Codes of Practice for the wood industry

DECP organized, together with the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council a 3 day workshop on the design and developing of  safety and health Codes of Practice for Wood Industry in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The ultimate result should be the drafting of some Codes of Practice (CoPs).

About 25 participants attended the workshop. All were representatives of wood companies or the sector association for the wood sector, called HAWA. In day 1 the trainer,  OSH expert Theo-Jan Heesen, started with the theory of risk assessment and the principle of  CoPs. Next the participants had to focus on a selection of machine operations commonly used in the wood industry and on major risks. Five machines were selected: planer, table saw, spindle shaper, wood router and ventilation exhaust system and for major risks the selection was: dust, noise and damage of body parts.
On the second day the participants drafted the 5 CoPs based on their own knowledge and experience. In the afternoon a big wood company near HCMC was visited where the results of the exercise in the morning were checked.

On the third day the CoPs were adapted to the findings of the day before and then they were published in Vietnamese on the internet, see http://osh-vietnam.webs.com/  and look for the CoP’s. The participants decided to continue as a network organisation. An executive board member of HAWA was chosen to be the webmaster.  
During the last hour of the workshop the issue of dissemination of the information, improvements of the CoP with respect to quantity and quality were discussed. Agreements about these subjects have been made among the participants. HAWA will take care for the dissemination among their members and the participants will double the number of documents to be published in the near future.