Building on the existing cooperation between the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Messe Düsseldorf, established for the A+A 2013 in Düsseldorf (Turkey was a partner country to A+A), an additional international collaborative project has now been called into existence.
The TOS+H Expo – Turkish Occupational Safety & Health Exhibition – will have its premiere in May 2014, parallel to the VII Occupational Health & Safety Conference, which takes place at the famous Halic Congress Centre in Istanbul. The parallelism of the TOS+H Expo to the international Occupational Health & Safety Conference, organized by the Ministry for Labour and Social Security in Turkey, not only creates synergies – it also offers an all-embracing market and communication platform for the key topic of personal safety, health at work and operational safety in Turkey. The international occupational Health & Safety Conference, which took place for the first time in the year 2001 in Turkey, serves as a dialogue and informational platform on the trends in prevention for the trade audience. Safety and health at work is gaining importance on an international level, and is the topic of the three-day conference, at which more than 6,000 visitors are expected. The lectures and discussions with well-known international speakers focus on legal reforms at the national and European political level, technological innovations, and the latest scientific findings. Moreover, concepts and solutions for workplace health management (i.e. occupational medicine, health promotion), and regarding specific hazards and stress factors at the workplace as well as in the company (i.e. machine safety, fire prevention, personal protective equipment) will also be introduced at the conference.
At the simultaneous TOS+H Expo, numerous regional exhibitors, as well as companies from European countries such as Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Hungary and France, will present their products and services on approximately 4,000 square metres of exhibition area. In addition, Asian nations will also be represented among the exhibitors – illustrating the fact that occupational health and safety at work are gaining in importance in these countries as well.
The Turkish Ministry of Labour will also be on board with a 120 square-metre stand. Industry leaders such as 3M, Draeger Safety, Honeywell, Ansell Healthcare Europe NV, UVEX and Bata Nederland, as well as Turkish market leaders such as Kaya Safety and Yakupoglu have already confirmed their participation and will be presenting their products in the areas of personal protection, operational health and safety at work to the conference and trade visitors.
The latest changes in Turkish legislation contain extensive occupational health and safety standards. Due to the strength of their working population, with a total of 23 million employed, and above-average economic growth in recent years, Turkey has become an extremely interesting growth market, not lastly for suppliers of protective products. Four million people work here in the textile industry alone. These factors combine to create an ideal condition for the establishment of a comprehensive platform for health and safety at work.
An intensive exchange between government officials, institutions and business had already taken place during the Turkish-German occupational health and safety dialogue within the framework of A+A. Now the intention is to ramp up these relationships in the context of the existing cooperation and with the participation of the international exhibitors and local institutions. The TOS+H Expo 2014 is receiving valuable support from TIGIAD, the Turkish association for manufacturers of occupational safety products. Numerous TIGIAD member companies will also be represented at the conference and the exhibition. The Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the renowned Halic Congress Center, the local trade fair organiser Tezulaş Fuar (who has been the official foreign representative for Messe Düsseldorf for 18 years) and Messe Düsseldorf, organiser of A+A, have been working together closely and have mutually agreed to create a comprehensive and leading market platform for the occupational health and safety sector in Turkey with the parallelism of TOS+H and the international occupational health and safety conference.
