“Diseased Workers Had No Gas Masks”
The recent death of 7 workers due to a methane poisoning at a waste water refining facility in Güllük district brought up the issue of workplace security in Turkey one more time.
On Monday, 7 workers lost lives due to a methane poisoning at a waste water refining facility in Güllük district - a region of Milas district that is located in the southwestern province of Muğla.
Adem Zeybekoğlu, Muğla province representative from Chamber of Chemistry Engineers (KMO) told bianet that diseased workers had no gas masks.
“First, one worker went to the pool, the other 3 went after he didn’t return. Then the forth and the fifth...7 people died like that. None of them had gas masks. One must absolutely enter a place with gas masks if there is methane gas. It is completely a matter of imprudence and negligence. One more, we saw that human life has no value,” he said.
Güllük Municipality signed a water and canalization refining contract with Tepe-Akfen Water and Canalization Ltd., hiring its facility to the contractor firm for 49 years.
Chamber of Environment Engineers underlined 3 faults
Chamber of Environment Engineers released a statement, underlying the faults in personal protection equipment, relation between observer and operator, and ventilation system.
“Ventilation systems must be included on the project of ground-level of waste water systems. These systems must be inspected thoroughly on the course of system construction and they must be checked on a routine basis. Before workers moved into the room, they must make sure that system is working properly and reduce the concentration of gas that might possibly leaked inside.
“Also, facilities must be planned in a way that workers must intervene within a observer-operator relationship which means that they must be observed by an outsider. Operator workers must be able to intervened by the observer (e.g. observer can pull operator with a rope in case of an issue).
“Again, both those who are working inside and outside must take precautions to minimize risks with personal protection equipment.” (NV/BM)