Firecracker making: State bats for non-use of mobiles & wearing anti-static footwear

Kolkata: The state Directorate of Factories has advocated non-use of mobile phones and wearing of anti-static footwear during production of green firecrackers for the sake of safety and security.

“When someone receives a phone call or calls up another person, there is a voltage differentiation leading to potential of spark which may ignite inflammable materials in a manufacturing unit posing fire hazard. This is the same reason for recommending non-use of cell phones at petrol pumps. The wearing of anti-static footwear prevents build up of static electrical charges in the human body by sending these charges to the ground.

Hence, these two aspects are extremely important for safety particularly during manufacturing of firecrackers,” said Jayanta Kumar Mondal, Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories while addressing a safety awareness programme with stakeholders of the firecracker industry at Maheshtala in South 24-Parganas on Monday.

Mondal batted for a no-smoking zone in and around green cracker manufacturing units and non-use of electric driven or operated equipment in green firecrackers manufacturing, mixing, packing, loading, unloading etc. Open floor manufacturing should be avoided.

Santanu Banerjee, Joint Chief Inspector of Factories said that a firecracker manufacturing unit should be at least 3 metre high and there should not be a first floor. The doors should always open on the outer side and be at least 1.2 m wide and 2 m high. He further called for no testing at factory sites and minimum use of iron articles to avoid frictional fire and for a burning pit for disposal of waste explosives and ingredients.

Sukdev Naskar of Pradesh Atasbazi Byabsayee Samiti said that no manufacturing activity should be taken up after daylight. “When you work during the night, you need to have electricity or other sources of light; you may also need mosquito coils, etc and the risk of fire is very high there. There should be no photograph of any Gods or Goddess inside manufacturing units as when you do so, you have a tendency of lighting incense sticks etc,” he added. The workshop was organised under the banner of All Bengal Trinamool Green Fireworkers Manufacturing Workers Union. The union will be holding similar programmes across the state.