From the News! – Your Daily News

Tonette Orejas, Central Luzon Desk
Inquirer.net

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Another Filipino working at the shipyard of the Korean-owned Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines Inc. in Subic, Zambales, died at the work site Friday after a heavy metal pipe being moved by other workers fell on his head.

Another worker was injured in the incident that took place at past 9 a.m., according to Noel de Mesa, president of the Shipyard and Construction Workers Association. The victims were taken to the St. Jude Hospital in nearby Olongapo City.

“His head was smashed,” De Mesa said, referring to what had happened to Raldon del Rosario, 19.

Boichek Camalao, 24, suffered bone fractures, it was learned.

Both men hail from Tabuk, Kalinga.

They worked at the shipyard’s Assembly Part 3, belonging to the 18th batch of workers hired at the shipyard.

Officials of Hanjin and its regulatory body, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, did not reply to queries seeking confirmation of the incident.

Seventeen workers have died from work and traffic related incidents at the job site since 2006.

Dennis O’Reilly
CNET News.com

After years of writing about PCs, I’ve concluded that computer users care about only three things (in no particular order): speed, security, and reliability. But the fastest, safest, sturdiest PC in the world won’t do you any good, if overuse has made you too sore to turn the darn thing on.

Organizations of all types and sizes are cutting workers, which usually leaves even more work for the people whom they retain. Computers have been a primary reason for the increase in worker productivity in the last few decades, but sooner or later, all those hours in front of a PC take their toll.

You can find plenty of advice from ergonomic experts on proper posture when working on a PC, and there’s no end of special keyboards, mice, and other input devices designed to avoid repetitive stress injuries. But the fact is, what works to keep one computer user healthy will make another want to put their chiropractor’s phone number on speed dial.

Case in point: about 20 years ago, I developed a bad case of tendinitis in my right wrist, caused by over-mousing. Someone suggested that I use a digital tablet in place of a mouse. After a few months of twice-a-week physical therapy and the switch to a tablet, my wrist was back to normal. I’ve been using a tablet ever since, and my wrist has been fine ever since.

Of course, somebody else may have no problem using a mouse but finds his fingers cramping after a day of twirling a stylus around a tablet. The key is to try various alternatives to find the PC setup that makes the difference for you.

I’ll give you one more example: I was forever trying to find the office chair that wouldn’t send my back into spasm at the end of every workday. Then I noticed that a co-worker with similar back problems had traded in her chair for a standing workstation.

You guessed it. I went the stand-up route and noticed an improvement in my back health after only a few days. That was five years ago, and I’ve been standing in front of my PC ever since. (Two bits of advice if you do likewise: get a footstool and well-soled shoes.)

Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — A maintenance worker at the Manila Ocean Park died when he fell 12 feet from a makeshift ladder, was impaled on a jutting piece of metal and hit his head on the pavement Monday afternoon.

Edmundo Cañete, 28, of Road 1 North Daang Hari, Taguig City, died instantly after he slipped and fell while installing a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera inside the marine recreation center at the Luneta Park in Ermita, Manila.

Reports from the Manila Police District homicide section said the accident happened at around 3:25 p.m. Monday at the ground level of the Manila Ocean Park.

Cañete and his brother Ray were atop the improvised ladder and were installing the security camera when Edmundo lost his balance and slipped.

DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–Nenita Marquez had already escaped the flames that engulfed their furniture warehouse when she suddenly rushed back to the building in a heroic but ultimately ill-fated attempt to save her granddaughter.

When the smoke cleared, Marquez, 55, and three members of her family, along with three of their co-workers, lay dead in a tragic end to the blaze that gutted the Furniture Contractors Inc. in Mandaluyong City early Sunday.

“(Marquez) had already gotten out but she heard her granddaughter scream for help and she ran back inside to help her,” case investigator FO3 Victorio Tablay said, citing eyewitness accounts. “She never got out.”

The two-story building at 26 Florante St., Barangay (Village) Plainview, constructed mostly from wood and housing furniture pieces in various stages of completion, was razed to the ground, he said, adding that “only the posts were left.”

Some P2 million worth of property was destroyed in all, the investigator said.

Tablay said the fire, which started at past 12 a.m., first struck the ground floor and quickly spread to the second floor, where the sleeping quarters of the stay-in staff and employees were located.

Although the cause was still being investigated, he said he suspected a short circuit in the electrical wiring sparked the fire.

Tablay released an initial list of the names of the victims based on an accounting of missing persons among the stay-in workers. He said these names remained unofficial pending the termination of the probe.

