60% of dockworkers prone to cancer — MWUN

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) has revealed that 60 per cent of dockworkers who work in hazardous port environment without being well kitted are prone to cancer ailment in the nearest future.

Disclosing this to newsmen recently in his office, the President-General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju stated that the Union will continue to sensitise its members and orientate them about safety in the ports.

According to the MWUN boss, “What we need to tell the terminal operators and other stakeholders who are regulating us is to train the dockworkers more than they did before. We need to let dockworkers know that if you don’t put on your safety boots and you want to go and work onboard a vessel that is slippery, anything can happen. Where you are supposed to have nose cover but you don’t, and you want to go and work on a wheat vessel, what would happen is that you are going to inhale some hazardous shafts that will eventually damage your brain, your eyes or your nose.

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“A dockworker that is putting on a rubber slipper and not properly dressed, anything can happen. It all borders on training and sensitising our members on safety gadgets.

“60 per cent of dockworkers working in these environments at the port that are hazardous are prone to cancer in the future. The union intends to draw a notice to all stakeholders to tell them this time around that enough is enough. We are setting up an inspectorate that would be going round the ports everyday to look at areas that are not in compliance with these safety regulations.

“Any stevedoring contractor that does not obey these terms, we would not allow such to work, and we may not equally work on that day.”