Occupational Safety and Health in the Tanning Industry -Emerging Challenges

Introduction

Emerging Scenario
Leather industrial sector witnessed remarkable expansion during the seventies and eighties in many countries of South East Asia. Relocation of manufacturing activities in this sector fiom the industrialised countries to the developing countries of South and East Asia during this period was a marked phenomenon. This was primarily caused by the substantial difference in cost of production in the developing countries for manufacture of leather and leather products. Huge wage differential was responsible for this difference in cost of production. This trend seems almost irreversible with the developing countries becoming the centres of production for leather and leather products and the industrialised countries of the world remaining the major consumers of these products.

Late eighties and early nineties have, meantime, brought to focus serious concern for environmental issues, particularly emanating in western countries. Though globalisation in leather industry began much earlier than the general globalisation of industry, the focus on environmental issues in this industrial sector became prominent only in the past about one decade. Some do believe that this industrial sector has attracted more attention than it deserves because the as yet surviving industrial units in the industrialised countries are raising these issues as non tariff trade barriers. However, in many developing countries of the world, particularly of South and East Asia, these issues have become equally prominent due to enactment and enforcement of strict environment laws, growing public awareness and effective intervention of courts of law. Thus environment protection and consumer safety have increasingly been accepted as part of the standard framework of international business requirements.