Niosh ready to help with school safety

PETALING JAYA: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) is offering to work with the Education Ministry to create safety and health awareness in schools.

Such awareness programmes were necessary due to reports of accidents in schools involving the collapse of roofs or building structures, ceiling fans, goal posts and even toilets, said Niosh chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

The OSH programme views schools as a workplace, in accordance with the Occupa­tional Safety and Health Act.

“It aims to protect students against risk to safety and health and to establish a safe and healthy environment,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Lee said Niosh successfully introduced the programme as its corporate social responsibility (CSR) project to more than a dozen schools with corporate sponsorship.

“Through this programme, schools will be more aware of the potential safety and health hazards and be more capable of dealing with them.

“The programme also helps to prepare the students to be more aware of OSH issues when they join the workplace,” he added.