A study of knowledge and utilization of safety measures against occupational hazards among constructional workers in Surendranagar city, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Background: Occupational health is concerned with health in its relation to work and working environment. It implies not only health promotion but also health protection, emergency care, wide range of preventive, curative services, rehabilitative services, a concept which includes everything that can apply to promote health and working capacity of the workers. The accident rate is very high in this industry when compared to other industries. They are due to lack of safety awareness in the management personnel and workers who cut corners to work and perform unsafe behavior at work. In fact most construction workers lack proper education, they have not received proper safety training and trade skill training in the construction field.  The objective was to determine knowledge and utilization of safety measures among them in Surendranagar city, Gujarat, India.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out among 312 construction workers from 10 different construction sites selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected and analyzed by Statistical package for social sciences & Microsoft word & excel have been used to generate graphs, tables etc.

Results: The study revealed that most of the workers didn’t have proper knowledge regarding work related hazards and its prevention. Workers who were not using personal protective equipment (PPE) had more chances of injuries

Conclusions: A proper engineering control measure should be the first target for prevention of hazard. It should be implemented for construction site workers to reduce burden of overall morbidity.