Health institute bill ‘too narrow’
The draft National Public Health Institute of SA bill needs to monitor environmental and workplace safety as ‘thousands of workers are injured’ in SA every day
The head of the National Institutes of Occupational Health (NIOH) has urged legislators to widen the scope of the draft National Public Health Institute of SA (Naphisa) Bill to include provisions for monitoring environmental health and workplace safety. "Every day, thousands of workers are injured, many unrecognised. Yet they contribute to the public health burden facing SA," NIOH executive director Sophia Kisting told Parliament’s portfolio committee on health. Kisting said environmental pollution by industry could affect communities for years to come, and showed MPs photographs of a schoolyard littered with blue asbestos to drive home her point. Children who had played in the yard were at risk of developing the cancer mesothelioma later in life, she said. The committee is holding public hearings on the draft bill, which was released for comment in December 2015. The legislation paves the way for the creation of Naphisa, which will co-ordinate disease and injury surveillance and re...
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