Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 21;14(6):1985.
doi: 10.4081/jphia.2023.1985. eCollection 2023 Jun 21.

Determinants of knowledge associated with occupational hazards and perceived health problems among dye workers in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Olusegun Emmanuel Thomas  1 , Adeyinka Adefolarin  2 , Godson Ana  3 , Georgina Odaibo  4
Affiliations

Determinants of knowledge associated with occupational hazards and perceived health problems among dye workers in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Olusegun Emmanuel Thomas et al. J Public Health Afr. .

Abstract

Background: Identification of potential hazards, their adverse health effects, and predisposing factors in the workplace are critical to improving safety. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge of occupational hazards, the prevalence of perceived health problems and their predictors among textile dye workers in Abeokuta Nigeria who work in unsupervised settings.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 199 participants using a validated semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of knowledge while Pearson Chi-square was employed to test the association between perceived health problems, sociodemographics and work environment characteristics.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 40 (SD=12) years with an average work experience of 19 years. The majority of respondents 139 (69.8%) had lower than average scores on knowledge of 25 questions on chemical hazards. There was no correlation between knowledge score and work experience (P=0.492) or age (P=0.462) but the knowledge was significantly associated with exposure score (P=0.004), gender (P=0.002) and adherence to instructions on chemicals usage (P=0.041) after adjusting for safe practice. The most frequent health problems among the dye workers were respiratory disorders (53.8%), allergies (51.8%), and skin disorders (24.1%). Airborne gaseous pollutants from the mixing of chemicals were associated with allergies (P=0.045), circulatory (P=0.02) and skin disorders (P=0.049) while air-borne textile fiber/dye particles could predict allergies (P=0.028).

Conclusions: Findings revealed that exposure, gender and adherence to instruction labels on dye/chemical containers could determine knowledge of chemical hazards while physical work environment characteristics could determine health problems.

Keywords: chemical hazards; occupational safety; personal protective equipment; work environment characteristics; work-related diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: the authors declare no potential conflict of interest. Ethics approval and consent to participate: ethical approval of the protocol was obtained from the University of Ibadan/University College Hospital Research Ethics Committee, ref. no. UI/EC/18/0637 dated 1st January 2019. All procedures were in accordance with responsible standards on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

References

    1. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Recommended practices for safety and health programs, 2016. Available from: www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-identification.html. Accessed: 7th October 2020.
    1. Rushton L. The global burden of occupational disease. Curr Environ Heal Reports 2017;4:340-8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organisation. Global health risks:mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks, 2009. Available from:www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/global_health_risks/en/. Accessed 6th september 2020.
    1. Okafoagu NC, Oche M, Awosan KJ, et al. . Determinants of knowledge and safety practices of occupational hazards of textile dye workers in Sokoto, Nigeria: a descriptive analytic study. J Pub Health Afr 2017;8:664. - PMC - PubMed
    1. LaDou J. International occupational health. Int J Hyg Environ Health 2003;206:303-13. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources