30/06/2020
Sixty-year-old Shadia Mahmoud, a researcher at the Food Technology Research Institute (FTRI), was working in a laboratory, when there was a sudden explosion. Next thing she knew, she had fallen to the ground and blood was rushing down her face. She could barely see the feet that were hurrying to help her. Shadia explains that the explosion was caused by an unknown substance inside an old bottle that a colleague had removed the seal of without realising the severity of the danger.
Shadia lost her left eye after this accident. Her colleagues could not help her, and there was no medical doctor present or first aid kit available in the laboratory. Shadia was neither the first nor the last to experience this, and 11 years on, nothing has changed. Researchers and workers in the Agricultural Research Centre laboratories face the dangers of working with flammable chemicals in a lab environment that does not adhere to standard safety and security specifications. Protective equipment to prevent injuries is not available. On top of this is the weak management of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Occupational Health and Safety department.
Our investigator spoke to six people who were injured in the Centre’s labs, including researchers and workers. Four suffered severe injuries from burns, fractures, inhalation of dangerous gases and exposure to parasites and toxic bacteria. This investigation documented the absence of occupational health and safety measures and equipment in visits to 12 of such research laboratories.
Between 42-43 thousand researchers and workers are employed at the Agricultural Research Centre
is a scientific research institution, established in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 69 of 1973, affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. It has three main tasks: to carry out applied and academic research; to transfer new technologies to use in the agricultural field; and the third, is the ongoing training of personnel. The Minister of Agriculture is (usually) the head of the Centre’s Board of Directors.
Shadia says that workers should not be dealing with unknown substances, especially since they do not have the knowledge or experience to deal with dangerous chemicals: “The failure to designate a technical committee to inventory these old containers stored inside the lab, and the lack of data on them, led the workers to deal with the issue and dispose of them in unsafe ways.”
Shadia underwent a number of surgeries after her accident. She received 300 Egyptian Pounds (just under $19) worth of compensation per month, and she lost the ability to work in scientific research: “It is difficult to work with one eye.”
Khadra Hussain is a senior worker. One morning, she arrived at her lab, to continue researching and developing vaccines for cattle plague (rinderpest). She carried 20 litres of a blue colour substance that she had no clue about. The weight of the container and the uneven flooring made Khadra trip and fall over the broken glass, and her hand started to bleed.
After half an hour of non-stop bleeding, Khadra’s colleague and daughter took her to the hospital. There were no doctors who could deal with her condition at the Centre, and they could not find any first aid kits, as confirmed by the Chairman of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee, Dr. Adel Abdel-Azim. There are no doctors in the laboratories to help with such emergency situations.
This accident happened in 2016 and left her with permanent impairment. The medical report states, “Loss of functionality in the left hand due to ankylosis caused by rigidity of the joints in the folding position of the middle fingers with the partial loss of movement in the index and thumb.” Khadra underwent four surgeries in one year, and extensive physiotherapy sessions, but neither could help her.
“My work in the lab is to move full containers, empty them and wash them before they are used again,” says Khadra. Despite her injury, she eventually returned to perform the same role. She does not wear gloves or any kind of protection against chemicals.
After the death of her husband, Khadra had to support a family of six children. Despite her permanent disability, the Safety Department paid her only 100 pounds ($15.75) in compensation for permanent disability. We contacted the head of the Centre, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman, seeking his reaction regarding Khadra’s case via telephone and e-mail, but we did not hear back from him.
Shadia lost her eye, and Khadra lost her hand due to transporting and storing dangerous chemicals and disposing of them through unsafe methods. This is in violation of Article 211 of the Egyptian Labour Law, which forces the provision of means to prevent risks while dealing with solid, liquid and gaseous chemicals, especially during transportation and storage. Each material has to be identified, and methods of handling it should be clarified. Additionally, workers should be trained on how to dispose of them safely.
Shadia says that laboratories dispose of their waste by dumping it down the sewage system, and workers usually take care of that. The Occupational Health and Safety and the Secure Work Environment Committee of the Agricultural Research Centre responded to the investigation, stating that every institute is responsible for disposing of empty containers and waste, and the committee proposes that the labs dispose of them in the crematorium of the “Reproductive Research Institute” in the Haram area of the Giza Governorate.
