Mechanical and Psychological Hazards Associated with Oil and Gas Workers in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Mechanical and Psychological hazards pose a great threat to the physical and mental health of oil and gas workers. There is little or no research on the type of hazard in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. This study investigated mechanical and psychological hazards associated with oil and gas workers in Rivers State. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study covered 4,223 workers in various departments in the oil and gas sector. A total number of 514 (12.2% of the population) respondents participated in the study. Out of 514 copies of questionnaire administered, 314 copies (61.1%) were properly completed and used for data analysis. A self-designed questionnaire titled: Mechanical and Psychological Hazard Questionnaire (MPHQ) was used for data collection. The Mean, Standard Deviation and Rank Order were used to answer the research questions while the null hypothesis was tested with z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The results among others indicated that the mechanical hazards identified were; working in confined spaces, injury due to struck by object, injuries due to impact force collision and falls etc. The study also revealed the psychological hazards to include; work related stress such as work overload, violence in workplace, emotional abuse and verbal abuse. The hypothesis tested was rejected. It was recommended among others that management should provide adequate, appropriate, and modern personal protective equipment for their workers.