Workplace Safety

The Environment and Natural Resources Department has ordered the suspension of aerial spraying of pesticides and fungicides in banana plantations in Region 11, which comprises the three Davao provinces and Compostela Valley.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao farmers asked the Departmetn of Health yesterday to work for the banning of aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations in the region, saying that this gravely affects their health and other crops.

Fruit growers in Mindanao are going bananas. They need to repel the spread of unseen but disastrous fungi if they are to go on exporting banana by the billions of tons. But a drive to ban aerial spraying of pesticides is hemming them in from the other side. The Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association…

CEBU, Philippines – Concerned over the health safety of the thousands of call center workers in the city, Councilor Edgardo Labella has asked both the government and non-government research organizations, including the schools, to come up with a statistics of profiles of such employees who allegedly suffered adverse health conditions because of their jobs.

CEBU, Philippines – A 20-year-old miner died after he was hit by falling coal inside a tunnel at the Ibalong Mining Company in barangay Dumalan, Dalaguete the other day.

CEBU, Philippines – The absence of air-conditioning units and proper ventilation have affected the working condition of employees of the Office of the Clerk of Court of the Regional Trial Court at the Marcelo Fernan Memorial Hall of Justice.

BAGUIO CITY: The number of small-scale miners who died due to mountain slides in Barangay Kias at the height of Typhoon Kiko rose to 12 while two more private miners remain to be the subject of search and retrieval operations.

LIMAY, Bataan: A chief mate died while two seamen were injured when the pressurized liquid hose they were handling preparatory to loading Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) from the Petron Bataan Refinery pier to their cargo carrier tanker snapped, swung and hit them, police reported Monday.

When nerves travel from the spinal cord to the limbs, they are housed within passageways or tunnels, which may become narrowed for a variety of reasons. When that happens, it puts pressure on the nerve passing through, causing symptoms such as weakness, tingling, or numbness. The best known and most common of these trapped or…

CEBU, Philippines – Councilor Edgardo Labella wants sales ladies in commercial establishments in the city to be provided with seats where they could rest when not attending to customers.

Police in Cordon town, Isabela province have found the bodies of two small-scale miners who have gone missing inside a mine in the said town since Tuesday.

Tuba, Benguet , Philippines   – Two pocket miners were dug out dead from a huge landslide that buried their temporary shelter while pocket mining along Barangay Padcal here.

CEBU, Philippines – A 21-year-old construction worker died of electrocution after he accidentally stepped on a live wire while at work past 10 am yesterday.

Two workers of the Korean shipbuilding giant firm Hanjin Heavy Industries Co., based in the freeport town of Subic in Zambales province, were killed while 19 others were seriously injured when their service vehicle lost its brakes while traversing along Cabangaan Road, Barangay Cawag, Monday morning.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Another worker died at the Hanjin shipyard at the Subic Bay Freeport, reportedly the 27th fatality in the shipbuilding facility.

After more than five years of negotiation, delegates from 59 countries to an International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference signed the Hong Kong Agreement regulating the recycling of ships on 15 May 2009. For the ILO, the agreement is an important step to make ship breaking decent work. ILO Online spoke with manufacturing specialist David Seligson…

After two confirmed cases of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus in the Philippines, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued guidelines to help prevent the disease from spreading in the workplace.

Joint Administrative Order on GHS

MANILA, Philippines – One worker died and three others were injured when a concrete wall collapsed on them as they were working at a construction site in Pasay City.

Brussels, (ITUC OnLine): As the H1N1 “swine flu” virus continues to spread around the world, the International Trade Union Confederation is calling for government action on a series of key workplace issues that are essential for reducing the risk of a severe pandemic and for preparing in case a severe pandemic does occur. 

MANILA, Philippines—A construction worker died when he fell from a 25-foot-high scaffold, part of which collapsed while he and another worker were painting a covered court at a private school in Quezon City on Friday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines – Technical experts from the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) are backing further and more comprehensive scientific research on the impact of aerial spraying on humans, given that a government-commissioned study has failed to establish conclusive evidence proving that this efficient mode of dispersing fungicide was directly responsible for certain discomforts…

The Health Department has apparently moved on after being ignored by Manny Pacquiao, who went home from his last fight despite a warning not to because of the swine flu scare. Now the department wants to ban the aerial spraying of banana plantations in Davao based on a three-year-old study of a small village that…

CEBU, Philippines – A construction helper suffered from third degree burns after he got electrocuted while working at a building in Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, this city past 10 a.m. yesterday.

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – They went down a tunnel looking for gold hoping for a better life, but it ended their lives.

MANILA, Philippines – A 19-year-old construction worker survived electrocution and a plunge from the third floor of a building under construction in Sampaloc, Manila yesterday morning.

The Customs bureau has asked the Department of Finance for a higher hazard pay and medical benefits for X-ray scanning staff exposed to radiation at the worksite.

Brussels, (ITUC OnLine): More than 14 million people are expected to take part in some 10,000 activities across the world today, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers.  Over 2.2 million workers die each year from work accidents and disease, and some 160 million more are injured or become ill.

How is the financial and economic crisis affecting occupational health and safety standards? First of all, let’s remember that even before the current crisis, globalization had already brought about major changes to workplaces worldwide. Privatization, industrial restructuring, new forms of work organization, the break-up of larger state enterprises and the proliferation of small enterprises –…

The lowdown on carpal tunnel syndrome   Joy, 35, was baffled that she kept on dropping things accidentally the past few days. She also felt pain and tingling sensations on the fingers of her right hand particularly at night. An accountant used to working till the small hours of the evening, the numbness and the…