Officials from the Abu Dhabi EHS Center and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) joined together in November 2012 to develop the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Strategy, the first such strategy addressing workplace safety in Abu Dhabi. The strategy aims to help the Abu Dhabi EHS Center, sector regulatory authorities, government and private entities and other relevant stakeholders ensure sustained and substantial improvement in Abu Dhabi’s occupational safety and health performance over the next decade.
“We have been working with Abu Dhabi officials for years on the importance of preventing workplace injuries and illnesses and are pleased that not only have they developed a strategy aimed at doing just this, but also opened its new EHS Center,” said ASSE President Richard A. Pollock, CSP. “The opening of the Abu Dhabi EHS Center represented years of collaboration with our Middle East members as ASSE continues to provide professional development programs and expertise to new areas in its ongoing effort to prevent injuries and illnesses.”
The Abu Dhabi EHS Center supervises the implementation of the Abu Dhabi Emirate EHS Management System (AD EHSMS) in both government and private sectors, as well as the management of all issues related to occupational safety and health at the Abu Dhabi Emirate level. The country’s top occupational-related injuries and illnesses include:
- Falls from height/falling objects/injuries;
- Heat-related illness;
- Working with electricity/electrocution;
- Occupational driving injuries/fatalities; and
- Occupational noise induced hearing loss.
Currently, there is limited reliable data on countrywide occupational injuries and illnesses available, Abu Dhabi officials note. They are establishing an Emirate EHS incident and performance database to ensure “more reliable data will be available in the future.”
“It pleases me to see ASSE and the occupational safety, health and environmental profession moving forward as our participation in these landmark activities illustrate,” Pollock said. “We continue to work to prevent injuries and illnesses for millions more workers worldwide.”