Technological advancement does not guarantee elimination of occupational health, safety and environment problems. These problems should be assessed in time and a system should be streamlined to achieve a health-working environment conducive to the wellbeing of the workers.
These observations were made at the last day of two-day 4th National Seminar on "Occupational health, safety and environment" organised by The Institute of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) here on Tuesday.
Various papers related to occupational health, safety and environment, covering a wide-range of issues, were presented during the seminar.
Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor Z.A. Nizami, Sindh Assembly Member Farheen Ambarin, IEP Chairman Zafar Zubairi, Khalid Siraj Subhani, Vice President, Manufacturing, Engro Chemicals (Pakistan) Ltd, Haroon Tabbani, Safety Manager, International Power, Hub Power Station Balochistan, Ijaz Ahmed, United Manager Safety, Fauji Fertiliser Ltd, Bin Qasim and many others also spoke on the occasion.
They stressed upon the need for capacity building programmes to create awareness and supportive measures for necessity of safe, healthy and environment-friendly working conditions.
They said that safe and healthy environment could be established through appropriate legislation with the implementation and good practices inside and outside the business and industrial establishments.
The industrial development is indispensable for accelerated economic growth and poverty can be successfully eliminated through it, but occupational health, safety and environment are correlated subjects for achieving sustainable industrial development in line with the WTO and other international norms of business.
They said that industries like power generation, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, refineries, textiles, etc, should come forward to develop and implement the schemes, aiming at reducing the risk of any untoward incident.
The speakers said that there is a need to create awareness for emergencies at the local level aimed at increasing prevention of technological accidents and improving emergency preparedness.
"It will also provide assistance to the decision-makers in the government, local authorities and industry through providing relevant information and documents, training activities and technical support," they added.
They dispelled the impression that environmentalists are against trade. Economists are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that neglecting environmental repercussions in decision-making is poor economics.
Economic development and stronger protection of the environment, they said, would go together as experiences show that greater attention to environmental concerns is directly correlated with better economic results at the national, industrial and company levels.
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