A number of companies in Nakuru County have invested in the latest technology of Wet Method Suppression, which reduces dust in their plants, hence protecting the health of their workers.
The County Director for Occupational Safety and Health Services (DOSH), Ondimu Simba, commended the Comply Timber Industry for installing the latest and most effective technology in the suppression of dust from the cutting and chiseling of wood at the industry.
Speaking today while touring the industry, he said the system uses low volumes of water at high pressure to add a fine mist to dust that’s already airborne increasing the particle size and causing it to settle due to gravity.
He said the fine dust from timber processing was a health hazard to workers because it lodges in the lower respiratory tract leading to clogged or scarred lung tissues resulting in pneumoconiosis or black lung.
DOSH officers visited the Royal Steel Milling Factory at Salgaa, which has installed gadgets for the reduction of radiant heat from the furnaces and coke ovens, hence reducing thermal or warm air stress.
The Director noted that the increasing heat exposure due to climate change potentially creates occupational health risks and debases the ability of the workers to be productive to their full potential.
He urged other industries, and manufacturing plants in the county to emulate the ones who have installed safety appliances to protect the health of their workers and the environment.
However, he noted that noise pollution, or excessive sound which has an effect on human health, wildlife, and environmental quality, was still being generated in many industrial facilities, and there was a need for installing devices that reduce it for the safety of the workers.
By Veronica Bosibori