They were Marquez, the company’s general manager, Amante Marquez, 59, bookkeeper, Marnelli Marquez, 26, a student, Sophia Marquez, 4, Leonora Vidad, 27, an engineer, and Girlie Lalapban, 16, and Filomena Serada, 60, helpers.

The seven bodies were charred beyond recognition, making the process of identification difficult, Tablay said. “We had to rely on the information from their co-workers and family members,” he said.

The remains were taken to Gospel Memorial Homes.

The victims, all staff and employees of the company owned by a certain Elizabeth Uy, were sleeping in their quarters when the fire started, Tablay said.

Many other employees survived by rushing to the fire exit, the investigator said, but he could not provide an exact figure for the number of survivors. “There were about five families staying there,” Tablay said.

“The victims were probably disoriented so they weren’t able to locate the fire exit. They also could not use the stairs because it led directly into the burning sections,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Tablay said the fire spread very quickly because of the presence of highly combustible materials, especially the furniture pieces made with foam.

Firefighters, however, found it easy to access the building, and a nearby fire hydrant meant a strong water supply, he said.

Commenting on Marquez’ attempt to save her granddaughter, Tablay said it was unfortunate.

“One of our safety tips is always this: Once you manage to get out of a burning building, never ever go back,” he said.

Margaux Ortiz
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Following the latest deaths this month at a Korean construction firm in Subic, the labor department has intensified its inspection of all establishments to ensure compliance with safety standards and prevent the recurrence of fatal work-related accidents.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque has directed all DoLE regional offices to ensure that the establishments in their jurisdictions comply with safety standards, explaining that his order came in the wake of workers’ deaths at the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Phils. at the Subic Bay Freeport.

Fifteen workers have died at the Hanjin’s Subic project site since 2007. The latest involved two workers, one of whom died when he fell from a roof while retrieving his helmet. The second was reportedly electrocuted while working at the firm’s motor pool, said Roque.

Initial reports showed that the workers had not been wearing personal protective equipment when they died in accidents.

Roque said two workers assigned to extract septic wastes in a hotel in Lapu-Lapu City also died because of exposure to toxic methane gas last week.

“In view of the fatal incidents, I have ordered the DoLE regional offices to be more vigorous in the conduct of routine inspection and in efforts to require establishments to comply with health and safety standards and other labor laws,” the labor secretary said.

The DoLE inspection teams routinely visit and correct violations in establishments employing 10 to 199 workers.

For establishments with 200 or more workers, the teams would provide assistance in the conduct of self-inspection.

The DoLE also assists establishments with less than 10 workers in undertaking work improvements to help them comply with the law, Roque said.

“The death of the workers is alarming,” Roque said of the Hanjin accidents. He ordered DoLE personnel in Central Luzon and Central Visayas to closely look into the incidents and determine whether there had been violations of safety standards.

Roque said the workers’ relatives were entitled to compensation such as burial and other benefits.

The DOLE chief said if safety standards were found to have been violated, the department would issue a stoppage order against the establishment.

Yasmin D. Arquiza, VERA FILES
Manila Times

First of two parts

DAVAO CITY: Once a week, the drone of airplanes shatters the early morning calm in Calinan, a cluster of small farmlands in the hilly terrain around Mount Apo. It is the signal for farmers to rush indoors or take cover and stop feeding livestock, for women to pull down clothes hanging out to dry, and for everyone to stay indoors, windows shut.

The small fixed-wing planes, known as crop dusters, are owned by the huge banana plantations nearby, spraying fungicide – a kind of pesticide that destroys fungus – on the banana plants. Residents said anyone caught outdoors during an aerial spray is likely to experience skin itching, eye irritation and nausea. Water exposed to fungicide turns milky white, and vegetables like malunggay curl up or retain a sticky residue.

Because of their rapid expansion, Davao’s big banana plantations are encroaching into the city’s built-up areas and farmlands like Calinan, where small farmers grow crops and fruits, such as durian and lanzones that are sold in Davao City markets. Communities around these plantations have been complaining of health problems every time toxic pesticides would drift their way.

Convinced of its ill effects on health and environment, the city government of Davao passed an ordinance in February last year banning the aerial spraying of pesticides. City officials and small farmers have since been locked in a legal battle with the banana companies over the ban.

When powerful banana growers questioned the constitutionality of the ordinance, the lower court upheld the ban, as did the Office of the Solicitor General.

It was only in the Court of Appeals where banana companies scored a victory: The court issued an injunction to stop the ban, allowing them to continue aerial spraying.

In July, the Davao City government, in alliance with farmers, asked the Supreme Court to break the impasse in what is now considered a landmark case that will test the power of the local government to protect public welfare.

