INTRODUCTION:

“Occupational safety and Health is vital to the dignity of work”. Occupation is the one in which the person not only earn his daily bread, but also spend the one third of average adult life. As the number of industries is on the increase, several industries like furniture industry, cement industries, chemical industry, Textile industry, etc serves mainly man for comfortable living¹.

Carpentry is a skilled trade and craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping, installation of building furniture, ships, timber bridges concrete form work etc.³

Despite of all the advances that have been made in the refinement and development of construction, tools, and materials, Carpentry continue to be a trade that is of high demand. Hard wood floors, structural support and many other elements of a construction projects require the skill of a competent carpenter.

Furniture constriction work is more dangerous than many other occupations and this is especially true for carpenter. Whose job responsibilities expose them to a number of different occupational hazards like injuries, allergic reactions, respiratory problems, risk of cancer, muscle pain, eye injury, psychological stress, hand arm vibration syndrome etc.The inadequate use of personal protective equipments, deficient knowledge regarding the hazards and low socio-economic status are the major factors that lead to these type of ailments².

Occupational diseases have become one of the major economic burdens of every country. According to international organization report 2013, more than 2.3 million people die of occupational diseases. Impairment of health due to exposure to wood dust is an important occupational hazards. It is estimated that atleast2 million people are exposed to wood dust every day around the world³.

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

Wood dust exposure deteriorates pulmonary function, increase the prevalence of respiratory diseases, increases cancer incidence and mucocilliary clearance leading to mucostasis. Out of these, effects on respiratory system are more common. Wood contains microorganisms like fungi, toxins and chemical substances which may significantly affect human health. Occupational hearing loss is the most common carpentry workers due to excessive exposure to loud noises produced from machineries. Exposure to chemicals such as formaldehyde, polishes, and thinners causes various problems including respiratory, integument etc. The vibration from continuous use of machinery causes nerve disorders⁴.

A study conducted in Nigeria job safety assessment of wood work industry in December 2017 says that 85.5% of total response have suffered injuries 99.2% have musculoskeletal exposed to wood problems due to manual lifting, 78.6% of people are exposed to wood dust, 67-90% have bruises and cut over the skin⁵.

In Armenia (Colombia) a study was conducted named. “Health and working condition in carpenters work shop.”2010 says that workers shows risk of acquiring some neurological diseases and damage to the neuron system. Occurrence of cancer in nostrils mainly due to the use of hard woods⁶.

Pulmonary function analysis; a study conducted in Kerala by Jagadeesh R. Pandarikkal concluded that the lung functions of carpenters shows statistically significant reduction compared to normal healthy adults. This could be due to their exposure to wood dust⁷.

Sanjeev Badli (2015) conducted a study regarding the effect of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding “prevention of respiratory tract infection among plywood industry workers in Karnataka, India.” Result revealed that, the overall mean knowledge score in the pre-test was 46.8% and 78.1% in the post-test with enhancement of 31.3% and it is significant at 5% level⁸.

The investigator has come across with many patients with asthma, allergy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease and fracture during clinical practice. On collecting information about them it is noticed that most of them were carpenters, working in wood industries for long time. Hence the investigator felt the need to conduct a study based on it.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

“A study to assess the prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in a selected furniture factory at Kannur District.”

OBJECTIVES:

· Assess the prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers.

· Determine association between the level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and selected socio-demographic variables.

HYPOTHESIS:

H1= There will be a significant association between the level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and selected socio-demographic variables.

RESEARCH MATERIAL AND METHODS:

RESEARCH APPROACH:

In this study quantitative research approach is used.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

The design selected for the study is descriptive research design.

SETTING OF THE STUDY:

Study was conducted among carpentry workers in RUBCO HUAT Pvt, Ltd Thalassery at Kannur District.

POPULATION:

Population consists of carpentry workers in RUBCO HUAT Pvt, Ltd at Kannur district.

SAMPLE:

Employees working in the RUBCO HUAT Pvt, Ltd at Thalassery Kannur who fulfills the inclusive criteria.

SAMPLE SIZE:

The total number of sample consists of 60 carpentry workers in RUBCO HUAT Pvt, Ltd at Kannur district.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:

Non probability sampling convenience sampling technique was used in this study.

RESEARCH TOOLS AND TECHNIQUE:

A self – administered questionnaire was developed after review of literature and discussion with experts and used for the study which includes socio demographic questionnaire, knowledge assessment questionnaire and prevalence questionnaire.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TOOL:

Self administered questionnaire used to collect information regarding the prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in selected furniture factory at Kannur district. Tools for data collection had 3 parts,

Part-1: consist of socio-demographic Performa including age, gender, religion, education, occupation, income, and marital status, type of family and presence of any morbidity.

Part -2: consist of 15 questions dealt with knowledge regarding prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in selected furniture factory.

