Aegean Mine Exporters' Association brought the European Union project named "Development of Occupational Health and Safety-Oriented Activities" to the sector in order to maximize occupational health and safety measures in the natural stone industry and to prevent work accidents.
Within the scope of the "Improvement of Occupational Health and Safety Grant Program" published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the project "Development of Occupational Health and Safety Focused Activities to Prevent Occupational Accidents and Injuries in the Natural Stone Mining Sector" carried out in partnership with our Aegean Mine Exporters' Association and Dokuz Eylul University Mining Engineering Department. “Closing Meeting” was held.
EMİB's goal is to raise OHS to the level of EU countries in the natural stone mining sector.
İbrahim Alimoğlu, Chairman of the Board of the Aegean Mineral Exporters' Association, said, "We have started this project, which will contribute greatly to our sector, to all EMİB Board of Directors, especially our previous Chairman of the Board Mevlüt KAYA, who completed the application process for our European Union project in December 2020 and signed the grant agreement. We thank you for. With the outputs to be obtained from these projects carried out by our Aegean Mine Exporters' Association and other mining-related NGOs for Occupational Health and Safety; Awareness will be raised about raising OHS to the level of EU countries in the natural stone mining sector, and it will also contribute positively to Turkey's reaching the natural stone export target of 7 billion dollars.” said.
Interactive training with VR glasses, mobile applications
Alimoğlu said that they have included technological innovations in the processes of the project in order to raise occupational health and safety to European Union levels.
“In the trainings and fairs we held in the provinces where our industry is densely clustered, employers, industry employees and OHS Experts gained experience of seeing the mine in a virtual environment using VR glasses and getting training by identifying possible risk factors in the quarry remotely. On the other hand, in these trainings, we introduced the Open Pit Slopes Periodic Inspection form, which we prepared for the prevention of occupational accidents, as a mobile application to our Participants. The main outputs of our project, which are the pre-identification of risks in the quarry with VR glasses, the mobile application, the Basic OHS Guide and the Personal Protective Equipment guides for Natural Stone Mining will be available to our entire industry.”
We should also put the penalties into action.
Mustafa Sever, Chief Advisor to the General Manager of the General Directorate of Mining and Petroleum Affairs of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, said, “After the accidents in 2015, as the Ministry, we developed a different policy and changed our legislation. We recruited our expert personnel, identified the risk groups in businesses, and determined the frequency of inspections in the fields. It is an honor for the project to raise awareness. As the sector, universities and ministries, we are in favor of the continuation of cooperation. Since occupational health and safety is a culture, we should start it from childhood. We should teach it in schools. It should be started at an early age. We have to establish this in the country. We must continue our training for our employees. Our goal is to bring Turkey to the standards of the developed countries in terms of mining occupational health and safety in the world. We have to put the penalties into action as well. In some companies, the measures go from very strict pay cuts to layoffs. We should be in this perspective, and we should include families as well.” said.
Our efforts will continue to ensure that the approach of the ILO and the EU is adopted in our country.
Saying that as Aegean Exporters' Associations, they have been working hard on sustainability for four years, Aegean Exporters' Associations General Secretary İ. Cumhur İşbırakmaz continued his words as follows:
“Each of our Unions continues to produce solutions by creating action plans against rooted and structural problems related to occupational health and safety and the fight against child labour. Thanks to its use as raw materials in all sectors, our mining industry, which provides an added value of over 40 billion dollars to the Turkish economy, took a very important step for the sustainability of human resources in 2020 with Dokuz Eylul University. For two years, we continued our activities both at home and abroad actively. There are always laws, implementation is different. We will continue our efforts for the formation of a health and safety culture by adopting the basic working principles accepted all over the world, the approach of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the European Union in our country.”
Let's put our hands together
Hanifi Şimşek, Chairman of the Board of All Marble Natural Stone and Machinery Manufacturers Association, said, “Everyone, from the public to NGOs, from employees to family members, has a duty to ensure that our employees return home safely in the evening. Let's all take responsibility and inherit a comprehensive occupational health and safety culture and risk awareness. I congratulate the project stakeholders.” said.
We sowed its seeds with Our Life Maden, the first project to go to the Ministry is the project of EMİB
Aegean Mine Exporters Association TİM General Assembly Delegate Prof. Dr. Faruk Çalapkulu said, “We sowed the seeds of our project at the Our Life Mine workshop held in Antalya in 2017. The theme of our workshop we held in Izmir in 2019 was sustainable mining. These workshops are the trigger for new movements and important breakthroughs for the benefit of our country. The first project that went to the Ministry regarding occupational health and safety in the mining sector is the project of EMIB. Unfortunately, the most mining accident death accident in the EU is in Turkey and 35 percent of them are in the natural stone sector. The call of our ministry was a very important call, and we started working on it.” said.
Create an archive, publish epicrisis reports and final declarations, and inform all OHS experts
Çalapkulu said, “We organized separate training seminars in 8 provinces in Afyon, Muğla, Denizli, Bilecik, Burdur, Balıkesir, Antalya and İzmir. This project is not just an occupational safety project, it is a comprehensive project that all businesses can implement, establish discipline, and set an example for Turkey, which every institution can adapt to itself. We gave training to employers one by one. Our main problem is: We have no problems with the rules set by the legislation, but there is a problem in the implementation of the legislation. Compared to Italy, the legislation in Turkey is better. Experienced inspectors should take part in the inspection. We should pay attention to epicrisis reports. Italy receives the epicrisis report of each accident and sends it to OHS experts at certain intervals. It should create an archive, publish epicrisis reports and final declarations, and inform all OHS experts.” said.
Digital outputs of the project: OHS Training Simulation with VR Glasses and Trust in Business Mobile Application
Dokuz Eylul University Mining Engineering Department Lecturer, Project Coordinator Prof. Dr. Bayram Kahraman said, “Within the scope of the project, we visited the mines in Italy and the activities were examined. Italy is no different from us, even behind us. With our project, awareness began to increase significantly. We have created the OHS Training Simulation with VR Glasses and the Trust at Work Mobile Application so that the personnel working in open pit mining operations can identify potential risks in the working area in advance and determine the precautions to be taken.” he said.
Be the first to comment