Aerial spraying is done on 1,800 hectares, about one-third the total area of banana plantations in Davao City, said a fact-finding report headed by City Planning and Development coordinator Mario Luis Jacinto. Pilots guided by Global Positioning System devices spray 30 liters of solution per hectare using automated nozzles.

Although the Philippines has no specific law on aerial spraying, government regulations require pilots to observe buffer zones “20 to 30 meters away” from plantations, according to regional officer Estrella Laquinta of the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. The rule is meant to spare humans, animals and plants from the ill effects of the spraying. But it is a rule only on paper.

Rosita Bacalso, whose farm is just three meters away from the Cavendish banana plantation of Davao Fruits Corp. (DFC), said she saw white insects swarming toward her coconut trees from the corporate farm when aerial spraying began in 2004. The coconut fronds turned black and began falling off, while the young fruits failed to mature fully. As a result, her usual income of P12,000 from coconuts fell to P3,000 every quarter.

On one occasion, Bacalso recalled, she looked in horror at a glass of water from the tap after heavy rains washed off pesticide residues from the gutter into their water tank. “Murag gatas. Mao ni ang among ginainom [It was milky. Is this what we’ve been drinking]?” Since then, the family has been fetching water from the community tank 200 meters away.

Another farmer, Virginia Cata-ag, said members of her family experienced eye irritation, nausea and skin diseases after getting directly hit by pesticide spray. Her house in Barangay Sirib is surrounded by a DFC banana plantation, the nearest border just 10 meters away, and the company does not notify them when aerial spraying would be done.

In Barangay Dacudao, longtime resident Cecilia Moran said her family had to sell their cows that started getting sick from grazing on pasture land hit by pesticide spray. Leafy vegetables, such as malunggay and kamote tops, curled up or had sticky residue that could not be washed off, forcing them to buy from the market what had once been a daily supply of fresh produce from their own farm.

Just a ‘perceived’ problem

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), together with DFC and Lapanday Agricultural and Development Corp. (LADC), has dismissed the complaints against aerial spraying of fungicide as “a perceived [but nonexisting] problem.”

In a petition with the Regional Trial Court to declare the city ordinance invalid, the banana companies claimed that “fungicides are comparable to safe household items, such as Nizoral anti-dandruff shampoo or anti-fungal preparations such as Trosyd.”

The firms said aerial spraying of fungicide is necessary to control the Black Sigatoka disease, which mainly attacks leaves. If the infection spreads to fruits, the bananas can “suffer from premature ripening, rendering them useless for export.”

In the same petition, however, the banana companies admitted that a simple way to eradicate the Sigatoka disease without resorting to aerial spraying of pesticide “is to cut off the leaves and prevent the spread of the disease to other nearby banana plants.”

Reacting to the city government’s report that other banana plantations use truck-mounted boom spray to manually apply 80 to 200 liters of fungicide solution per hectare, the companies said this method only covers up to 60 hectares a day, compared to aerial spraying that covers 250 hectares in three hours.

“Aerial spraying is the method of choice considering that it is the safest, most effective and most accurate method of applying the water cocktail containing the fungicide,” the banana firms said in their petition.

The banana companies also disputed testimonies of residents that they do not issue warnings. They said an alarm is sounded 15 minutes before the planes start spraying fungicide and notices about spraying schedules are placed in strategic areas.

They added the first three loads are sprayed near the boundaries at daybreak to avoid foot traffic, before the planes start spraying toward the interior of the plantation. In Calinan, people usually wake up and go to their farms at dawn.

In an affidavit supporting the banana firms’ petition, plant pathologist Anacleto Pedrosa of the AMS Group of Companies, which includes DFC, asserted that fungicide spray has “no adverse effects” on the skin or respiratory system.

“Exposure must be by ingestion. An adult person has to directly ingest 425 milliliters of fungicide [which is more than a bottle of beer] to cause some adverse effect,” he said.

Pedrosa also downplayed the health risks reported by anti-aerial spraying advocates, claiming that “a person can eat one million apples [directly treated with Mancozeb] a day and still show no adverse effect from the ingestion.”

Mancozeb is the active ingredient in Dithane 600, a fungicide sprayed in banana plantations, with up to 1.5 liters used for every 30-liter solution, according to Pedrosa.

No safe dose

In pushing for the ordinance, the joint committees on environment, agriculture and health of the city council rejected the banana companies’ arguments. Instead, they put more weight on the statements of Lynn Panganiban, head of the National Poison Control and Management Center at the University of the Philippines.

