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Issue 30

Browse Issue 30

What We Cannot Always See From Our Cars Can Hurt Us!

 

By Hema Ramsundar
Environment Specialist
Environment Unit
Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI)

 

Issue 30 Page 09

Most of us who do are probably most concerned with what we can get charged for ... that is, ‘visible vapours’ as listed in the First Schedule of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Enforcement and Administration) Act (Chap. 48:52) which carries a $200 fine. The environmentalists among us are well aware that vehicle emissions consist of several ‘nasties’ which, collectively, pollute our urban air, and which have probably been causing respiratory problems in susceptible persons for years. A fine indicator of our cumulative air pollution is the thick grayish brown ‘smog’ that hangs around the Beetham Estate on cool mornings, from time to time. For ease of discussion, the pollutants contained in our vehicle emissions can be classed as ‘primary’ and includes the unburnt fuel (with volatile organic compounds), carbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxides, dust (or particulates) and sulphurous oxides. Some of these react with sunlight during the day to give rise to ‘secondary’ pollutants including ground level ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrate (or PAN), which are strong respiratory irritants. All of the emissions also contribute to the pool of greenhouse gases, which can bring about climate change and with it, disastrous consequences for a small island state like ours.

 

 

 Accident Management Programmes

By Michael Crankshaw, Fleet Cude,
South Africa


Accident mangement programmes need the active intervention of senior management. The carrot and the stick are two important to the fleet owner. Apart form all the administrative matters shown below, the core element of a fleet safety programme is a commi9tment to Loss Control. Everyone in the company management, drivers and fleet mangers must demonstrate a strong commitment top safety.

 

Occupational Illness Reporting: Resources For Improvement

By John Hart
Ihmas Industrial Hygiene Systems and Services
 
Seventeenth century physician Bernardino Ramazzini is known as the Father of Occupational Medicine primarily because of his ground-breaking studies on the diseases suffered by workers. His own observations and evaluation of existing information in that area culminated into the publication De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (Diseases of Workers) which was printed first in 1700. However, in spite of the extensive history evident of the long existence of occupational disease, it is widely acknowledged that there is a grave concern of under-reporting with respect to work-related diseases throughout the developed, developing and under-developed countries of the world. Underreporting of these cases may result in a lack of national attention and resources needed to be allocated to certain work-related diseases, deficiencies in the care given to affected workers and a continuation (and even exacerbation) of the workplace conditions causing those diseases.

 

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