Welcome speech from ms M. Zuurbier - Seminar on ... - Inspectie SZW

That is also why the Dutch Labour Inspectorate felt it necessary to broach this topicin an international context. In the Netherlands, in any event, it is a topic for whichthere has been much political attention. You will hear more about that today andtomorrow. It was accidents that led to questions in the Dutch parliament. The Ministryof Social Affairs and Employment actively responded to that with targetedinspections. Ms <strong>Zuurbier</strong> will tell you more about that a little later.Ladies and gentlemen,Almost 3 million containers enter the port of Rotterdam each year. Some of them aredestined for Dutch businesses. But a great many of these containers continue ontheir way to other countries in Europe. Perhaps even to the country that you arerepresenting here. The problem with fumigated containers is not, therefore, aspecifically Dutch problem, but a problem for all of us!And at the same time a problem that is not equally well-known or exploredeverywhere. That emerged <strong>from</strong> a survey conducted by the Senior Labour InspectorsCommittee (SLIC). This indicated that the number of fumigated containers that enterthe different countries varies widely. Therefore, the number of incidents varies widelyas well. In some countries no data is available, in others there is extensivedocumentation. The measures applied in the different countries also vary widely.It is encouraging however, to see that there is clear willingness and interest to jointlytackle any proble<strong>ms</strong> and to share information with each other. The latter is what wewill be doing extensively over the coming two days. Not only will variousrepresentatives give their view on how they think this problem should be addressed,we will also show you what can be done in practice to protect the health of peoplewho work with these containers.Still, the most important part of this seminar is not that we all know what is going on.What is much more important is that in future every employer knows what the risksare of the container atmosphere before he allows his workers to open or enter thecontainer. And that, as a result, this employer takes appropriate measures to managethese risks.Ladies and gentlemen,As Browning rightly stated: “Ignorance is not innocence, but sin”. Together we canturn ignorance into action. So that the sin can be transformed into value. And casessuch as the one I described to you at the beginning of my talk will no longer occur.I wish you a very valuable seminar!