PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES REGARDING OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS AND SAFETY MEASURES AMONG PRINTING WORKERS

Abstract

Objective: The present cross sectional study aimed at assessing the practices and perceptions of workers in printing shops regarding occupational health hazards and safety measures applying the principles of the HBM. Methods: A total of 135 workers - directly involved in the printing industry- were recruited from 10 small sized printing hops in Alexandria, Egypt. An interview-led questionnaire was used to collect data regarding personal characteristics, workers’ safety behaviors, perceived threat and perceived benefits and barriers related to safety behaviors. Results: The results showedthat 82.2% and 92.6% of workers never wore overalls and gloves respectively. None of the workers used ear, eye or respiratory protectors. The majority of workers had low perception of risk of different health hazards they are exposed to. Only 17% had high threat perception and only 24.4% had high perception of benefit. The main barriers to adopting safety measures were interference with job performance, comfort issues, unavailability of PPE and not being trained. Conclusion: The study concluded that protective behaviors and perceptions among printing workers are extremely inadequate.The study highlights the importance of effective safety education and training to enhance workers perception of threat and benefit and decrease their perception of barriers. Thus adoption of safety behaviors can be achieved. Special attention should be directed towards young workers and those with lower education