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DOLE urged to look into health and safety of Mindanao banana plantation workers |
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Mindanao Daily Mirror
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Friday, 05 March 2010 |
Nabunturan, Compostela Valley – Makabayan senatorial bet and Nacionalista Party guest candidate Satur Ocampo today called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to ensure the health and safety of plantation workers who are exposed to continuous aerial spraying operations in the various banana plantations in Mindanao.
Ocampo, who is visiting the region together with other Nacionalista Party candidates, said it was noticeable that the DOLE has taken little or no action on what is certain to be a major occupational health and safety catastrophe victimizing the hundreds of workers and farmhands in the said plantations.
"Communities in Davao are all up in arms against aerial spraying and have long been active in the campaign to have the practice banned. Almost nothing, however, has been heard from the workers in the plantations who without doubt suffer worse because they are directly in contact with the chemicals after these are sprayed on the bananas. Plantation workers walk, talk, live and breathe in a most hazardous work environment. How is it that the DOLE has done nothing? Hundreds of mixers, sprayers, flagmen and clean up laborers apart from the farmers and planters are exposed to chemicals," said Ocampo.
"The labor department's Occupational Health and Safety Center (OHSC) should conduct on-site investigations into the health status of Davao's plantation workers. There are studies showing that plantation workers where aerial spraying is conducted commonly suffer from thyroid problems and blood diseases. They also suffer muscular disorders, mental health problems and hepatitis. If the practice can't be banned, the plantation firms should be compelled to demonstrate and prove the safety of their procedures," he said.
Residents in communities near the plantations suffer from cancer, hypertension, tuberculosis, measles and goiter, cerebral palsy and myoma and asthma, all of which doctors say were caused by aerial spraying. In the meantime, the Supreme Court has yet to lay down a decision to uphold a March 2007 Davao City ordinance banning aerial fungicide spraying which has been in practice for over 40 years.
"There are reports that plantation workers desist from complaining about their health problems due to the chemicals because they fear losing their jobs. The plantation firms - namely Lapanday, Dole, Del Monte and their contract growers – continue to make millions in profits but they ignore the threats posed to the health and safety of their workers. Even if the plantation workers do not represent themselves in any lawsuit or formal complaint, it's the labor department's incumbent duty to see to their welfare and protect them," he said.
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