Health Hazards

The City News pages of the daily The News of 10 July 2008 carries a picture showing 20 KG flour bags being filled at a flour mills of Rawalpindi. The whole place looks to be full of flour dust settling on the faces, hands and clothes of the workers. I am sure a lot of such flour dust hanging around must also be breathed in by the people working there, which  would be choking their lungs. A protracted exposure to such hazardous environ could ultimately lead to their ultimately developing fatal lungs diseases like TB etc.

Is it not the responsibility of the Labour Department to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions for the labourers working in such environments? An ordinary face mask, not costing much,  would have been enough to ward off such an impending danger. There are many other similar places (cement factories etc.) where the health of the workers is endangered by the callousness of their employers and the careless apathy of the Labour Department, whose Inspectors visit these premises regularly to collect their "˜monthlies' only and let the mills owners do as they please.

Would the CM Punjab kindly come to the rescue of these bread winners who might not be there for long to provide the proverbial two morsels to their families?

Truly

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

30, Westridge-1, Rawalpindi 46000

Tel: (051) 546 3344