Fishery, Aquaculture Product Safety Regulations Revised
ECUADOR – The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Aquaculture and Fisheries (MAGAP) has reviewed and updated the National Control Plan (NCP) which guarantees the health and safety of fishery and aquaculture products.
The National Fisheries Institute (INP) met with representatives of the Secretariat of Aquaculture (SA), Undersecretariat of Fisheries Resources (SRP), National Aquaculture Chamber (CNA) and the Ecuadorian Chamber of Tuna Manufacturers and Processors (CEIPA) to address several issues including periodic checking and improvement of regulations established in the NCP.
Proposed national agencies also continue talks with the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), to establish an agreement that recognizes the guidelines established in the NCP and health certificates issued by the INP for fishery and aquaculture products consumed in the country.
Since 2006, the INP assumed the role of authority in Ecuador for the management of export products from fisheries and aquaculture.
TheFishSite News Desk
Health and safety changes: what you need to know
The government is changing health and safety regulation to simplify the process but companies still need to keep on top to avoid falling foul of the rules.
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Mine health regulations outdated
By: CHAMWE KAIRA
TEAM NAMDEB … Left to right, Pauline Thomas, Belinda Hamburee, Elmarie Snyman, Anne-nora Lameck of Namdeb during the Mining Expo held in Windhoek last week.
*Five fatalities in 2012
* Safety regulations outdated, majority from 1968
* Current regulations cumbersome
*New regulations 11 years late
*Chamber of Mines responding to expert’s findings
NAMIBIA’S Mine and Health Safety Regulations are inadequate to regulate the mining industry and an international expert says the delivery of new regulations must be given priority. Although Namibia has a relatively excellent mining safety record, five fatalities in 2012 have been a cause of concern both to the Ministry of Mines and Energy as well as to the industry.
Damning report
Philip Lockyer of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy who was engaged by the Chamber of Mines of Namibia to conduct a Safety Review of the Namibian mining industry, said in a damning report made available yesterday that the current regulations are out of date and inappropriate for today’s mining activities and ore treatment processes.
“As an example, there is no coverage for the operation of large mobile diesel equipment in underground mines. The majority of the Health and Safety Regulations were promulgated in 1968. Although there have been some amendments to bring them in line with current mining activities, the regulations are seriously inadequate,” Lockyer said in his findings.
He said the current system is “very cumbersome” and there is need to work between the Namibian Health and Safety Regulations of 1968, the Labour Act of 1992 and the Labour Act of 2007.
“The delivery of the new regulations must be given priority by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Drafting of a modern form of the regulations commenced in 2002 and it is now at Draft 11 of the document and still no result,” said Lockyer.
Mines Safety Award
He said the annual Mines Safety Award has lost its effectiveness and said consideration should be given to an annual Safety Competition and allow the media and general public access.
“It is very devastating that after all the hard work put in by the Namibian mining companies in reducing the number of accidents, the Namibian mining industry still had the level of fatalities experienced in 2012. Despite this unfortunate increase the effort needs to be continued in reducing Safety Performance,” he said.
He said Western Australia mining industry had a similar experience in 2009 when the fatalities recorded increased to seven following several years of a downward trend. The same region recorded zero fatalities in 2012.
“This is the first time in 100 years of recorded accident statistics. This achievement came about by increasing the effort in improving safety management,” Lockyer said.
He said the Namibian mining industry needs to continue working at improving its safety performance. He also said the Chamber of Mines needs to look at ways to assist the smaller mining companies that are under-resourced in safety management.
Chamber’s quick response
In response to the findings, the Chamber said it had implemented a number of steps in line with Lockyer’s recommendations.
These include the implementation of the peer review system where chamber members visit various mining operations with the view of identifying improvements and also to take with them good ideas for implementation at individual operations.
The first of these reviews took place at Skorpion Zinc mine during April 2013. The Chamber said it has implemented a uniform injury classification system applicable to all its members and also introduced a system where incidents are shared among mining operations with the view of learning from each other.
