Üsküdar Üniversitesi organized an Occupational Health and Safety program with the participation of important figures in the field, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Republic. In the program, which addressed the periods before and after the 6331 Occupational Health and Safety Law, Dr. Rüştü Uçan stated that before 2012, the number of reported accidents was low due to the absence of penal provisions for occupational accidents. Sharing statistics from 2012-2019, Uçan said, “Across all EU countries, 3,140,950 people had occupational accidents, and the number of deaths was 3,404. In our country, 119,671 people suffered occupational accidents, and 1,147 died. We have almost 10 times more fatal accidents.” Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, emphasizing that the enactment of Law 6331 was a positive step, stated, “Statistics show that something is wrong somewhere. After seeing the figures between 2012-2019, I said, ‘The ABC system has failed.’ It's not my field, perhaps an ambitious statement, but the numbers speak for themselves. This means that OHS policies are not healthy and need to change.”
With the support of the Occupational Diseases - Occupational Accidents Research and Prevention (MESKA) Foundation and the Risk Management Association, Üsküdar Üniversitesi hosted the 'Occupational Health and Safety on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic' event at the Çarşı Campus.
The opening speeches of the program were delivered by Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Head of the Occupational Health and Safety Department Dr. Rüştü Uçan, and RİSKYÖN Board Chairman Prof. Dr. O. Alp Ergör.
Fatal Occupational Accidents in Turkey are 10 Times Higher Than in all EU Countries
Dr. Rüştü Uçan, Head of the Occupational Health and Safety Department, who delivered the opening speech, evaluated OHS after the 6331 Occupational Health and Safety Law on the 100th anniversary of our Republic. Reminding that Law 6331 started in 2012, Uçan stated, “If we look at whether there has been a decrease in occupational accidents and diseases since 2012, before 2012, the reporting of accident numbers was low due to the absence of penal provisions for occupational accidents. Subsequently, accidents that occurred began to be reported.”
Presenting a report comparing data with the EU in 2019, Uçan said the following:
“Across all EU countries, 3,140,950 people had occupational accidents, and the number of deaths was 3,408. In our country, 119,671 people suffered occupational accidents, and 1,147 died. While these rates are 1.09 per thousand in European Union countries, they are 9.58 per thousand in our country. We have almost 10 times more fatal accidents. Unfortunately, this has not decreased over the years; it has even increased slightly, because more care is taken abroad. There is a problem here, and we need to find solutions. I am not even counting occupational diseases within OHS because occupational diseases are not properly recorded in Turkey; there is a big problem there too.”
Dr. Rüştü Uçan: “Distance associate and undergraduate education in OHS must be immediately closed”
Dr. Rüştü Uçan stated that OHS is a multidisciplinary field involving many branches such as chemistry, medicine, and psychology, but approximately 60 percent of it involves technical aspects, 20 percent health, and 20 percent labor law.
Uçan emphasized the importance of having an OHS laboratory and practical application area in educational institutions for the training of qualified specialists in the OHS field, stating that otherwise, it would not be possible for an OHS specialist to be adequately trained.
Uçan listed some of his suggestions for addressing the deficiencies in the OHS field as follows:
“There are associate and undergraduate distance education programs in the OHS field; these need to be closed urgently. It would not be healthy for a department where laboratory internship is mandatory to provide distance education. Many companies need to work together on OHS. Inspections should be carried out regularly without interruption. After accidents occur, details should be shared with the public. These details should be examinable, and the causes of the accident should be visible so that the same mistakes are not repeated. Because the details are not presented to us, the same mistakes are perhaps made repeatedly.”
Prof. Dr. O. Alp Ergör: “If hazards are well-defined, managing risks becomes easy”
Prof. Dr. O. Alp Ergör, Chairman of the RİSKYÖN Board of Directors, who delivered the opening speech, said, “I would like to congratulate Üsküdar Üniversitesi; discussing the progress we have made in this field is a very important contribution. I hope that the accumulated knowledge here will spread and reach many people.”
Ergör stated that commemorating a name like Prof. Dr. Hilmi Sabuncu, who contributed greatly to the OHS field, is also very valuable:
“Hilmi Hodja could simplify everything greatly. In OHS trainings, he asked us for hazard hunting. It is very easy to fall into the trap of risk assessment. It can be mathematized, but there is no point in complicating it because the most important aspect of risk assessment is risk communication. Communication can be easily managed when simplified. It starts with hazard identification; if hazards are well-defined, it becomes easy to manage the risks that may arise from them or multiply because of them.”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: “No need to reinvent the wheel, solutions are clear”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, who took the podium within the scope of the opening speeches, emphasized the necessity of getting support for solutions in his speech:
“My esteemed Prof. Rüştü Uçan clearly laid out the problems and losses of OHS. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Solutions have been produced very clearly, and these have been voiced before. We need to get support, and one of the most important points for this is to create public opinion. Otherwise, it is not possible to get support. Society has a memory, but we have a memory that easily forgets. When problems and incidents occur, we start working diligently, but it lasts for 1-2 years. The human brain is similar; you bury things that harm and upset you. But it is the state's duty not to let these be buried, but to remind.
Prof. Dr. Tarhan: “Statistics show that something is wrong somewhere”
Starting his speech by referring to the report presented by Dr. Rüştü Uçan, Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, “After seeing the figures between 2012-2019 presented by my esteemed Rüştü, I said, 'The ABC system has failed.' There is a tenfold difference in fatal accident rates. It's not my field, perhaps an ambitious statement, but the numbers speak for themselves. This means that OHS policies are not healthy and need to change.”
Stating that the enactment of Law 6331 in 2012 was a positive step, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, “Addressing and giving importance to this issue, discussing it, is a good thing, but these statistics show that something is wrong somewhere. Another dimension of this issue is that good policies are achieved with qualified people. If academic fields are not opened for the training of qualified people, and if an adequate system is not established, it becomes a system that spins its wheels internally. At this point, I would like to commemorate our esteemed Prof. Dr. Hilmi Sabuncu once again with mercy. His arrival was like a revolution for us. He opened undergraduate and associate degree programs in OHS.”
Prof. Dr. Tarhan: “Large companies allocate budgets to consulting firms so they can see their mistakes”
Tarhan, pointing out that the disciplines of occupational medicine and OHS are intertwined and have different dimensions, said they should be evaluated differently. Tarhan stated that in such situations, the government holds workshops and acts according to the resulting report:
“After this program, we can prepare such a report, identify the problems, and present this report. This situation might slightly disturb the bureaucracy, but criticism is a gift. In fact, large companies allocate budgets to consulting firms so that they can see their mistakes. When you look at occupational accidents, most of them stem from simple errors. Awareness campaigns need to be carried out to prevent this.”
Within the scope of the program, the Prof. Dr. Hilmi Sabuncu OHS Laboratory, where OHS practical trainings are conducted, and the OHS Practice Area were visited.
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan and his associates received comprehensive information from the course instructors regarding the laboratory and practice areas.
At the end of the Occupational Health and Safety program on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic, where the Prof. Dr. Hilmi Sabuncu Commemoration Panel was also held, a hard hat donning ceremony was organized for OHS 1st and 2nd-year students.
