Industrial safety is ignored with impunity

A series of boiler explosions -the latest happening at an apparel factory, Multifabs Limited, in Gazipur on Tuesday last -this year has once again brought the industrial safety issue to the fore. If the recurrence of this industrial tragedy involving loss of life and property has not already caused a fear psychosis among workers of rice mills, apparel factories and other users of boilers, it may soon do so.
During the first half of the year, boiler blasts have been reported in January, March and April. The April hazard claimed the highest number of lives -16 in total. Besides, 28 were left injured. Tuesday's casualty figures -13 dead and 50 injured -are not far behind. Allegedly not all boiler blasts are reported. However, the greatest such accident took place at Tampaco Foils Limited, a packaging industry, in September, 20016. As many as 24 people perished in the inferno that followed the blast. The number of wounded was 74. Reports were however not conclusive that it was a boiler explosion that triggered the massive fire.
What is frightening is that the major boiler users, rice mills, usually procure those without registration. No wonder, this proves costly in the absence of inspection and inefficient operation of the risky mechanical support. A boiler on expiry of date can turn into a potential time bomb waiting to get off. A thorough inspection proves vital for avoiding a tragedy of the kinds the country has witnessed so far. When the boilers are unregistered, no one knows when a boiler has run out of its active service period. Now as major users of this industrial gadget, rice mills get their boilers unregistered. Why? Cannot the registration of this apparatus be made mandatory?
Apart from registration, there is the issue of operation of this potentially hazardous factory component by unskilled persons. Experts hint at running those beyond capacity and this is one of the causes of fatal explosion. Only about 5,000 industrial units including readymade garments and textile factories have got their boilers registered but the rest of the vast number of 30,000 all across the country run without approval.
This speaks volumes for the anarchy in the industrial use of boilers. The latest accident at the Multifab factory has brought into focus an omission in the inspection and remediation of garments factories. Boiler inspection was not included in the remediation and retrofit. After the latest accident on account of boiler, this issue deserves reconsideration. With only six government boiler inspectors, the job of inspection proves to be highly daunting. There should be a reasonable number of such inspectors to discharge the duty in order to declare which boiler has run out of time and which can perform its function to their satisfaction. At the same time boiler operators must know their job well in order to operate them safely. So a new breed of boiler operators has to be raised, who can take up this vital job.   
Industrial safety is not a strong point of this nation. This is glaringly exposed by the makeshift platform made for construction workers for various purposes. Even children are employed to work at lathe machines without protective gears. Plastic factories, asbestos and rerolling units along with many factories of the leather industry have not adopted the advanced production process. There also age-old and makeshift methods are followed by workers at great risk to their life. All this is done in order to cut the cost of production. But workers pay dearly with premature aging and diseases finishing them off before time. They become redundant after a few years of service in such hazardous factories. Sometimes their family members, particularly their children, get the diseases they suffer from, courtesy of their close association.
It is a brutal world where workers are forced to perform their jobs. Let alone their wages which are paltry, their compensation for loss of life and severe injuries is not substantial. Multifabs has reportedly been fined only Tk 20,000 for its lapses. Workers are treated cheaply because the errant boiler users are not heavily punished and compensations for factory mishaps do not cause the latter bleed financially.
Thus the crux of the problem comes to the point of investment in protective gears and remediation. In advanced countries boiler explosion is unthinkable. The standard of boiler and other combustible apparatuses is set up to the mark and regular routine check-up and monitoring of operation rule out any such possibility.
For Bangladesh to reach that level, at all points starting from manufacture to monitoring and supervision the acts should be coordinated. Only then those in charge will know where things are not up to the mark. Here the authorities even do not know how many boilers are in use because no attempt was ever made to formulate a guideline, rules and regulations for keeping a tab on their use.
It is more a matter of psychology. Bigger investment in hazardous factories and industries eliminates risks as well as help skilled labour force to perform over a longer period. Ultimately, this counts for factories and industries so far as industrial dividends are concerned.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com