It was said that it has reintroduced the safety competition.
Mine health regulations outdated
Fatalities 2012:
⇐ Wilbard Angula was struck by a rock fall at Weatherly’s Otjihase Mine in January.
⇐ Stefanus Akawa died when his dump truck rolled over him at Namdeb’s Southern Coastal mine.
⇐ Gottlieb Sikongo was struck by a rock slab at Weatherly’s Otjihase Mine in April.
⇐ Ambrosius Maharero died in April at Purity Managanese when he was pressed between a forklift and a brick making machine.
⇐ Petrus Kashango fell from a height of 24 meters above the ground and died at Areva’s Trekkopje mine in October.
Fatalities 2013:
⇐ Benjamin Aib was struck by a diamond wire that cuts dimension stone blocks at Marvest Marble Mine at Karibib in February. (It must be noted that this company is not a member of the Chamber of Mines.)
⇐ Petrus Engelbrecht was electrocuted underground at Weatherly’s Matchless Mine in March.
Consultation begins on mining safety regulations
23 May 2013
Consultation begins on mining
safety regulations
The Government has further progressed
the Pike River Implementation Plan with the release of a
discussion document on a new regulatory regime for the
mining sector.
Labour and Energy and Resources
Minister Simon Bridges says the discussion document proposes
significant changes to health and safety regulation in New
Zealand’s mining industry.
“It outlines regulatory
proposals for improved mining and hazard and risk
management, increased training, stronger worker
participation systems and new emergency measures – all
issues raised by the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal
Mine Tragedy,” says Mr Bridges.
“These proposals
have been developed in consultation with independent New
Zealand and Australian mining experts.”
Mr Bridges
says the announcement meets the Government’s plan to have
all the recommendations of the Royal Commission in place by
the end of the year.
“We made a commitment to the
families of the victims of Pike River to ensure we implement
every recommendation, and we are making good progress.
“I strongly encourage the mining industry and others
with an interest in this area to submit on these important
proposals. This is our opportunity to bring health and
safety in the New Zealand mining sector into line with the
highest international standards,” Mr Bridges says.
ends
PHOTOS: Child Safety Day at Market Place at Factoria
Child Safety Day was Saturday at the Market Place at Factoria and features a lot of useful information for parents regarding child health and safety.
Exhibitors include the Bellevue Fire Department, King County’s Hazardous Waste Management Program, Teen Wise Seattle, Savvy Parents Safe Kids, Children’s Response Center and more.
Police departments represented include the Washington State Patrol, Bellevue Police Department, Redmond Police Department and Mercer Island Police Department’s Marine Patrol.
The annual event is organized by the Bellevue Police Department, Savvy Parents Safe Kids and the City of Bellevue.
If you have photos of your family at Child Safety Day, please click on “Upload Photos and Video” to post.
Textile firm fined for breaching health and safety regulations
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Irlam blast: Fitter Paul Kay fined £1k for breaching gas safety regulations
A workman who left a gas meter propped on bricks the day before a devastating explosion which tore apart three homes has been fined £1,000.
The blast in Irlam, Salford, injured 15 people and blew a pensioner from her kitchen into her front garden.
Paul Kay, 30, admitted breaching gas safety regulations after his shoddy work during a kitchen refit increased the risk of a gas leak.
But Kay’s substandard work at Marie Burns’ home on Merlin Street in November 2010, was not the “primary cause” of the blast, it was said.
A gas pipe attached to the meter in Mrs Burns’ kitchen was already unsafe after a “botch job” years earlier, the court heard.
See a video of Marie Burns speaking outside court, following Kay’s hearing:
Three experts failed to conclude the single, overriding cause of the explosion, a judge was told.
Kay, of Slater Street, Warrington, had denied any wrongdoing but changed his plea on the morning of his trial.
He admitted a single charge of failing to ensure a gas fitting was properly supported and protected when he appeared at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Monday.
The court heard how Kay, a registered gas fitter and plumber, was called in to help refit a kitchen at Mrs Burns’ home on November 1, 2010.
He removed a sink unit and backboard which supported the house’s gas meter, leaving it insecure.
Rather than fix the meter securely back on the wall with metal brackets – which is the industry standard – Kay left it standing on six bricks as a temporary measure.
The work meant that the meter could have been dislodged more easily by another person, increasing the risk of a gas leak.
Nigel Lawrence, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told the court that a lead pipe feeding gas from the meter was “fundamentally weak” after a “botch job” carried out some years earlier.
The following morning, Mrs Burns turned on the hob to make porridge and her
kitchen exploded. She was blown into her front garden and three houses were destroyed, the court heard.
The M.E.N earlier reported how 60 families were evacuated from their homes after the explosion.
Steven McGarry, defending, said his client, a former chef, was registered as a gas fitter only three months before working on Mrs Burns’ home and was “inexperienced”.
He had not deliberately taken short cuts, Mr McGarry said. Kay had called his bosses asking for help with the gas meter, but he was given “vague” advice, it was said.
Judge Jonathan Foster QC told the defendant his actions were “one of a number of possible causes (for the explosion)”.
Kay, who is currently on benefits and looking for work, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £500 towards costs. The total cost of the HSE investigation was more than £80,000, the court heard.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Philip Strickland said:
“Paul Kay’s actions increased the risk of the explosion, which destroyed three houses, damaged several others and injured 15 people, including Marie Burns.
“The weak connection on the pipes leading to the gas meter meant there had been a risk of a gas leak at the property for several years, and the person responsible for that work would also have been prosecuted if we had been able to identify them.
“However, Paul Kay increased the risk of an explosion when he decided to rest the meter on a pile of bricks, rather than properly securing it to the wall or a raised platform on the floor.
“If registered gas engineers do not meet their legal duties they can expect to be held account for their actions. They must apply their knowledge and skills on every job and make sure appliances and supplies are left safe for people to use.”
See video as Paul Kay leaves court following sentencing:
Dunaway: Board passed regulations for the sake of safety
Despite the fact that abortion rights proponents have historically professed a commitment to ensuring that abortion is “safe, legal and rare,” many of them now decry the Virginia Board of Health’s recent passage of construction standards for abortion clinics as a politically motivated effort to impede access to abortion.
Without question, there are deep-seated moral and political convictions underlying the arguments on both side of this debate. In fact, it is unlikely that anyone who is engaged in this public conversation comes to the table with “pure” motives that can be neatly segregated from his or her position on the ultimate moral and legal question of abortion itself.
Because abortion opponents would be pleased to see these clinics cease operations altogether, it becomes convenient for abortion rights proponents to tout this as the “real” motive behind the regulations, dismissing stated concerns for the health and safety of women as pretext.
But irrespective of motives, if we are to learn anything from the horrors of the Kermit Gosnell “clinic,” it should be that in this particular area, where actual human lives hang in the balance, we must err on the side of more government oversight — not less. Access cannot be exalted over safety, even if this means a net “win” for the pro-life side.
The access argument — that passage of the regulations could cause some facilities to close their doors — is an argument that would never even be raised but for the political, moral and legal controversy surrounding the issue of abortion.
A board whose focus is public health and safety would never accept, for instance, that a hospital should be exempt from infection control standards because it has an infection control problem and therefore must invest in improvements in order to meet the standards.
Rather, if the standards themselves are reasonable and appropriate (a decision appropriately left to the professional judgment of the Board of Health), we would consider the request for exemption on this basis to actually reinforce the need for implementation of the standards.
In short, health and safety regulations should be no less stringent than reasonably necessary simply because abortion is a sensitive issue and some abortion providers will be impacted financially.
While there is no logical reason to be lax in regulating abortion facilities’ safety simply because abortion is a hot-button issue, the Supreme Court and lower federal courts have found that the peculiar nature of abortion justifies standards that are more stringent than those imposed on other medical facilities.
