Non Usage of Personal Protective Equipment Among Industrial Workers and its Effects

Project Report from the year 2016 in the subject Organisation and administration - Disaster control, grade: 3.56, , course: Environmental Health, language: English, abstract: Personal protective devices are equipment used in industries/factories mainly by workers to prevent/protect themselves from hazards that may arise during the course of carrying out their duties. Personal protective devices are considered as last line of protection or defense for workers against different types of hazards after all engineering measures to minimize or control hazards from the source itself has been exhausted. It is worthy to note that industrial evolution has brought great development to the economy of the world at large. However, the consequence that comes with this development are quite unnoticeable. These neglected side effects of industrialization have greatly contributed to the world problems, mostly especially on the health of the workers. The workers are exposed to various degrees of hazards present or generated in the work environment leading to accidents deafness, cuts, abrasion, blindness, respiratory diseases, disabilities etc. resulting from negligence on the part of the workers, non-compliance to the rules and regulations guiding industrial processes and mostly the non-usage of personal protective devices. Generally, sawmills as an industry have potential hazards which have imparts or consequences on the workers mostly when personal protective devices are not use. Akoti sawmill has provision for personal protective devices but the workers do not make effective use of them, which predisposes the workers to hazards which can result into injury, cuts, deafness, blindness, impaired hearing, heart problems, respiratory diseases, headaches, dizziness, accidents, high blood pressure, Asthma and all other diseases and disabilities and even so it can also lead to death. Therefore, awareness should be made so as to protect and promote the health of workers thereby enhancing productivity. Personal protective equipment's are equipment's which must be worn by every industrial] factories workers before starting] handling any factory work: some of the personal protective devices include gloves, body covering apron, boots, googles or face shield, head or neck coverings, mouth and nose guards etc. Based on these observations, this prompted me to carry out the research on non-usage of personal protective devices so as to know the reason and. effects of non-usage of those devices/ equipment by industrial/ factory workers.

A graduate of Environmental Health form College of Health, Akure Ondo State. Currently serving as a youth corper in Kwara State