OCCUPATIONAL RISKS AND HAZARDS ASSESSMENT AMONG VEHICLE ARTISANS AT SUAME MAGAZINES, KUMASI, GHANA
Keywords:
occupational risks, occupational hazard, Swame Magazine, vehicle artisansAbstract
Occupational health and safety have been an issue as far back as people has gained workplace employment. Occupational Health and Safety aims at; promoting and maintaining the maximum degree of physical, mental and social welfare of workers in all professions; preventing employees from health problems arising from inappropriate working conditions; protecting workers in their workplaces from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; positioning and sustaining a worker in a working environment that is appropriate to his mental and emotional ability and; the adaptation of work to the man and not a man to work. A cross-sectional study by design and analytical by type was adopted for the research and utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 233 interviewees were randomly selected employing a stratified random sampling technique from 3 units of welders, sprayers and mechanics. Data was analyzed into descriptive and inferential statistics at p<0.05 using STATA vs 14.0 software. All the artisans sampled were male with a mean age of 32.28. Persons between the age brackets of 18-37 years constituted the majority. More than half (59.23%) of the artisans had junior high school education. Employees were exposed to physical hazards such as noise (67.38%), heat (62.66%), and smoke (60.52%); chemical hazards such as petrol and diesel; and ergonomic hazards like prolonged standing (92.27%), bending (69.1%), squatting (64.3%), and lying under the car (63.95%). The study concludes that regardless of the educational qualification of artisans, exposure to work-related hazards still occurs.
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Copyright (c) 2023 MAGDALENE PHILIP UMOH, JOHN HUMPHREY AMUASI, ABRAHAM ISIAKA JIMMY, ABIGAIL OWUSU GYAMFI, ROSE ADJAKIE DJANGMASON, JAMES FALLAH, PAUL ANDREW BOURNE, TABITHA MUCHEE
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