It continued, that the committee does not take responsibility for the unsafe disposal of waste and bottles of chemicals; it delegates that to the labs themselves. In its response to the investigation, it stated: “Not a single institute or lab requested to dispose its waste in the crematorium specified by the committee.” The committee also highlighted that there is a cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment to get rid of stagnating pesticides.
These incidents do not stop at Khadra and Shadia. In fact, there are numerous undeclared and undocumented injuries inside the Agricultural Research Centre’s laboratories. According to the testimonies of a number of researchers and workers in the laboratories, those who were hurt did not receive compensation, and the laboratories’ managements did not acknowledge their injuries. Our investigator discovered this through direct interviews and questionnaires in which 52 researchers participated. The investigation revealed that the lab management ignored a number of injuries, and the workers were unable to prove them. They all occurred as a result of defects in the structure of the laboratories themselves or due to the failure to apply occupational protection and health standards and regulations.
We tried to obtain the total number of work injuries recorded in the last ten years or at least in the last year, but the Centre denied having such figures, as explained by the head of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee, Dr. Adel Abdel-Azim. He clarifies that the Centre’s doctor monitors the status of occupational health and safety and note them in four official logs, and these log books detail regular and chronic illnesses of staff, work injuries and major accidents.
Abdel-Azim denies the occurrence of any work injuries within the Centre’s laboratories in the past six months, and he denies knowledge of the numbers of those injured before last year. He justifies this by saying that he usually sends the log books to a storage site, and that they are hard to reach. He says, “Some of these log books are disposed of at the storage facility, and others are hard to find inside the storage area.”
Director of the Security Department at the Central Stations Management, Khalid Shalabi, contradicts the response provided by the Centre’s physician and supports the testimonies collected by our investigation. However, he blames the researchers who he thinks are unaware of their rights and therefore do not claim them.
Studies conducted by specialists within the National Research Centre on the health and safety of laboratories employees have demonstrated that researchers have been exposed to toxic fumes and gases. The Agricultural Research Commission Members Club includes all researchers working in the National Research Centre. The president of the club sent a complaint to the head of the Centre to resolve the crisis of unrecorded injuries, but no one acted on his request.
We asked the head of the Agricultural Research Centre and the Secretary-General for a statement on the number of those injured, but he denied knowing the number. However, Dr. Adel Abdel-Azim, says that at the committee meeting he called for, they agreed to subject 2,000 workers at the Agricultural Research Centre to health examination organised by the center’s Health Insurance Department.
After field visits conducted at 12 laboratories affiliated with the Agricultural Research Centre, this investigation noted the lack of safety and security measures as specified by four different entities. These are the US Department of Labour rules for Occupational Safety and Health Administration “Osha”, ISO specification No. 45001 for laboratory accreditation and the Egyptian Labour Law. This is in addition to the professional requirements for research laboratories issued by the Department of the Environment at Damietta University.
In addition to Ramzi's testimony, a government study issued by the National Agricultural Research Centre at the beginning of 2018 revealed that 50 researchers sustained a rise in liver enzymes due to direct exposure to pesticides due to the lack of appropriate ventilation and lack of health and safety measures at 5 laboratories, that formed the core subject of this study.
The head of the study's research team and head of the Environmental Research Division, Amal Saad El-Din, says that the study utilised “modern techniques for predicting the health risks from pesticides” and came out with several recommendations like the need to rehabilitate the laboratories, to provide them with necessary ventilation equipment as well as airing the rooms while working to counter the concentration of pesticides in the air. The study also emphasizes the need to provide protective clothing and the implementation of periodical safety and health training sessions to staff to raise awareness.
We asked the head of the Agricultural Research Centre, Muhammad Suleiman, for his comments, but he refused to speak. We sent an email to the Centre’s administration and to the spokesman at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Minister of Agriculture reminding them of our right to obtain a response. But all have fallen on deaf ears.
Thirty-six researchers and 21 employees work in fear because of the worn out walls of the Plant’s Pathology Institute at Sakha Research Station, located in Kofr El-Sheikh Governorate, 128km northwest of Cairo. Dr. Ahmed Ghazi, a researcher at the Institute, says that the building is about to collapse: “We submitted a number of complaints to the administration to relocate the researchers and to provide us with another work place, but to no avail.”
