INTRODUCTION:

Occupational health is essentially preventive medicine. Ergonomics is now a well recognized discipline and constitutes an integral part of any advanced occupational health service [6]. The meaning of Ergonomics is “fitting the job to the worker”.

The object of ergonomics is to achieve the best mutual adjustment of man and his work for the improvement of human efficiency and wellbeing. Industrial workers constitute only a segment of the general population and the factors that influence the health of the population also apply equally to industrial workers.[2]

Received on 03.03.2015 Modified on 19.03.2015

Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 8(4): April, 2015; Page 486-489

DOI: 10.5958/0974-360X.2015.00081.5

Definition:

Occupational health should aim at the promotion and maintenance of highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations.[3]

Occupational environment:

Basically there are three types of interaction in an environment.

· Man and Physical ,Chemical and Biological agents

· Man and Machine

· Man and Man[2]

Man and Physical, Chemical and Biological agents

ü Physical agents:

The physical factors in the working environment which may be adverse to health are heat, cold, humidity, air movement, heat radiation, light, noise vibration and ionizing radiation.

ü Chemical agents:

These comprise a large number of chemicals, toxic dust and gases which are potential hazards to the health of the workers.

ü Biological agents:

Workers may be exposed to viral, rickettsial, bacterial and parasitic agents, which may results from close contact with animals or their products, contaminated water, soil or food.

Man and Machine

A factory implies the use of machines driven by power with emphasis on mass production. Unguarded machines, protruding and moving parts, poor installation of the plant, lack of safety measures are the causes of accidents which is a major problem in industries.

Man and Man

The psychological factors which operate at the place of work. These are the human relationships amongst workers themselves on the one hand, and those in authority over them on the other.

Three “E”s of Safety

Engineering, Education and Enforcement.

Engineering aspects of a safety program involve making design improvement to both product and process. By altering the design of a product, the processes required to manufacture it can be simplified and as a result made less dangerous. In addition the processes used to manufacture product can be engineered in ways that decrease potential hazards associated with the processes.

The Education aspect of a safety programme ensures that employees knowhow to work safely, why it is important to do so, and that safety is expected by management. Safety education typically covers the what, when, where, why and how to safety.

The Enforcement aspect of a safety programe involves making sure that employees abide by safety policies, rules, regulations, practices and procedures. Supervisors and fellow employees play a key role in the enforcement aspect of modern safety programmes[2]

Occupational Hazards

· Physical hazards

· Light hazards

· Chemical hazards

· Biological hazards

· Mechanical hazards

· Psychological hazards

· Noise hazards

· Falling hazards

· Vibration hazards

Physical hazards

The common physical hazards in most of the industries is heat. The exposure of heat exposure are burns, heat exhaustion ,heat stroke, and heat cramps. the indirect effect are decreased efficiency, increased fatigue and enhanced accident rates.[3] The hazards associated with cold work are chilblains, erythrocyanosis, immersion foot and frostbite as a result of cutaneous vasoconstriction.

Light hazards

The workers may be exposed to the risk of poor illumination or excessive brightness. The acute effects of poor illumination are eye strain, headache, eye pain, lachrymation, congestion around cornea and eye fatigue.[1] The acute effects on health includes “miners nystagmus”. Exposure to excessive brightness or ‘glare’ is associated with discomfort, annoyance and visual fatigue.

Chemical hazards

The chemical hazards are on the increase with the introduction of newer and complex chemicals. The chemical hazards are harmful to skin, respiratory system and gastro intestinal system. Some chemicals cause dermatitis, eczema, ulcers and cancer. The aromatic nitro and amino compounds such as TNT and aniline are absorbed through the skin and cause systemic effects. Dusts are finely divided solid particles with size ranging from 0.1 to 150 microns. Dust particles larger than 10 microns settle down from air while the smaller ones remain suspended indefinitely. Particles smaller than 5 microns are directly inhaled into the lungs and are retained. Dust have been classified into inorganic and organic dusts. Exposure to gases is a common hazard in industries. Carbon monoxide hazard is frequently reported in coal gas manufacturing plants and steel industry. A large number of metals and their compounds are used throughout the industry[3]. Occupational disease is result from ingestion of chemical substances such as lead, mercury, arsenic, zinc, chromium, phosphorus etc.

Biological hazards

Workers may be exposed to infective and parasitic agents at the place of work. Persons working among animal products like hair, wool, hides and agricultural workers are specially exposed to biological hazards. Schistosomiasis is a occupation hazard of agriculture workers who are exposed to contaminated swimming larvae of the parasites of schistosoma species releasing by snails. Workers engaged in field areas suffer from a variety of environmental infective disease which may be dust borne, soilborne, water borne or vector borne.[1]

Mechanical hazards

The mechanical hazards in industry centre round machinery, protruding and moving parts and like. These may cause variety of accidents which may result in partial or permanent disability.

Psychological hazards

· The psychological hazards arise from the workers failure to adapt to an alien psychosocial environment. Frustration, lack of job satisfaction, insecurity, poor human relationships, emotional tension are some of the psychological factors which may undermine both physical and mental health of the workers. The health effects can be classified in two main categories.

· Psychological and behavioral changes.

· Psychosomatic ill health.[3]

Noise hazards

Noise is a health hazards in many industries. The effects of noise are of two types

· Auditory effects which consists of temporary or permanent hearing loss.

· Non auditory which consists of nervousness, fatigue, interference with communication by speech decreased efficiency and annoyance.

Falling hazards

Falling from ladders and other elevated situations is covered later in this chapter. This section deals with the more common surface falls. According to Miller such falls can be divided into following four categories.[5]

ü Trip and fall accidents occur when workers encounter an unseen foreign object in their path. When a foot strikes the object the employee trips and falls.

ü Stump and fall accidents occur when worker’s suddenly meets a sticky surface or a defect in the walking surface. Expecting to continue at the established pace, the worker falls when his or her foot is unable to respond properly.

ü Step and fall accidents occur when the foot encounters an unexpected step down (e.g; a hole in the floor or a floor board that gives way). This can also happen when an employee thinks he or she has reached the bottom of the stairs when, in reality, there is one more step.

ü Slip and fall accidents occur when the workers center of gravity is suddenly thrown out of balance (e.g; an oily spot causes a foot to shoot out from under the workers)[2]

Strategies for preventing slips

1. Choose the right material from the outset.

2. Retrofit an existing surface.

3. Practice good housekeeping.

4. Require nonskid footwear.

5. Inspect surfaces frequently.

Vibration hazards

The frequency range 10 to 500 Hz, may be encountered in work with pneumatic tools such as drills and hammers. Vibration usually affects the hands and arms. After some years of exposure ,the fine blood vessels of the fingers may become increasingly sensitive to spasm .It mainly starts with an initial phase associated with tingling of fingers, accompanied by numbness and followed by episodes of blanching of finger tips the fingers turn white due to underlying vasospasm.[3]

Occupational Health Nursing

The emergence of occupational health nursing formerly called industrial nursing. Occupational health nursing practice in the specialty of practice thus provides for and delivers health care to workers and workers population. The practice focus on promotion, protection and restoration of workers health within the context of a safe and healthy work environment. Occupational health nursing practice is derived from a synthesis of knowledge gained primarily from the nursing, medicine, community health, occupational health, social/ behavioral sciences, as well as from management/ administration theories and concept and legal/ regulators principles.[4]