Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh attended, among others, the event as the chief guest. Half of the country's plastic goods manufacturing factories are not compliant with fire and health-related safety standards, according in findings of a latest audit report.
Moreover, 49 per cent factories are non-compliant with electrical safety standards and 40 per cent fall short of structural safety standards while 40 per cent lack environmental safety standards and 34 per cent lack machine safety.
However, 97 per cent of the factories surveyed are compliant with chemical or explosive safety standards.
The findings of the audit report were shared at a validation workshop titled "Factory Audit on Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control" at CIRDAP Auditorium in the city on Wednesday.
The Plastic Products Business Promotion Council (PPBPC) and Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Export Association (BPGMEA) jointly organised the workshop.
Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh was present at the event as the chief guest.
A total of 13 factories came under the audit conducted to examine six hazardous areas --structural safety, fire and health safety, electrical safety, machine safety, environmental safety, and chemical or explosive safety.
Fire safety compliance expert SM Saiful Islam spoke at the event, expressing concerns over the sorry state of the factories particularly in terms of fire safety measures.
He stressed the need for carrying out such surveys also in the remaining factories across the country.
Addressing the event, BPGMEA President Shamim Ahmed emphasised on creating awareness among the manufacturers.
The BPGMEA, however, claimed that most of the industrial establishments were shown non-compliant due to minor flaws.
The workshop called for increased awareness among industrialists to invest more in safety issues.
It also recommended assessing the BPGMEA's all member factories to identify safety risks, post evaluation, follow-up for continuous monitoring and continuous improvement.
It was also suggested to form a safety cell to implement and monitor the BPGMEA member factories' occupational health and safety and a technical experts' panel (fire, electrical, and structural compliance) to advise the BPGMEA member factories for ensuring the workplace safety.
The workshop also suggested appointing an inspection firm for checking safety equipment on a regular basis (monthly) and setting a sustainable strategic action plan for at least 5 years.
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