Workplace Safety

April 15 (Bloomberg) — I have nothing against music. As long as it’s played in the privacy of a home, car or concert hall, or at low decibel levels in public places, music is food for the soul.

MANILA, Philippines – Thirteen people were killed and 12 others were injured when a boiler overheated and exploded in a styrofoam packaging factory in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, police said yesterday.

MANILA – AT LEAST a dozen factory workers were killed and five were injured when a boiler overheated and exploded in the northern Philippines, local government officials and police said on Wednesday.

ITOGON, Benguet , Philippines  – Another small-scale miner died when he ran out of his oxygen supply and suffocated in a tunnel in Barangay Tuding here on Monday morning.

MANILA, Philippines – A 28-year-old construction worker suffered third-degree burns all over his body after he was electrocuted in a freak accident in Tondo, Manila Sunday, police reported yesterday.

SUBIC BAY: Patrick Molina had been working for just four months at the mammoth South Korean-owned Hanjin shipyard, northwest of Manila, when disaster struck.

MANILA, Philippines – A gas tank of an Asian utility vehicle exploded while undergoing repair at a small shop in Quezon City yesterday afternoon, severely injuring a man who was just helping out at the shop.

Scientists say there is a need for proper regulation of the new technology.

MANILA, Philippines – Three helpers, including a 17-year-old girl, were almost roasted alive in a factory in Quezon City that caught fire Sunday night.

Sablan, Benguet, Philippines – Already cold dead, 20-year-old Jeffrey Kayachen was dug up by rescuers from the boulders and concrete of the rip-rap wall they were constructing here on Friday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines – A labor study group warned Wednesday that occupational health risks in the outsourcing industry are likely to increase after the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) said companies are scaling down growth targets and hiring of new personnel, if not already laying off some.

BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is examining old lease sites of a mining company in Benguet after it was found dumping untreated asbestos insulation panels in Mankayan town.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Two men were buried alive while digging for the foundation of a house they were building in Alicia, Isabela Wednesday morning. Authorities said the bodies of Marlon Callawit, 27, and a certain Berlito were retrieved hours after the cave-in. – Charlie Lagasca, Philippine Star

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Two men were buried alive while digging for the foundation of a house they were building in Alicia, Isabela Wednesday morning.

THE 8,000 workers at the Korean-owned Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. are overworked, unprotected and not getting overtime, health benefits or holiday pay, an investigation by the Labor Department and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority shows.

Balanga City – Six officials and security officers of Petron oil refinery in Limay, Bataan were charged yesterday before the provincial prosecutor’s office with alleged obstruction of justice in connection with the death of a 24-year old techniciam who was exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas at the plant’s sour water treating facility six months ago.

BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is examining old lease sites of a mining company in Benguet after it was found dumping untreated asbestos insulation panels in Mankayan town.

MANILA, Philippines — Two persons were hurt after a five-hour fire razed a plastics factory in Valenzuela City early this morning.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Twenty-six workers of the South Korean-owned shipbuilder Hanjin survived after their bus, which was carrying 60 passengers, plunged into a ravine a few meters from the shipyard, police said.

MANILA, Philippines — The death toll in the Jan. 29 explosion at a firecracker factory in Cavite rose yesterday from nine to 11 as relatives identified the bodies of two people previously listed as missing.

The death toll in the explosion that ripped a fireworks factory in Cavite last week rose to nine yesterday as police investigators remained clueless on what caused the blast.

TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite—It was difficult for Lilibeth Doncillo to look at the wrecked site of Starmaker, two days after the firecracker factory exploded, leaving at least six people dead.

SANTA ANA, Cagayan, Philippines—Officials and residents of this coastal town on Friday protested the alleged environmental destruction caused by the operations of casinos at the Cagayan Special Economic Freeport Zone here.

The casualty count in the explosion that obliterated a firecracker factory in Cavite has reached seven and authorities are tracking down 19 others still missing.

TRECE MARTIRES, Cavite: The Civil Security Group (CSG) of the Philippine National Police on Friday said they need first to evaluate the result of the investigation to determine if Star Maker Fireworks license would be revoked after the factory explosion that claimed eight lives and injuring 55 others in Trece Mar-tires, Cavite.

A powerful explosion obliterated a fireworks factory in Cavite yesterday, killing at least five people and injuring 60 others.

Just two days after a Filipino worker met a fatal accident at the facility, a Korean worker was killed yesterday inside the shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in Subic Bay Freeport, Zambales province when he was run over by a forklift.

19th death in shipyard since 2006 CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines — A Korean foreman died at the shipyard of the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines in Subic, Zambales, after he was hit and run over by a forklift operated by a Filipino worker on Sunday.

A truck helper was pinned to death when a truck backed into him as he was transferring several cans of cooking oil into another truck at the compound of an oil manufacturing firm in Malabon Sunday.

from The Manila Times The Senate and House committees on labor and employment should investigate “the unusually high incidence of accidental deaths” of building workers at the $1.6-billion shipyard project of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction-Philippines Inc. in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, a labor group official said Wednesday.