At least 30 people including children were killed in a fire that swept through a small factory producing matchsticks in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province on 21 June 2019.

Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition. The blaze broke out at midday in the makeshift facility located in a residential area, killing 27 adults and three children, said Riadil Akhir Lubis, head of the provincial disaster mitigation agency.

TV footage showed the burned-out structure, its floor littered with twisted metal, blackened corrugated iron roofing and other debris.

Millions of Indonesians work in unsafe conditions in informal or poorly regulated industries and accidents and fatalities are common.

Dozens died in the collapse of an unlicensed gold mine in North Sulawesi in February, and at least 47 people including underage workers were killed by a blaze at a fireworks factory in a Jakarta satellite city in October 2017.

Source : REUTERS| June 21, 2019

Sikandar, 33 worked for 10 years as agate polisher on a vertical wheel machine known as PATIYA local language used to make round beads. Since 2013 he got sick and had to leave the job. Did not know anything on his right to claim compensation for silicosis and has not filed any compensation claim under the Employees Compensation Act. He was completely bedridden was also needs to be on Oxygen al 24 hours. Even in the toilet. He was married with two children. His daily expenses of treatment were around Rs.250/- which his family couldn’t afford.

He was diagnosed suffering from Silicosis. It is also observed that he was taking the anti-Tuberculosis treatment since 2013 and after his recent visit to his doctor had still advised continuing anti-TB treatment. He had to spend Rs.4-5,000 per month only on Oxygen. Contacted to District Health Officer and other officers in person and it is informed that there is no Government scheme to help patients who need Oxygen at home. On 20 April 2019 Sikandar passed away before any Government help reaches him. He died so young. More initiative needs to be done to protect the lives of young workers.

Maksud Malek (37; born in 1979) is a patient of silicosis in village Timba near Khambhat of Anand district of Gujarat in India. He has been migrated to Jaipur with friends to work as Agate polisher when he was still very young. He was paid Rs.250/- per day plus lodging and boarding at that time. After spending 2/3 years he returned back and got married in 2001. Later he worked as agate polisher in Khambhat city and in his own village for few days. For last one year he is in bedridden and on Oxygen. In 2007 he has affected TB and his family- parents, and brothers abandoned him. He was cured following treatment. His wife knew the hazards of agate polishing and was beseeching him to take up some other job. In 2018 he fell sick again and since then he is in bed and from last month he is on Oxygen. We talked to the District TB officer over the phone who advised him to visit his Office. His friends with whom he had migrated – Rafik and Kalu- have died few years ago. His wife said, he earned Rs.250/- per day in Jaipur, now we have to spend Rs.2500/- per day over the treatment. His wife is now looking after three children and earns a living, too. In the last 7 months, he had to be hospitalized several times and each time they had to spend Rs.15/17000/-

Maksud Malek have to need immediate help for treatment and need to get fund from government welfare fund. The concerned authority of the state should take care and provided the fund for treatment and family expenses of Maksud Malek.

June 5, 2017: Nearly 10,000 South Koreans have suffered or are suffering from diseases related to environmental factors — many of them lung-related diseases — in the past decade, government data released by a civic group showed Sunday.

According to the Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health, in one fourth of the 9,853 reported cases, victims died.

Of the total, 2,467 were recognized by the Environment Ministry to have asbestos-related diseases. About 40 percent or 1,006 of the victims have died mostly due to lung-related diseases.

Asbestos is defined as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, as exposure to worn out asbestos materials can cause diseases such as lung cancers and mesothelioma. Asbestos was widely used in the 1970s here to build slate roofs, interior materials, soundproof walls and insulators at low costs.

Despite the ban on its use for construction material, there are still a large number of buildings that contain asbestos in the country, posing health threats to citizens amid the frequent redevelopment and reconstruction of such buildings, the report said.

Also, the total number of 5,615 victims, including infants, pregnant women and elderly, have filed damage reports to the government as of May for having suffered from the use of toxic humidifier disinfectant.

About 21 percent, or 1,195, of them have died since August 2011 when the government officially confirmed the link between the health damages of victims and the toxic substances widely used to sterilize humidifiers here until six years ago, the report said.

A recent state-led survey estimated that at least 3.5 to 4 million Koreans had been exposed to the toxic humidifier disinfectant.

The report also mentioned that 1,763 victims who live around 11 cement factories across the nation and reported their lung-related sickness since 2007 were turned out to having suffered either lung cancer, pneumoconiosis or ventilatory failure.

Eight others who reported their difficulty of breathing to the National Institute of Environmental Research were residents living near a briquette manufacturer in southern city of Daegu, the report said.

Choi Ye-yong, head of the ACCEH and publisher of the report said that large number of victims from toxic humidifier disinfectant as well as asbestos-related diseases are still suffering other long-term health illnesses and underlying diseases.

“While the most common environmental diseases were both lung-related and closely linked to inhaling the polluted air, the government should come up with stronger measures to provide practical damage treatment, not only tallying up the damage figures,” Choi told The Korea Herald.

An independent investigative body to manage the damage reports and provide medical treatment based on law should be established to control the number of victims suffering from disease caused by exposure to toxic chemical products or environmental factors, Choi added.

(ddd@heraldcorp.com)

Source: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170604000194&_scpsug=crawled_141341_4f2726c0-491b-11e7-9ce4-f01fafd7b417#_scpsug=crawled_141341_4f2726c0-491b-11e7-9ce4-f01fafd7b417