Snake Safety Talk at UTM Pagoh

Hazim Yusof

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Pagoh Safety and Health Committee in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) has successfully conducted a Snake Safety Talk on September 17th, 2019 in conjunction with the UTM Pagoh Safety and Health Campaign 2019. The Snake Safety Talk was conducted by Mohd Nafizan bin Mohd Radzi from PERHILITAN Muar and was assisted by two PERHILITAN snake experts, Siti Salwani bt Ismail and Mohd Fakhruddin bin Tukiman.

The talk involved 70 participants from various institutions including UTM Pagoh staff as well as staff from the Malaysian Ministry of Education, SagaMas Security and Sime Darby Property Selatan (SDPS) . It was a half-day educational talk that aims to educate people about the local snake species and how to deal with potentially life-threatening situation if it happens in a calm and effective manner.

According to Dr. Umi Aisah bt Asli, the Chairperson for UTM Pagoh Safety and Health Committee, the objective of this talk was to increase the knowledge and safety aspects of participants when dealing with emergency cases involving snakes more effectively.

“One of the first things the employer needs to do is to instruct workers not to handle snakes by themselves,” said Siti Salwani, a PERHILITAN reptile expert, adding that if a worker encounters a snake, he or she should let the snake to move along, alert co-workers that a snake is in the area and warn them to stay away. “Even if it is not a venomous snake, a snake’s bite could carry a lot of bacteria and it could be infectious,” she said.