Taipei, July 24 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian reaffirmed his commitment to vocational safety Thursday, saying that "the interests of greater industrial production cannot compare to the value of the lives of workers."
The president made the remarks when he received Shih Tung-sheng, acting director of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health under the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), at the Presidential Office.
Shih is this year's recipient of the annual William P. Yant Outstanding Industrial Hygienist Award bestowed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association. The winner of the award, named after the first president of the association, is someone who has made a great contribution to the promotion of industrial hygiene.
The president extended his congratulations to Shih, saying that this is the first time that a person from Taiwan has ever received the outstanding industrial hygienist award since it was established in 1964.
Chen also noted that he first met Shih when Shih received an award for best paper for aerosol research, bestowed by the same association in Sept. 2000.
The president said that since the Labor Safety Law was promulgated in Taiwan in 1974, the government has made great efforts in reducing the number of deaths on the job, adding that the on-the-job death rate dropped 37 percent between 1992 and 2002.
He said that Chen Chu, chairwoman of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), has made working environment safety one of her top priorities since taking the post.
Her goal was to reduce major vocational casualities by 40 percent in four years, the president said, adding that statistics have shown that the vocational casualty rate was cut by 23 percent in 2001 and 30.1 percent in 2002, surpassing the CLA chairwoman's goal for the second consecutive year.
The president pointed out that this was not enough, "our goal is zero vocational disasters and zero accidents."
Shih expressed appreciation for the meeting with Chen, saying that he felt that the importance the president attaches to industrial hygiene, labor safety and occupational safety is unprecedented.
He also said that Taiwan has achieved a great deal in industrial hygiene and vocational safety, adding that Taiwan should make good use of its achievements to raise its profile.
He cited the example of Taiwan's standard operating procedures during the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome being introduced by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention into its own procedures, showing that Taiwan's efforts have won recognition.