No fewer than 50 Nigerians succumb to avoidable deaths annually, while several others suffer permanent injuries due to the alleged negligence and non-compliance with safety standards by some chemical-producing companies operating across the country, The Point investigation has revealed.
This category of Nigerians areworkers, who work in the chemical manufacturing companies, who have come short of the required safety standards.
The workers, apparently because of the nature and demands of their work, suffer one form of disability or the other; while the most unfortunate ones lose their lives.
A five- week investigation by The Point at some chemical-producing companies at the Agbara Industrial Estate in Ogun State, was quite revealing, as some workers, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, gave heart-rending narrations of how some of their colleagues died in the course of handling chemical related substances.
A collation of the total number of unreported deaths in the chemical companies, as disclosed by workers, put the figure at about 20, conservatively, on an annual basis.
A worker at a top chemical producing-company in Agbara, who asked not to be named, said, “Two of my co-workers somehow ignorantly inhaled chemicals while conveying some substances from one location to another.
I can vividly recall how Isiaka developed complications arising from direct contacts with chemicals used to produce silicon.”
“It was one unpleasantly cold day like this, after we offloaded 10 trailers of sealed chemicals. It was after the routine exercise that Isiaka became nervous. He was sent to the clinic the following day, where he was given milk to drink and one other syrup in a small bottle.
A week later, we learnt that he had died of complications arising from chemical handling.” Isiaka’s family, The Point further learnt, was neither visited by the management of the chemical company, nor paid any form of compensation.
Efforts by our correspondent to speak with the Human Resources Manager of the company on the matter proved abortive, as the security guard manning the gates to the company’s premises became hostile after speaking with the manager on our correspondent’s mission to the firm’s factory.
“Our manager said you should go and find other stories to write. It appears that one white man was already communicating with other chemical companies around.
Bye bye,” he said. Investigations further revealed that many of these chemical companies had failed to prioritise safety in the workplace against the dictates of labour laws. It was discovered that none of the companies visited by our correspondent practised occupational safety, much less put in place the muchneeded preventive measures.
“The World Day for Safety and Health at Work by the ILO is here already. It has become a mere yearly ritual by most of the companies you see around, especially chemical manufacturing companies,” a worker at Reliance Chemical Products Limited complained.
According to him, all the companies merely engage in is hoisting banners heralding ‘work hazards week’. Nothing more. Until chemical manufacturing companies begin to take rapid action to build a culture of prevention on occupational safety and health, things would go worse,” he said.
Insider sources at Africa Fertilizer, where The Point was also not given audience, alleged that the management of the company planned an encompassing sustainable culture of occupational safety and health at all levels as a right, but “all are merely on paper.”
None of them follows compliance and when they are picketed, they simply resort to backdoor settlement.”
until chemical manufacturing companies begin to take rapid action to build a culture of prevention on occupational safety and health, things would go worse
Also speaking independently with The Point on the matter, a former manager at the United Africa Company, Mr. Igbojionu John, said that industries should see Personal Protective Equipment as the last resort.
“Many of the companies around believe much in Personal Protective Equipment, such as safety boots, and overall coats, rather than the core preventive measures. What happens when boots are worn out?
It means that you are on your own. You are simply made vulnerable. How many of these companies even made provisions for hard hats, hand gloves and goggles for their staff who are daily exposed to these preventable dangers? Just a few.
That is the crux of the matter,” he said, However, a general medical practitioner, Dr. Olusegun Fagbemi Jr., in a chat with The Point advised that companies, especially, “those who are into chemical manufacturing, should consolidate occupational safety and health achievements in prevention.”
According to him, valued practices should be shared, promoted and emulated where possible.
“This can come in the form of partnerships with the view to accelerating progress towards building a global culture of prevention. The general slogan that safety is everybody’s business should be taken very seriously,” Fagbemi said.
