One employee falling ill in the workplace may not seem uncommon, but how about when that figure is in the hundreds?
According to a report from Agence France-Presse, some 450 employees became ill recently after they complained of contaminated water at their workplace near the Bangladeshi capital. It turns out this was the second such incident to hit the same garment factory in recent days, according to authorities.
The workers, the majority of whom were women, were hospitalized when they began vomiting and reporting stomach pains after drinking water supplied by the factory in the industrial town of Ashulia. As a result, the plant’s owners closed down the operation as authorities transferred water samples to a local laboratory.
The factory, Rose Limited, was also hit by mass food poisoning recently when approximately 200 workers were transported to hospital after eating dinner supplied by the workplace.
Incidents Not New to the Industry
The latest incidents come on the heels of the collapse of a building housing garment factories in April that killed more than 1,100 people, leading to renewed scrutiny of “made-in-Bangladesh” clothes commonly sold in the West.
In recent weeks more than 1,000 workers have fallen ill at several garment factories – a phenomenon that medical experts state may be a type of mass hysteria brought on by psychological distress.
Approximately 600 workers became ill at a factory outside the capital in early June, but microbiologists discovered nothing wrong with drinking water supplied.
Experts instead tied the incident to a psychogenic illness or mass hysteria, which hit the country approximately eight years ago, leading to dozens of schools and factories closing.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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