Four labourers died and two others fell sick after inhaling toxic
gas while dismantling a ship at a shipbreaking yard in Baro Aulia of Sitakunda in Chittagong yesterday (16 October).
3
days ago, 2 workers died and 2 others fell ill owing to inhalation of poisonous
gas trapped inside a tank of a scrap vessel at another shipbreaking yard in
Sitakunda.
After
yesterday's incident at Baro Aulia, 6 injured workers were taken to Chittagong Medical College
Hospital around 8:00pm.
Doctors declared 4 of them dead, said on-duty police officer Yusuf at the
hospital police box.
Deceased
Yunus Ali, 25, of Bogra, Gias Uddin, 25, and Nesar Uddin, 24, of Banshkhali and
Mir Kashem, 22, of Moheshkhali were workers of Jiri Subedar Shipreaking Yard.
Injured
Golap Hossain, 27, and Nozir Hossain, 35, are now undergoing treatment at the
CMCH.
All
the 6 victims entered a tank of the ship to make it gas free, said a worker of
the yard preferring not to be named.
Probably,
a CO2 gas leak caused their deaths, said the worker who took them to the
hospital.
Safar
Ali, president of Shipbreaking Yard Sramik Kormochari Federation, accused the
owner of the yard of not having the necessary safety measures in place.
Lokman
Hossain, owner of the shipbreaking yard, informed police that some of his
workers fell sick while working at the yard at about 6:30am, said Habibur
Rahman, officer-in-charge of Sitakunda Police Station.
“We
have sent an officer to get details of the incident,” the OC added.
This year, with yesterday's accident, the number of casualties from
shipbreaking yard-related accidents rose to about 40, raising questions about
the role of the departments concerned.
Shipbreaking
yard owners have been conducting operations in their shipyards without adequate
safeguards for years.
On
March 5, 2009, the Supreme Court directed the government to ensure the safety
of those working at shipbreaking yards.
The
government has so far failed to comply with the directive, as it continues to
allow the yards to operate without ensuring workers' safety and also without
obtaining environment clearance certificates.
Source: The Daily Star. 17
October 2011
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=206793
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