This is not all; safety factors are non-existent. Ghazi says, “I asked the Institute building manager to source out a fire extinguisher, gloves and a first aid kit, but he refused and demanded that I buy them at my own expense since a budget for that has not been allocated.”
Ghazi was involved in an accident three years ago. He sustained first-degree burns to his left hand while conducting an experiment in the laboratory. He attributes it to the lack of flame sterilization devices that help create the environment for the growth of fungi so that the researcher would not have to deal with the flame directly. The researcher used a hot metal piece to conduct the experiment instead, and this piece fell on his hand, leading to the burn.
The researcher was not able to file a complaint at the time, since he was on a temporary assignment, and “temporary means you have no rights” states Ghazi.
of surveyees suffered injuries during work, the most prominent of which, are the inhalation of pesticides and chemicals, subjection to burns and pollution that impacts the lungs.
attributed this to the failure of those injured to submit complaints to the concerned departments.
highlighted the lack of budget and capabilities
of the surveyed people confirmed that some work-related injuries were not accounted for, due to the inability to prove infections were caused by bacteria, fungi and toxic gases.
chose “all of the above”
complained about the intransigence of the workforce
pointed to the lack of interest by the concerned departments in researchers' complaints
while 4 out of 52 participants did not answer this question.
submitted complaints to the laboratory departments due to the lack of safety and occupational health means
did not.
varied between: “‘I filed a complaint: Everyone knows about the issues and no one cares’; ‘safety measures are available’; ‘There is no need to file a complaint since capabilities are limited’; and ‘I will not ask for anything due to the limited capabilities and budget.’”
of participants disclosed that no periodic examination of the researchers was done
asserted that they do not know anything about the periodic examination in the first place.
The Faculty Members Club of the Agricultural Research Centre submitted a memorandum to the President of the Centre in August 2019. The memo explains that researchers were exposed to microbes, viruses, fungi and yeasts in addition to being directly exposed to chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers. This exposure to toxins led some to suffer hormonal imbalances which, in turn, led to diseases. The memo demands that devices, equipment, masks and protective clothes be provided.
The president of the club and the lead researcher at the Food Technology Research Institute (FTRI), Dr. Omar Radi, says that a researcher can only prove visible injuries, such as burns, wounds, impairment, and bruises. Invisible injuries that result from inhaling fumes, pesticides, solvents, and infection with bacterial and parasitic diseases cannot be proven. Many have contracted diseases, for which compensation cannot be claimed.
In his response to the latter, the head of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee at the Agricultural Research Centre, Dr. Adel Abdel-Azim, proposed that “Each laboratory conducts medical examinations on researchers and workers every two years. In the laboratories where researchers are exposed to pesticides and vapors, the examination must be carried out every six months.”
The director of the Security Department at the Central Stations Management, Khalid Shalabi is responsible for laboratory inspection and regulations. He acknowledged that there are unconfirmed injuries among researchers working in the centres and laboratories. He confirmed everything our investigation revealed in that these labs are non-compliant and that researchers were exposed to great risks.
Shalabi attributes this to the failure to dedicate special courses and raise adequate awareness about occupational health and safety. This is in addition to a failure to allocate a budget for laboratory improvement. He revealed that the Agricultural Research Centre’s budget is small compared to the size and number of its centers and laboratories.
Only three laboratories out of a total of 16 at various institutes, and 15 central laboratories, and 56 research centers apply the occupational health and safety measures Shalabi confirms. These labs and centers that belong to the Ministry of Agriculture deal with dangerous substances such as “pesticide residues, food, fodder and testing pesticide.” Some of the animal health and vaccine laboratories also apply these measures. This is due to funds in millions made available annually due to the establishment of private research and development units within these labs.
Shalabi is a member of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee. He revealed that this committee has not met for nearly 20 years, but the head of the committee, Dr. Adel Abdel-Azim, contradicted Shalabi saying that “the Safety Committee is made up of 20 members that meet on a monthly basis and they liaise with sub-committees present at each institute.”
Since the State's capabilities are limited, researchers have resorted to attracting foreign funding in order to develop the laboratories and ensure that they are compliant. Walid Mohammad, professor of Crops in the Legumes Department at the Field Crops Institute, succeeded in obtaining funding from an English research centre to develop his lab. Now, he is working to bring advanced equipment to the lab and to ensure that it is a safe and a regulated environment for his workers.