Abstract
This paper reports the assessment of safety practices and injuries in a timber company in Ghana. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Data were collected from 300 respondents at a sawmill in Ghana using a 5-point Likert-type scale questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the data analyses. The result indicates that the mean rating of the respondents on their use of personal protective equipment ranged from 1.09 to 2.51. This implies that the workers of the sawmill rarely or never wear: gloves, overall, goggles, face shield, nose and mouth mask, earplugs or helmet during wood processing. Additionally, the mean ratings of the respondents regarding safety practices, machine and maintenance ranged from 2.42 to 4.03 with three out of the eight items having mean ratings higher than the theoretical mean of 3.0. The ratings of the respondents of the saw doctoring department on their practice of safety on machine and maintenance were significantly higher than those of the other departments. The result of the study further suggests that the workers of this sawmill do rarely report of: skin irritation/dermatitis, eye irritation, lack of appetite, arm/leg amputation, neck pains, hearing loss and poor eye sight problems. However, they usually report of headaches, nausea, respiratory problems, small cuts, back pains, and hip and leg pains. The outcome of this study therefore suggests that the management of the sawmill studied needs to do more to enforce practice of safety, especially the use of personal protective equipment, to reduce hazards and injuries associated with wood processing in the firm.
Highlights
Keeping the workplace safe must not be the concern of only workers and companies and national and global economies whose productivity and competitiveness play a major role on safe working environment
Occupational health and safety can be important for several reasons, in that, good occupational health and safety (OHS) practice can reduce employee injury and illness-related costs
In view of the above, this study was conducted to assess the safety practices and injuries associated with a wood processing company in Ghana
Summary
Keeping the workplace safe must not be the concern of only workers and companies and national and global economies whose productivity and competitiveness play a major role on safe working environment. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) considers issues relating to occupational health and safety (OHS) to be of much importance to the extent that it has devoted about 80% of its standards and instruments either wholly or partly to it [1]. This notwithstanding, currently around 160 million people are estimated to suffer from occupational diseases. Two million people die every year as a result of occupational accidents and workrelated diseases and injuries [2] These numbers may translate into an estimate of nearly 5 percent loss of the world’s GDP [1]. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as cited in [3], poor occupational health and reduced working capacity of workers may cause economic loss up to 10% - 20% of the Gross National Product of many countries for which Ghana is not an exception
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