Two more victims of the Ghadir Steel Smelter explosion died in hospital today, bringing the total number killed to 16.
Five workers died at the scene last Sunday night following an explosion in the scrap-steel meting pot of the Ghadir Plant in Yazd. Eleven have since died in hospital, and reports indicate the three remaining workers still in hospital are in critical condition.
Authorities say the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Speculation about possible causes has cast suspicion on provincial workplace inspectors.
The Yazd representative in Parliament, Ali Akbar Oliya, has accused the Labour Minister of negligence for his failure to take effective action, given that similar incidents have taken place all across the country.
Oliya said: “It appears that the lack of adequate workplace safety regulations and inspections has caused this catastrophe.”
Labour groups all across the country have warned about the poor state of workplace safety and urged the government to take immediate action to avoid more such incidents.
The Bazaar-e Kar (Job Market) weekly recently announced that workplace accidents are the second-highest cause of death in Iran. The report indicated that 22,559 insured workers were involved in workplace accidents in the past year, and 109 of them lost their lives.
