Awareness of occupational hazards, use of personal protective equipment and workplace risk assessment among welders in mechanic village, Abakaliki, Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Occupational health service delivery, includes the creation of a safe and healthy work environment.  The protection and promotion of workers’ health; is at its infantile stages in the informal sector such as the welding industry in Nigeria. We determined the level and determinants of awareness of occupational hazards, determinants of use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and carried out a workplace risk assessment among the welders at the mechanic village in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study among welders working in the mechanic village, Abakaliki was done. A structured, pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to extract information on awareness of occupational hazards, frequency of use of PPE, and health-related complaints amongst others.

Result: All the respondents were male with a mean age of 27.6± 10.1 years. We found a good awareness of occupational hazards in 60% of the respondents and though this was associated with being older than 30years (p=0.03), being an expert compared to an apprentice (p=0.003), duration of work more than 5years (p=0.004), none of these factors, when modelled in logistic regression, were predictors of good awareness. Regular use of PPE was reported in 49.79% of respondents. Cuts, sparks, and foreign bodies in the eye were the most common hazards they were aware of. Cuts were the most reported health complaint. Good awareness of hazards was associated with higher odds of sustaining cuts (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.46 – 6.69) and a predictor of regular use of PPE (AOR:2.6, 95%CI:1.12 – 5.88). The workplace risk assessment revealed a work environment not conducive to occupational safety and health.

Conclusion: A good awareness of occupational hazards was moderately high, a predictor of regular use of PPE and not protective of sustaining cuts in the suboptimal work environment.