Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), the national standards setting and regulatory body, will formulate 17 safety standards to prevent accidents in gas cooking used in households. 

BSTI Director General (Grade-1) S M Ferdous Alam made the disclosure during his speech as the chief guest at the inauguration of a day-long workshop titled "Safety Standards for Domestic Gas Cooking Appliances" at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Tuesday.
 
Country Director of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Hoe Yun Jeong and Director (Planning) of Petrobangla Abdul Mannan Patwary were present as special guests at the event. The event was jointly organized by BSTI, Petrobangla and Asian Development Bank (ADB). BSTI Director (Management) Md. Saidul Islam delivered the welcome speech at the event.

Citing various gas leakage fire tragic accidents including the death of a 32-year-old young couple, Ruma and her husband in Mirpur due to gas cooking at the end of last year, the BSTI Director General said that a major reason for accidents in household gas cooking is lack of awareness about safety cooking appliances. Although it is late but BSTI is going to formulate such safety standards. Initiatives have been taken to formulate these standards in line with international standards. The standards have already been approved by BSTI's technical committee. After approval by the higher committee (Divisional Committee), BSTI will work on the obligation to implement it. He said that if the mentioned safety standard is implemented, it will be possible to prevent such tragic accidents.  

BSTI Deputy Director (Engineering) Md. Mursalin Mahfuz presented the keynote paper in the technical session. In addition, Dr. Assistant Professor of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery spoke. Masroor-Ur-Rahman, Senior Assistant Director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Abdur Rahim, Managing Director of JMI LPG Engineer Liaquat Ali, and experts from various government and private organizations concerned.