"Most companies inspected generated small quantities of dust with low explosion risk," said the authorities in a press release."However, three companies were found to have inadequate control measures despite significant risk of combustible dust explosions and were issued stop-work orders."
"Companies should refresh workers’ workplace safety and health training and review risk assessments, especially if there have been changes to their work processes or workplace due to COVID-19," the authorities said. However, the number of workplace injuries reverted to pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter of 2020, with 3,413 workplace injuries reported compared to 3,445 in the same quarter in 2019.
However, the number of incidents has decreased significantly due to work stoppages during COVID-19, said the authorities. The fatal injury rate also reduced from 2.9 per 100,000 workers in 2019 to 2.2 per 100,000 workers in 2020. This was likely due to work stoppages in the second and third quarters of 2020, said the press release.
The top three occupational diseases were work-related musculoskeletal disorders, noise-induced deafness, and infectious diseases, which in total accounted for 89 per cent of all occupational diseases cases in 2020.MOM and the council said they continue to be concerned about slips, trips and falls in the workplace, which were prevalent in the cleaning, transport, F&B and security industries.