COMMUNIQUE FROM THE SOCIETY OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PHYSICIANS OF NIGERIA (SOEHPON), 2018 ANNUAL CONFERENCE & 40th ANNIVERSARY 

 

Theme, "Providing Occupational Health Best Practices in Nigeria" 

 

A total of 17 papers were presented at both Pre-Conference Workshop and Main Conference of the SOEIIPON 201 R Annual Conference. The pre-conference workshop included a worksite visit to the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Meth lekki.Lagos State. It was a unanimous consensus by all presenters and attendees that. "Occupational Diseases are Common - Common Diseases are Occupational". All deliberations culminated in the following recommendations; 

I. That there exist gaps as regards standards in Occupational Health (OH) prictice in Nigeria requiring the need to deploy Nigeria 0H practice guidelines and standards as obtained in UK.USA . South Africa. etc. 

 

2. Reiterates the importance of leveraging safety concerns to intervene and mitigate 0H challenge in the workplace. 

 

3. To facilitate the development of work ethics/ organization and national guidelines for occupational health best practice in Nigeria in alignment with global best practice. 

 

4. Work with relevant NGOs. as regards the provision of Basic Occupation health Services at the informal sector of Nigeria's economy. 

 

5. Explore available avenues to ensure research findings on Air Pollution in Port liarcoun and other Towns in Nigeria as regards particulate mass: ascertain their origin from illegal refineries. tyres. asphalts buntings and vehicular emissions: in order to form a basis for generating appropriate legislations to effectively control or pcosibly eliminate these Public Health hazards 

 

6. To sustain collaboration with relevant Occupational Ilealth and Safety professionals in the health care industry towardsthe production of robust 0H Management system in the hospital setting. 

7. That the Inspectorate Unit of the Federal and State Ministry of Labour and Employment be empowered and motivated to effectively warty out assigned functions and statutory roles. 

 

8. To sustain collaboration with relevant Government MDAs towards the provision of appropriate Occupational Health. Safety and Welfare legislation for Nigeria. that will ensure the establishment of relevant institutions and Agencies to handle effective Workplace OH&S compliance monitoring. technical assistance and consequence management 

 

9. To sustain advocacy on the need for employers of labour to train and retrain employees on Occupational health and Safety (0H&S). provide safe, conducive and enabling workplace and provide preventive, promotional, and rehabilitative health care services at enterprise level , in line with global OH&S best practice. 

 

10. To sustain collaboration with the academia as regards Occupational Health training programmes in higher institutions, encourage evidence-based research in OH and ensure its proper database in Nigeria. sons to promote more interest in the OH specialty andencourage younger Doctors to take up the specialty. 

11. To draw up guidelines and protocols for acemditing Small Scale Contractors that provide OH Servtces at enterprise level, in line with global best practices. 

 

12. To provide frequent and regular One-Day OH training programmes for General Medical Doctors, informal and formal sectors operators workers. in order to create more awareness about Occupational Health (OH) and to empower panicipantson basicOH knowledge. skills and competences 

 

At the said just concluded Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society (SOEHPON). the following were elected as officials of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the society for 2018 to 2020. 

 

Dr Effiem Abbah National President

Dr Uche Enumah National Vice President

Dr Chinonye Nwankwo National Secretary

Dr Ini Usoro Assistant National Secretary

Dr Ayo Agboola National Treasurer

Dr Babatunde Adekunle Financial Secretary

Dr Nsikak Ntia Public Relations Officer (PRO)

Dr Charles Babajide Onibogi Assistant PRO

Dr Okon Akiba Ex. Officio Member

 

Signed

DR. CHINONYE NWANKWO (National Secretary) 

DR EFFIENI ABBAII (National President)

 

NATIONAL SECRETARIAT:

C/O The 0EH Department NNPC Medical Center 1 B.Muri Okunola Street. By Sandfill Roundabout. Behind Mobil 11QTERS. Victoria Island Lagos Tel:08062897950. Email: [email protected] Website: www.sochpon.org;