As millions of Filipinos marked All Saints’ Day Tuesday, the Federation for Free Workers (FFW) called for improved health and occupational safety guidelines for embalmers, cremators and other workers whose job is to take care of the dead.
In a statement, the FFW said that the public may not realize it but even memorial park workers need to practice occupational safety and health, “or else they might follow the path of their clients too soon.”
“While everybody is remembering their dead, hardly anyone cares about what happens to those who take care of our dead,” said the FFW, the oldest labor federation in the Philippines.
“Families of the dead usually wouldn’t even remember, much less know the embalmers, gravediggers, cremators and cemetery workers, who give utmost personal and professional care to their departed loved ones,” it added.
Safety in workplace
“People do not realize the extent of the safety and health issues in our workplace, said Christian Mojica, vice president of the FFW-affiliated union at the Davao Memorial Park.
Mojica has spent more than a decade manning “the chamber,” the place where corpses are cremated.
He explained that cremators like him get exposed to more potential hazards, especially when the family of their clients decide to have their dead cremated with their coffins.
“Metallic coffins pose the greatest hazards since they emit chrome and lead once burned,” said Mojica, adding that chrome and lead pose serious health risks once inhaled or brought in contact with the skin.
The emissions from burning both the coffin and the corpse are confined to the chamber, but the cremator eventually has to open the chamber to take the ashes out.
Caring for the dead
To address the safety and health issues in memorial parks and other industries, the FFW organized a five-day national Basic Occupational Safety and Health (BOSH) Training course in Quezon City a week before the long All Saints’ Day weekend.
“People will be trooping to cemeteries. It is an opportune time to highlight the plight of the workers who care for the dead,” said Mojica, one of those who attended the training course.
The FFW worked with the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Center to train some 50 unionists from different industries.
Julius Cainglet, assistant vice president of the FFW and the BOSH training coordinator, said they invited FFW member-unions as well as unions from the construction, manufacturing and service industries—both in the private and public sector, and safety and health practitioners.
“The idea is to foster a safe and healthy culture in the workplace and what better way to start and spread it than with the help of trade unions,” Cainglet said.
“If trade unions can integrate OSH concerns in their collective bargaining agreements we envision much healthier and safer workplaces,” he added.
Protective equipment
From the BOSH Training, Mojica said he learned that they needed to wear personal protective equipment “like protective suits, sealed and heat resistant head gear, face masks and gloves when handling a corpse during cremation.”
He said he realized that they also have “to put in place additional seals in the chamber’s hoses to prevent gas leaks.”
Mojica added that he noticed that a lot of the embalmers he has met were dry skinned and appeared to have tuberculosis. He said he plans to address these concerns when he gets back to work.
The Philippines has yet to ratify ILO Convention 187 on the OSH Promotional Framework. The international treaty directs ILO member-governments like the Philippines to establish national systems, enact national policies and craft national programs for OSH.
A total of 44,800 occupational accidents occurred in 4,600 non-agricultural establishments employing 20 or more workers in 2007, Cainglet said.
Occupational injuries that resulted from workplace accidents reached 46,570 that year, with manufacturing accounting for around two-thirds of the total injuries, he added.