Occupational health and safety challenges and issues in the Middle East will be the focus of a major conference in Abu Dhabi in February next year.

 

The second Middle East OHS Strategy Summit 2013 will be held on February 25 and 26.

 

Occupational health and safety has traditionally been associated with those industries that are involved in high risk tasks such as oil and gas, construction and mining industries. However, today there are numerous basis to indicate that occupational health and safety is considerably becoming significant across all industry sectors, a statement from event organiser Fleming Gulf said. 

 

Health and safety issues have become a prime focus for both management as well as government bodies. They are faced with a situation where new risks are emerging while old risk still persists. The strive is to build a safety culture in a changing environment and inculcate responsibility in people towards their own safety.

 

Workplace injuries affect employee health, productivity, job satisfaction and increase the cost of business. Large high risk organizations in the Middle East today are faced with more challenges than their counterparts in rest of the world, it said.

 

The importance of committed leadership in driving a safety culture and the role of government in influencing this will be the focus of the summit, the organiser said.

 

“The Middle East has a great opportunity to learn the lessons from other jurisdictions and develop legislative frameworks founded on sensible and practical decision making. The avoidance of risk aversion and creation of a proportionate approach to OHS management should be an overriding objective,” Dr Robert Cooling, coordinator - Middle East branch, IOSH, who addressed the summit as a speaker at the inaugural event earlier this year.

 

The 2nd Middle East OHS Strategy Summit will be an ensemble of case studies, panel discussions and engaging sessions designed to provide a holistic purview on Occupational Health and Safety. This conference broadly attended by industry leaders and influencers will be a stalwart platform for networking interventions, it said. - TradeArabia News Service