“There is no such thing as a safe dose when it comes to pesticides,” Panganiban said. “Pesticide vapor is the best predator of the child.”

Anti-aerial spraying advocates often show a photograph of children walking to school while a crop duster flies over a nearby banana plantation in a Davao City suburb.

“The theory now of cancer development is a one-cell-hit theory, meaning one molecule in our organ could be hit and this can already produce clonal transformation which will eventually develop into cancer,” Panganiban added.

At a forum in UP Diliman in July, Panganiban said various studies have linked Mancozeb to health risks, such as skin diseases, thyroid gland disorders and cancer.

Saligan, a legal assistance group helping the farmers in their complaints against the banana companies, showed a specimen label of the fungicide Dithane in court that clearly stated it “may cause irritation to nose, throat, eyes and skin.” The label also contains the advisory, “Do not breathe dust or spray mist.”

Several health studies in recent years have shown abnormally high rates of cancer, anemia and skin ailments among residents living beside banana plantations. In a 2006 study, the Kalusugan Alang sa Bayan health group documented nine patients who had died of cancer in a plantation site in Davao City. Seven of them had been working for a long time in the plantation, up to 29 years in one case.

Felixberto Batuhan, who used to work in a plantation, cleaning canals and harvesting bananas for three years, blames his employer for the loss of his eyesight. He recalls the pesticide spray getting into the workers’ breakfast, as they had to be inside the plantation at 6 a.m. He is now one of the blind masseurs working in Davao City’s malls.

Even the city government’s Jacinto report, which has been widely criticized for allegedly favoring the banana companies, validated the complaints of farmers on the impact of aerial spraying on coconut trees, saying the fronds had become susceptible to attacks.

“This can happen when the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, which infects and kills the Rhinoceros beetle, is eliminated or killed by the fungicides that drift to the coconut. Thus, about three to five rows of coconuts adjacent to the banana plantations commonly manifest Rhinoceros beetle-damaged leaves,” the report said.

The city ordinance banning aerial spraying had started on a milder note with a resolution from city Councilor Nenita Orcullo in 2004 seeking to regulate the practice. Orcullo, who lives in a community where aerial spraying is done, changed the proposal to a total ban a year later following widespread clamor from affected residents in various places.

Earth Day in April 2006 saw the legislation’s supporters coming together under the loose alliance Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (meaning, citizens against aerial spray), which received logistical support from the environmental group Interface Development Interventions.

These groups found an influential ally in televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, whose prayer center in Calinan is adjacent to banana plantations. A video made by his television company showing the misty trail of the crop dusters and calling for a stop to the practice has been made into an anti-aerial spraying campaign material on the Internet.

Quiboloy was photographed standing beside Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte when he signed the ordinance banning aerial spraying in the metropolis.

To be continued

Editor’s note: VERA Files is written by veteran journalists taking a deeper look into current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”

Steven Music
CNET News

People who listen to MP3 players for only five hours a week at a high volume may be doing permanent damage to their hearing.

A team of nine experts on the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks is expected to release that finding in a study Monday, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune.

The EU entity also points out that young people may be doing damage to their hearing that may not surface until years after the exposure, according to the newspaper.

“Regularly listening to personal music players at high-volume settings when young often has no immediate effect on hearing but is likely to result in hearing loss later in life,” the newspaper quoted the report as stating.

“Some authors stress that if young people continue to listen to music for long periods of time and at high volume levels during several years, they run the risk of developing hearing loss by the time they reach their mid-20s,” the report said, according to the newspaper. “Among young people, there are many reports of temporary or persistent tinnitus induced by loud music, but very few studies have focused on the relationship between the use of personal music players and tinnitus.”

The concern over hearing led a Louisiana man to file a class action lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company had failed to take adequate steps to prevent hearing loss among iPod users. The suit, filed in 2006, charges that the iPod music player can produce sounds of up to 115 decibels, even though some studies suggest that listening to music at that level for 28 seconds a day can cause damage over time.

The suit seeks monetary damages to compensate for the hearing loss suffered by iPod users, as well as a share of Apple’s iPod profits. The suit also seeks to force Apple to offer a software upgrade to limit the iPod’s output to 100 decibels, as well as provide headphones designed to block out external noise.

While the report noted that the use of personal music players can be “beneficial when performing boring and repetitive tasks,” the report’s authors warned that threats besides hearing loss loom for their users.

“It may be a hindrance for complicated tasks that require thinking. Music can distract the listeners and isolate them from their environment, which can be very dangerous when driving or walking on busy roads.”

Manila Standard

A spark from an air-conditioning equipment caused a fire at the Glorietta mall in Makati City yesterday, barely a year after the explosion that killed 11 people.

The Makati Central Fire Department said the old cooling tower at Glorietta 2—a section of the Ayala-owned shopping complex which remained closed since the blast—went up in flames while it was being dismantled by workers using acetylene torches around 2:38 p.m.

“There was a spark and then it caught fire,” said SFO2 Edmund Mercado, referring to the climate-control machinery that served establishments inside Glorietta 2.

Firefighters were able to control the blaze in 10 minutes without any injury reported.

Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, police chief, commended security for cordoning off the place and preventing panic.

On Oct. 19, 2007, 11 people were killed and a hundred others were wounded when an explosion rocked the basement of Glorietta 2.

Police later concluded that the blast was due to accumulated methane gas in a confined space.

The Justice Department recommended the filing of charges of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide and multiple physical injuries against eight officers and staff of Makati Supermarket Corp. and two private firms conducting repair work at the time.

The agency has cleared officials of Ayala Property Management Corp. which runs the mall, and the Bureau of Fire Protection personnel of any liability.

Ferdinand Fabella

Mayen Jaymalin
Philippine Star

Despite work-related deaths in its shipyard at the Subic Bay Freeport, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has virtually cleared the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Phils. Inc. of any violation of health and safety standards.

Nathaniel Lacambra, DOLE-Region 3 director, said recent inspection showed that Hanjin has implemented appropriate safety and health measures upon the recommendation of the labor department.

“Upon the recommendation of the DOLE-Region 3, Hanjin has also terminated its contract with one of its subcontractors whose four employees met fatal work-related accidents at the premises,” Lacambra said.

Lacambra added that based on their investigation of the 15 deaths, only three victims worked at the Hanjin shipbuilding project, and the rest with Hanjin Construction.

“It appearing that when Hanjin has substantially direct control of its operations, there are less fatal accidents,” Lacambra said, recommending that Hanjin take direct control of all its operations.

But Lacambra said the results of their investigation on Hanjin’s compliance with the occupational and health regulations will be submitted to Labor Secretary Marianito Roque soon.

The DOLE-Bureau of Working Conditions also conducted a general workplace and safety and health assessment at Hanjin last April. Roque is still awaiting the results of the assessment.

Meanwhile, the DOLE has ordered Hanjin to adopt a safety and health action program to prevent more fatal accidents at its construction site.

Roque said the DOLE has created a special team tasked to formulate a zero-accident program for Hanjin.

Earlier, Roque had expressed alarm over increasing worksite accidents and directed regional offices to determine whether the victims’ employers had violated safety regulations.

Roque said the DOLE would not hesitate to close down commercial establishments found violating labor laws, including safety and health regulations.

Robert Gonzaga
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – A subcontractor of the Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines Inc. (HHICPI), which employed the worker who was electrocuted on Tuesday here, was blacklisted after it was found that it was operating without a permit.

Armand Arreza, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator, said the Unicorn T (UT) Corp. submitted the accreditation requirements to the SBMA only on Aug. 7, six months after it started operations.

One of Unicorn T’s workers, Efren de la Cruz, 24, a machine operator of Bataan, was electrocuted while working at the Hanjin shipyard’s motor pool on Tuesday.

Arreza said the accident also prompted SBMA to blacklist other unaccredited Hanjin contractors and suspend their operations indefinitely.

“We are looking into the accreditation of all of Hanjin’s subcontractors,” he said.

In a statement, the SBMA said De la Cruz “was accidentally electrocuted” while working at the shipyard’s motor pool. He and four other workers were using a power-driven tool when the accident happened, the SBMA said.

Pyeong Jung Yu, Hanjin general manager, earlier said De la Cruz died after a heart attack.

Amethya Koval, SBMA Ecology Center chief, said initial investigation showed there was rainwater in the area where De la Cruz was working.

“There were five of them in the group. But only three of them were wearing company-issued rubber boots,” she said.

She said the jackhammer De la Cruz was using was connected to an extension wire that might have fallen or gotten in contact with the water, “thus electrocuting the unprotected worker,” she said.

De la Cruz was taken to the shipyard’s clinic for first aid treatment and was transferred to the San Marcelino District Hospital where he died.

The attending doctor observed that De la Cruz had “bleeding nose and ears, blackened lips and fingers” which, he noted, were signs of electrocution.

Koval noted Hanjin’s “failure to enforce occupational safety regulations on its subcontractors and the lack of supervision by its safety officers on critical working environment.”

Earlier, the SBMA asked Hanjin to terminate the accreditation of three subcontractors that failed to implement occupational safety standards at the shipyard.