AN INDUSTRY-led safety council warned companies yesterday not to let their employees paint near fire hazards or in poorly ventilated places.
The caution comes four days after a flash fire broke out onboard a boat in a Tuas shipyard, killing an Indian national and injuring 14 others.
At the time of the explosion, workers were spray painting the inside of four ballast tanks on board the 50m-long Rainbow Star, revealed the Workplace Safety and Health Council in the e-mail alert.
KNOW THE RISKS
'It is important that companies understand the risks involved for work in confined spaces and the measures needed to ensure that work is planned and implemented properly. Workers must also be properly briefed on how they can work safely.'
INDUSTRY-LED SAFETY COUNCIL CHAIRMAN LEE TZU YANG
While the council did not say what caused Sunday's explosion, safety experts say sparks from welding and cutting can ignite paint vapours.
The alert came after two members of the newly formed safety council visited Kruez Shipbuilding and Engineering - the shipyard where the blast occurred - on Monday.
The caution outlined the dos and don'ts of spray painting onboard vessels. They include getting clearance from shipyard supervisors before starting work and ensuring that painting is done in well-ventilated areas, away from fire hazards.
Council chairman Lee Tzu Yang said: 'It is important that companies understand the risks involved for work in confined spaces and the measures needed to ensure that work is planned and implemented properly. Workers must also be properly briefed on how they can work safely.'
The month-old workplace safety council and the Manpower Ministry (MOM) plan to develop guidelines on the prevention of fires and explosions.
The technical advisory will be shared with ship building and petrochemical plants in the next three months, said an MOM spokesman.
MOM declared it a priority to reduce accidents within confined spaces in 2006.
This came on the back of industrial accidents like a Keppel Shipyard fire that killed seven workers in 2004 and the suffocation of three workers inside a poorly-ventilated tunnel in Choa Chu Kang in 2005.
Last year, nine workers died in accidents involving fires, explosions and exposure to harmful substances, making up
14 per cent of all workplace deaths. Meanwhile, the SCDF and MOM are still investigating the Rainbow Star fire.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Jun 12, 2008
