DISCUSSION ON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH HAZARD AMONG QUARRY WORKERS | REFERENCES



In our study on occupational health hazards among quarry workers, 400 questionnaires were shared and all the 400 were recovered giving a 100% response rate. In our study, majority of workers fall within the age range of 20-30 years (34.17%) this does not correspond to the work done in kaduna on pattern of occupational hazards and provision of occupational health services and safety among which majority of workers fall within the age range of 30-44 years (90%).
But this corresponds to the work done by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja et al in October, 2012 at the same umuohara in which most of the workers were within the age range of 21-30 years although with a percentage of 42.4% as against 34.17% of ours.
            With regard to sex, majority of quarry workers in umuoghara are female who were employed by various employers and they constitute 55% of the workers as against 45% of them who are male. This does not correspond to the work done in Kaduna on the pattern of occupational health hazards in which majority of workers are males. This also does not correspond to the work done by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja et al in  umuoghara in which majority of workers were males with apercentage of 51.6%.
            Concerning marital status, most of the quarry workers in Umuoghara are married (56%). This corresponds to the work done in the same Kaduna on the pattern of occupational health hazards in which majority of the workers are also married although with a percentage of 72% as against 56% in Umuoghara. This also corresponds to the work done by A. N. Nwibo, E. I. Ugwuja et al at same Umuoghara in October, 2012 in which majority of workers are married with a percentage of 58.3% as against 56% of ours.
            Regarding educational level, our study shows that majority of quarry workers in Umuoghara are senior secondary certificate holders (42.07%). This corresponds to the work done by the same A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja et al the same Umuoghara in which majority of the workers are also senior secondary certificate holders, though with a percentage of 49.1% as against 42.07% of ours.
            Concerning the type of diseases they have suffered in course of their work, our study showed that 37.39% of them have suffered cough as against 40.5% in the work done by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja et al in the same Umuoghara. While 32.94% of them suffered chest pain as against 47.4% in their own study. In our study also, 5.64% of quarry workers have eye problem which dose not correspond to the result obtained from the work done in Owerri on the burden of eye disease among occupational workers in which eye diseases constitute the highest prevalence of 21.92%.
            Based on they type of work the worker engage on, our study revealed that most of workers are store carriers with percentage of 44.72%. This does not correspond to the result obtained by A. N. Nwibo and E.I. Ugwuja et al in Umuoghara last year in which stone carriers constitute just 30% of workers.
            In our study, stone breakers constitute 10.55% of workers. This also does not correspond with the result obtained by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Umuoghara et al in which machine operators constitute 19.3% of workers.
            Regarding the type of accidents common among quarry workers in Umuoghara, they include open wound (38.38), mechanical injury (24.72%), crushing injury (18.45%), burns (0.74%). This does not correspond with the results obtained from the work done by O.O. Ogunleye and Mu’awiyyah on pattern of injury among quarry workers in Kaduna in May, 2013 in which prevalent injuries were: hand injury (80%), leg injury (30%), eye injury (11.7%), facial injury (8.3%).
            With regard to the use of personal protective device, from our study, most of them, that is, almost all of them do not use personal protective device since they say that it causes discomfort for them. This also corresponds with the work done by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja where most of them also do not use PPD (98.3%). This does not corresponds with the work done in Kaduna where most of the workers (78%) admitted to the regular use of personal protective devices. 29.1% of the, said they feel uncomfortable wearing or using the PPD while 25.5% of them said the use of PPD makes work difficult for them. Then (23.6%) gave no cogent reason for non-regular use of PPD.
            With respect to the awareness of workers about the hazards they are exposed, most of the workers in course of our study, are aware of the hazards they are exposed to (89.23%) of them. This is also compatible with the work done in Kaduna on pattern of occupational hazards where most of the workers (90%) were also aware of the hazards they may be exposed to.
            Regarding the number of years the workers have spent on the work so far, most of the workers from our study spent less than 5 years (36.73%). This is also compatible with the work done by A. N. Nwibo and E. I. Ugwuja et al where most of the workers (80.6%) spent less than 5years so far at the site of work.
 
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The level of awareness of PPE is high but the level of its usage is very low among quarry workers in Ezza Umuoghara quarry industry. The low level of using may be due to illiteracy, ignorance, high cost of PPE or non-availability of the regulatory agencies to enforce the usage. Because of poor compliance to the usage of PPE among them, many of them have been exposed to series of health hazards.
            We therefore recommend that more awareness about the frequent use of PPE should be created through the radio by the health workers or community health extension workers.
            Employers at the quarry industries should also provide the employees with the PPE to ensure that they are in optimal state of health for effective productivity.
            The workers should also be educated on the need to wear the PPE always as this will help to reduce the rate at which they are exposed to all these work-related hazards of quarry industry as this will help to reduce the ill-health that can result from them.
            The quarry workers are also advised to be more careful while at work to reduce the rate of accident they encounter since the major cause of their accident is carelessness as this will ensure that they are in a state of optimal health.

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