The multifaceted, complex and widely misunderstood concept of “risk” has fascinated me for many years, dating back at least to the late 1980s in North America when I began my involvement in ecological and human health risk assessments projects. At that time, I was introduced to terms such as “voluntary” vs “involuntary” risk, “natural” vs […]
Category Archives: Middle East
Fakes and Worker Health and Safety – A Hidden Killer!
We are likely all aware of reports that off-spec, counterfeit and inferior quality medicines are being sold to developing countries (if not check out this article by Newton et al for a good overview of the problem). We have also probably read reports of certain pesticides, which are not permitted for use in industrialized countries, […]
H&S, OHS, HSE, HSSE, HSSEQ, HSSEQ/CSR … Alphabet Soupization
In the 1970s, back when I was in high school/university and working summer jobs in Canada at construction sites and lumber yards, I do not remember ever running across a safety officer or in fact any sort of HSE professional at the job site.In the early 1980s, I worked as an environmental scientist and had […]
How Clean is Clean? Performing Phase II ESA in Countries Lacking Remediation Criteria
In last week’s blog post, I discussed issues related to Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) in developing countries. This week I’ll explore some of the issues in carrying out a Phase II ESA, and in particular how to carry out the Phase II ESA when there are no local regulatory soil and groundwater remediation […]
Are Phase I ESAs in Asia a Waste of Time and Money? Property Transfer and Environmental Liability in Asia
Over the last twenty years, we have carried out Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) for western–based multinationals in many countries across South-East Asia and the Middle East, including sites in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. Interestingly, we have yet to receive […]