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	Wednesday 27th January 2010 BMA calls for Fairtrade action Child labour and dangerous working conditions are being used in the production of NHS supplies, a new report has claimed. The British Medical Association (BMA), which conducted a study into the sourcing of NHS products, has called for unethical working practices to be eliminated in the manufacture of supplies for UK hospitals. Just as consumers are demanding to know how the tea, coffee and bananas they buy are grown, the UK health service is starting to examine how the equipment used in our hospitals is made. There is evidence to suggest that many supplies used in the NHS are produced in unhealthy, unsafe and unfair working conditions. Workers in the developing world often are poorly paid and are exposed to hazardous conditions where they risk serious injury and even death. Many surgical instruments, for example, are made in Pakistan where workers work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Some suffer serious injuries due to poor standards of health and safety. There is also a use of child labour, with some workers as young as seven. The BMA's medical fair and ethical trade group has launched a new information campaign to make doctors aware of its findings including the www.fairmedtrade.org.uk website with information on ethical procurement of medical supplies and an information leaflet urging doctors to take four simple steps to get involved. It follows a BMA survey of 383 doctors which found that, while eight in ten doctors were supportive of the NHS purchasing goods that are ethically sourced, only one in ten were aware of fair and ethically made medical supplies. Dr Mahmood Bhutta, BMA advisor on the medical fair and ethical trade group, said: "It is clear from this survey that doctors are very supportive of the idea of the NHS buying ethically sourced products, but more needs to be done to raise awareness. "Some of the workers in the developing world making medical supplies bound for the NHS are exposed to hazardous working conditions where they risk serious injury and even death," he continued. "There is also evidence that children as young as seven are risking their lives to supply us with equipment to save British lives.'" "We want to provide doctors with information they need to encourage the NHS to look at ethically and fairly traded alternatives so lives of workers in the developing world are not put at risk." The information leaflet urges doctors to: Ask their chief executives to adopt ethical procurement policies Ask the suppliers of healthcare products where, and under what conditions, they produce their goods Form â€˜ethical trade interest groups' in their institutions Tell others about fair and ethical trade