hands to further improve efforts to maintain operational and environmental safety at the Aboitiz- run power facilities.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: A gas explosion had killed a coal miner and injured four more in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.

LIMAY, Bataan — A diver died while a colleague is in critical condition when they plunged into a nine-meter chlorination tank inside the Alstom compound (former ABB power plant) in Barangay Alangan, Limay, Bataan, last Monday.Superintendent Luisito Bolivar, newly designated police chief, reported that Peter Jao, a diving expert of the CJMS Diving Services, did…

MANILA, Philippines – Two construction workers died while two others were injured when loose soil collapsed on them as they worked on the foundations for another building at the compound of the Maligaya Elementary School in Quezon City yesterday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines – Two men were seriously injured when a tanker they were filling with bunker fuel exploded at a used-oil recycling plant in Bagbaguin, Caloocan City Monday night.

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union: Sandy soil, which eroded easily when dug deeply caused the death of a deep well digger near the coastal area of Barangay Dalumpinas Oeste, here, Friday afternoon after rescue operations failed to save him on time.

MANILA, Philippines – After consulting with local and international health experts, the Department of Health yesterday recommended the banning of aerial spraying of pesticides, saying that this is harmful to humans and the environment.

MANILA, Philippines – Labor unions representing some 300,000 banana farm workers in various support industries of the Philippine banana industry hit yesterday what they perceived as smear campaign against banana growers in Mindanao who have accused them of non-existing health risk regarding the aerial spaying of banana plantations in their localities.

The respected and world-renowned scientific agency has spoken on a controversy regarding research data, methodology and analysis. Quick, bring in some Catholic bishops to refute it on “moral” grounds.

MANILA, Philippines – Environmentalists yesterday vowed to get to the bottom of the toxic pollution incidents that downed residents of a village in Silang, Cavite, demanding that a hazardous waste treatment company there make a “full disclosure” of what chemicals, and in what quantities, have spilled out to the environment.

The Supreme Court has awarded an ailing seaman $60,000, or some P3 million in disability benefits for work-related illness that he contracted while serving as crane operator for a cement-carrying international vessel. The High Court Second Division, in a ruling written by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, affirmed an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeals…

CAVITE , Philippines  – Twenty-eight persons were hospitalized after they allegedly get ill due to chemical fumes emitted by a treatment plant in Silang, Cavite yesterday morning.

DAVAO CITY , Philippines  – At least five people were killed and eight others were injured when a 40-foot shipping container carrying hundreds of boxes of Cavendish bananas fell into a Mitsubishi L-300 passenger van along the highway in Nabunturan, Compostela Valley Tuesday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines – Workers nationwide can look forward to safer and better workplaces during the holiday season.

A new front in the ongoing battle being waged by a group of misguided (and foreign-funded) non-government organizations against the banana-exporting industry has opened in the Supreme Court. Last week, the mostly Davao-based NGOs staged a rally in front of the tribunal to dramatize their demand to ban the decades-long practice of aerial spraying of…

Residents of Davao City have filed a petition before the Supreme Court urging the high tribunal to order a stop to aerial spraying of pesticides and fungicides in banana plantations which they say pose a danger to their health.

The good news from Davao is that a peer review of a controversial study commissioned in part by the Department of Health condemning the aerial spraying of fungicides in local banana plantations has been completed. The not-so-good news is that no one seems in a real hurry to release the review—possibly because it confirms serious…

MANILA, PHilippines – A construction company will face charges after the second floor of a building under construction in Barangay San Jose, Quezon City collapsed Monday afternoon, killing a worker and injuring nine others.

A 25-year old construction worker died instantly while nine others were injured Monday after the flooring of a building undergoing construction collapsed in Quezon City. Initial investigation showed that the incident happended at around 1:45pm at a two-storey commerical building undergoing construction along Mauban Street in Barangay San Jose.

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – At least seven people were hurt after a refilling station of liquefied petroleum gas in Abucay, Bataan caught fire after an explosion last Friday night.

The House Committee on Health approved to consolidate three bills banning the importation, manufacture, processing, use, or distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing products in a hearing held on 9 September 2009. The House of Representatives is the Lower House of the Philippine Congress.

Subic, Zambales, Philippines — House committee on labor and employment members have expressed appreciation for the implementation of work safety measures inside the Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. (HHIC) shipyard in Subic, but said they wanted to see more improvement in labor safety inside the facility.