More than fifty captains of industry, safety professionals and practitioners, and representatives of public regulatory bodies discussed critical issues on public and industrial health and safety.

The one day conference which ran on the theme, “Integrated occupational safety and health-the foundation for sustained productive work and economic growth”, took the form of exhibitions, panel discussions and break-out sessions and exposed participants to the latest safety accessories, techniques, trends and issues.

Addressing participants, Nana Yaw Akwada, Executive Director, Bureau of Public Safety, said the conference provided “that single platform where policy makers, professionals, business owners and other relevant stakeholders engaged.”

According to him, “The focus of this conference is how safety and health can be integrated into economic activities to ensure a sustainable productive work and economic growth which meet the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 goals 8 and 12.”

He said his outfit would always engage in programmes and projects that would ultimately lead to a safe and secure Ghana. Mr Federick Ohene-Mensah, Chief Factories Inspector, said the conference sought to complement the global efforts at reducing workplace ill health, injuries and death.

“This is an endorsement of the platform on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) which has been the central issue for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and continue to be a fundamental requirement for achieving the objectives of the Decent Work Agenda,” he announced.

According to him, “In addition to established measures to prevent and control hazards and risks, new strategies and solutions need to be developed and applied both for well-known hazards and risks such as those arising from dangerous substances, machinery and tools and manual handling as well as for emerging issues such as biological and psycho social hazards and muscular-skeletal disorders.”  

He said there was the need for a greater general awareness on OSH as well as a high level of political commitment for the implementation of a national OSH systems.  He called for the building and maintenance of a national preventive safety and  health culture which was one of the fundamental pillars of  the OSH strategy.

“A national preventive safety and health culture in which the right to safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where governments, employers and workers actively participate in securing that environment through a system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties and where the principle is accorded the highest priority, he said.