The Supreme Court has noted that “abortions are inherently different from other medical procedures.” Abortion is different, the court has found, “because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.” This is why federal courts have repeatedly affirmed that states have a legitimate interest in regulating abortion clinics more stringently than other medical facilities.
It is telling that national standards promulgated by groups such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood already include standards for the design and construction of abortion clinics, including requirements that examining rooms contain sterilization facilities; alarm systems be in place; procedure rooms be large enough to accommodate a stretcher or gurney; post-procedure recovery rooms and dressing rooms be available; operating tables be located in rooms of adequate dimensions, illumination and ventilation; procedure rooms have doors wide enough to accommodate a stretcher or wheelchair; and so on.
Many of the proposed construction standards simply address these same concerns. If it is the case that any existing facilities in Virginia have failed to comply with the standards imposed by these nonpartisan professional associations, then both the board and the public ought to be gravely concerned about the safety of current facilities.
As long as abortion remains legal in Virginia, it is the board’s duty to ensure that the facilities where it is offered are at least safe. To the extent that the construction standards are instrumental in accomplishing that objective, we should applaud the board for having the courage to resist fierce opposition and stay the course in pursuing public health and safety.
Rita M. Dunaway is the vice president for public policy of the Virginia Christian Alliance. Contact her at
rita@vachristian.org or (540) 830-1229.
Stricter Playpens Safety Regulations
Stricter construction standards on playpens were imposed by Health Canada. This comes after an announcement made by the Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq about a shopping list of plans that target at the improvement of health and safety for the families.
She said that for the people who are parents, the most essential thing is a good playpen. She said that it is a safer place for the child to play at the time when the mother is making dinner or completing her never ending list of chores.
She said that the new standards drive a relation between both construction and safety features. She said that the suggested features will consist of the increased requirement on the side height and the efficiency of the playpens.
She suggested that the new regulations will also be providing excessive locking mechanisms. The information that was released by the Health Canada said that “strict safety standards” will be imposed on the playpen accessories such as change tables and sleep accessories.
As well, Aglukkaq said Health Canada plans to remove from store shelves small, powerful magnets that are present in some desktop toys. These can be extremely dangerous if swallowed by children.
The regulations also suggested that the magnets that are attached in these playpens can also attract each other inside the body, if any of it is swallowed by the child. It suggested that this can result in a severe damage to the digestive tract.
The presence of children in the marketplace is considered as the violation of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act.
MMA fighter supports state safety regulations
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HOLLAND, Mich. (WZZM) — Many who love mixed martial arts say the sport is safe, if there are rules. However there are no regulations for amateur MMA fighting in Michigan and state lawmakers want to change that.
At Xtreme MMA in Holland, Eric Lozano says he could find an unsanctioned fight with amateurs in Michigan every weekend. Lozano will make his pro debut next month, but as an amateur he’s fought in matches with no blood testing available and no doctors around.
“I’ve seen somebody get hit and they go into a seizure and they’re on the floor and we don’t have the medical staff that we need and it’s kind of scary,” says Lozano.
In Michigan, there are no regulations for amateur MMA fighting and no requirement to report or keep record of matches either. MMA experts say that means people with no experience often are facing an opponent who’s been in 30 or 40 matches.
” A lot of these amateur promoters know who is going to win before they even set the fight up,” says Ray Lopez, a pro MMA fighter.
“The experience level is so different that somebody can get seriously hurt in that kind of matchup,” says Andy Jamrog, owner of Xtreme MMA.
Pro matches, on the other hand, are regulated. Michigan lawmakers now are considering the same health and safety measures for amateurs.
“We’ve been to shows all over the country, it’s just long overdue, its just unsafe for the fighters,” says Jamrog.
“There’s plenty of people who want to train and be fighters, it’s just getting them to do it the right way,” says Lozano.
Michigan is one of about a dozen states where amateur mixed martial arts is legal, but not regulated.
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