The National Safety Council of India (NSCI) has launched an Awareness and Preparedness in Emergency at Local Level (APELL) programme for the industrial units to help factory managers for controlling and managing industrial calamities in the form of explosion, fire, or a gas leak.
The programme involves creating awareness and training on adoption of safety methods amongst and local authorities around the industrial units like the collector’s office, municipality and the police, said K.C. Gupta, director general, National Safety Council of India.
Gupta was speaking as chief guest at a OPPI seminar on “Emerging trends in environment, health and safety (EHS) management” on Friday in Mumbai.“With this programme not only the industrial houses would be able to control the calamities, but also the personnel working in the unit along with governing bodies from outside like the police and the Collector would be well aware about managing the situation, thereby minimizing the losses to a large extent,” said Gupta.
The programme is developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in conjunction with governments and industry with the purpose of minimizing the occurrence and harmful effects of technological accidents and environmental emergencies. The strategy of the APELL approach is to identify and create awareness of risks in an industrialised community, to initiate measures for risk reduction and mitigation, and to develop co-ordinated preparedness between the industry, the local authorities and the local population.
NSCI has already implemented the programme across companies like Ranbaxy, Divis Labs, and Haldea Petrochemicals.
As Indian pharmaceutical companies have become export oriented, they have taken necessary steps to ensure quality manufacturing maintaining EHS standards. It is mandatory as per the WHO or the European or US regulatory requirement. However, it is the non-exporters and the small-scale industries that need to equip with EHS standards, said speakers at the event.
Some of the participants at the seminar are of the view that India has a long way to go to adopt the best standards available in EHS management. “Leaving aside MNCs, only 9-10 major Indian pharma companies would be adopting quality EHS standards. Awareness and implementation is crucial for Indian companies,” said Ajit Dangi, director general, OPPI.
“Calamities have struck even the companies like Ranbaxy and RPG Life Sciences who have ensured enough safety in their manufacturing. So what to expect from smaller companies,” observed one speaker. “For corporations, balancing economic growth with degradation of the environment is the biggest challenge, particularly in developing countries. Today, globally 25 per cent of the world’s population consume 75 per cent of raw material producing 70 per cent waste,” opined Ranjit Shahani, president, OPPI and CEO, Novartis India.