Occupational Health Hazards among Workers in Ceramic Factories

Abstract

Background: Ceramic industry had a variety of biological, chemical, physical, an ergonomic andpsychological hazard that cause dangers to workers during work. The aim of the study was to assessthe occupational health hazards among workers in Ceramic Factories. Research Design: A descriptiveresearch design was utilized to conduct this study. Setting: This study was conducted at CeramicFactory at Queisna City, Menoufia Governorate. This is the only Factory found in MenoufiaGovernorate. The Sample: Systematic random sample was used in this study for worker in CeramicFactory. The study sample constituted 150 workers from the total 1400 workers in the Factory. Tools:Two tools were used I): An interviewing questionnaire which consisted of three parts to assessworkers’ socio demographic characteristics, work experience, health problem of workers andknowledge about occupational health hazards and II): Observational checklist which consisted of twoparts to assess and observe the characteristics of the work environment safety and sanitation condition,and the workers' practices regarding prevention of occupational health hazards. Results: The age of40.7% of studied workers was 30 years and more with mean age 32.54 ± 8.47 years. As past medicalhistory, 53.3% of them had allergic rhinitis and sinusitis and 74.7% of them had chronic cough aspresent medical history. In addition, 19.3%of them had good total knowledge scores related tooccupational health hazards, 82.7% of studied workers had satisfactory practices regarding preventionof occupational health hazard. Conclusion: Less than three quarters of studied workers had averagetotal knowledge and the majority had satisfactory practices regarding prevention of occupational healthhazard. There was no statistically significant relation between the studied ceramic workers’ totalknowledge and their total practices regarding occupational health hazards. Recommendations:Develop and implement training program for ceramic workers to improve their knowledge andpractices toward occupational health hazards.