Assessment of Occupational Health Hazards among Leather Tannery Workers at Minia and Assuit city

Abstract

Background: More than 5000,000 people are working in tanneries around the world. Work related accidents and diseases continue to have series consequence, with an estimated 2.3 million fatalities per year and economic losses of 4% of global gross domestic product. Aim of the study: To assess occupational health hazards among leather tannery workers at Minia and Assuit city. Research design: Across –sectional descriptive study was utilized in this study. Subjects: comprised 50 workers in leather tannery whose age ranged between 17 to 58years. Setting: This study was carried out at leather tannery in Minia and Assuit city. Tools of data collection: Two tools were utilized to measure the variables of the study included socio demographic part &workers knowledge about occupational health safety ,knowledge score this section contain 7 questions with a total score of 7 divided to :scoring 5-7 indicates good knowledge ,scoring 1-4 indicates poor level of knowledge. (Aliyu and Ibrahim, 2015). Results: The majority of the workers were single (48%) followed by married (44%). More than half of them were from rural areas. More than one third of them were illiterate. 72% of the participants were workers. Workers working in tanning represent 44% followed by 30% working in salting .Conclusion: The prevalence of occupational hazards is high in the studied tannery workers. Workers working in tanning and Beam house or salting phase affected more than others.personal protective equipment not available enough in tanneries. This high prevalence of occupational skin diseases could result from: lack of occupational safety training, and poor concepts on utilization of PPE in working environment. Recommendation: Government should enforce compliance to health and safety measures in industries so as to minimize to minimum the level of occupational risks and hazards. In the same light government and supervising institutions should enforce compliance to occupational health and safety measures in the industries.