Fire at Cosmetics Factory Leaves Over 50 Injured

The ILNA news agency reported today on a fire that occurred on Tuesday at the "Zhaleh Nour" factory located in the Simin Dasht industrial town. The incident resulted in at least 53 workers suffering burn injuries, with the condition of 4 of them reported as critical. A labor source provided details about the incident at this cosmetics and hygiene products factory in Simin Dasht, Karaj, stating, "The main cause of the incident is under investigation by experts, but according to initial reports, the fire occurred due to a gas leak and injection materials into the production line's material tank." It has been reported that most of the injured are women, and according to this source, the physical condition of 3 workers (2 women and 1 man) is critical, and they have been transferred to Shahid Motahari Hospital in Tehran due to the severity of their burns. Despite numerous domestic and international warnings about the high number of workplace accidents, news of worker fatalities and injuries continues to emerge daily from various workshops across the country. Masoud Ghadi Pasha, the Deputy for Medical and Laboratory Affairs of the Legal Medicine Organization of the Islamic Republic, claimed on May 1 of this year that the death toll from workplace accidents in the year 1401 was "1900 workers." This statistic comes as labor activist Ehsan Sohrabi, on October 3, criticized the Islamic Republic's officials' actions regarding workplace safety as merely performative, stating that a "government memorandum" cannot prevent the deaths of workers and that "accidents in production enterprises have not decreased." This labor activist also mentioned that only a "small number" of workplace accidents are reported in the media, and many incidents "do not even appear in official statistics."