The Italian government was readying to push through a new package of laws on workplace safety after a fifth man died on Tuesday following an accident at an industrial vehicle maintenance company in Puglia.
The accident on Monday happened in Molfetta when a worker slipped while cleaning inside the tank of a lorry used to transport sulphur and was overcome by lethal fumes.
Colleagues of the man, including the company owner, tried to come to his rescue but each suffered the same fate.
Four of the men died at the scene, while the fifth died in hospital after firemen pulled him from the tank alive.
Investigators said the first worker who slipped was following safety guidelines, but the men who came to his aid may not have taken sufficient precautions.
Outgoing Premier Romano Prodi and Health Minister Livia Turco said they would redouble efforts to approve new legislation on workplace safety in the next week so that the government could pass them before next month's general elections.
''In my own name and in that of the government, I say again that we must work to break this tragic chain of death,'' Prodi said.
The new laws include a tough revision of penal and administrative sanctions and have received some opposition from powerful industrial employers' federation Confindustria.
But Turco stressed that the new legislation in itself will not be enough, describing the accident in Molfetta as ''avoidable''.
''Without a cultural change in behaviour and convictions, we will not win this dramatic battle against deaths in the workplace,'' she said.
''The laws are in place, but they are not sufficient if people don't change their attitude.'' ''Today safety is seen too much as an expense, the law as something to avoid, at the expense of the dignity of the worker in his workplace,'' she added.
Monday's events are the latest in a long string of workplace accidents in Italy. Last month four people died in an explosion at a fireworks factory near Orvieto, and seven people died in a fire at the ThyssenKrupp steelworks in Turin last December.
According to the latest statistics from Eurostat, Italy's annual average of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 workers is below the EU average of 2.7. In the first nine months of 2007 official figures said there were 774 deaths in the workplace, 114 fewer than in 2006. But unions argue these figures are unrealistic, since many accidents involve immigrant workers who are not included in the calculations as they work off the company books.
According to ANMIL, an association representing injured workers, personnel employed by government agencies to check that safety practices are adhered to need to be dramatically increased.
The association said that if every Italian business was to be checked by the number of staff currently available, each would receive a visit once every 23 years.