Part -3: consist of 34 questions dealt with prevalence assessment of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in selected furniture factory.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

Prior to the data collection, written permission was obtained from the concerned authority, Privacy was maintained, and Purpose of data collection explained to the samples, then the questionnaire was administered.

DATA ANALYSIS:

The data obtained were analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics in the basis of objectives and hypothesis of the study. According to the total score obtained, the level of prevalence was classified as high prevalence, moderate prevalence, low prevalence and very low prevalence. To compute the data a master sheet was prepared by the investigator. Base line Performa containing sample characteristics was analyzed using frequency and percentage. Pictorial and graphic forms are used to describe the demographic Performa. The level of prevalence is calculated using frequency, range, mean, median, and standard deviation. Chi-square test was considered to find out the association prevalence level with demographic variables.

Part-1: Consist of socio-demographic Performa including age, gender, religion, education, income, and marital status, type of family and presence of morbidity.

Part-2: Consist of 15 questions dealt with knowledge regarding prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in selected furniture factory.

Part-3: Consist of 34 questions dealt with prevalence assessment of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in selected furniture factory.

DATA ANALSIS AND RESULTS:

The purpose of the data analysis is to reduce the data to manageable and interpretable form, so that the research problem can be studied and tested.

ORGANISATION OF FINDINGS:

The data analyzed and presented under the following headings

Section A Demographic characteristics of workers of carpentry workers

Section B Prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers

Section C Association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazard among carpentry workers and selected demographic variables.

SECTION A:

Demographic characteristics of the sample.

This section deals with description of samples characteristics and explained as frequency and percentage table-1

Table 1: Frequency and percentage distribution of carpentry workers according to age group

SL No	Age in years	Frequency	Percentage
1	20-30	7	11.6%
2	31-40	20	33.33%
3	41-50	25	41.66%
4	UP TO 60	8	13.33%
	TOTAL	60	100%

INFERENCE:

Data in table 1 shows that highest percentage (41.66%) of employees were belongs to the age group of 41-50years, 33.33% of employees were belongs to the age group of 31-40 years, 13.33% of employees belongs to age group of up t 60 years and lowest percentage (1.6%) of employees were belongs to age group of 22-30 years.

Figure 2: Frequency and percentage distribution of carpentry workers according to gender

INFERENCE:

The figure 2 shows that percentage distribution of carpentry workers according to gender. It shows that 66% of employees are males and 34% are female.

Table 2: frequency and percentage distribution of sample according to their religion.

S. No	Religion	Frequency	Percentage
1	Hindu	52	86.6%
2	Muslim	1	1.66%
3	Christian	1	1.66%
4	Others	6	10%
	Total	60	100%

INFERENCE:

Data in table-2 shows that highest percentage (86.6%) of workers was Hindus and

Least percentage (1%) of them was Christians and Muslims.

Figure 3: Percentage Distribution of educational status of samples.

INFERENCE:

Fig 3 bar diagram showing the percentage distribution of sample according to their educational status. It shows educational qualification of 53.33% is 10^th and below, 38.33% are 11-12^th STD and 8.33% are degree qualification.

Table-4: Frequency and percentage distribution of monthly income of the employees.

S No	Monthly income	Frequency	Percentage
1	>5000	1	1.66%
2	5000-10000	30	50%
3	10001-20000	29	48.33%
4	Above 30000	0	0
	Total	60	100%

INFERENCE:

Data in table 4 shows that employees 50% them have monthly income ranges between Rs.5000-10000, 48.33% of them were monthly income between 10001-20000, and 1.66% of employees have monthly income below Rs.5000.

Figure 4: Percentage distribution of carpenters according to the age of beginning the job

INFERENCE:

Fig 4Pie diagram showing the distribution of carpenters according to the age of beginning the job. It shows that 48.33% have started job between the age of 30 -40 yrs, 46.66% started job at the age of 20-30yrs, 3.33 % started job at the age of below 20 yrs and 1.66% started job above 40 yrs.

Table-5 frequency and percentage distribution of working experienceof sample.

S No	Working experience	Frequency	Percentage
1	Below 1 year	0	0
2	1-3 year	9	15%
3	3-5 year	2	3.33%
4	Above 5 year	49	81.66%
	Total	60	100%

INFERENCE:

Data in table 5 shows that 81.66% of employees have working experience more than 5 years, 15% employees have 1-3years working experience and 3.33%of employees have 3-5 years experience in the carpentry industry.

Figure 5 percentage distribution of past medical treatment for following illness, before joining the factory.

INFERENCE:

Data in the figure5 shows that 70% of employees don’t have any past medical history before joining the factory, 15% of employees have allergic problems, 8.33% have hand arm vibration syndrome and 6.66% have respiratory problems.

SECTION B:

Prevalance of Occupational Health Hazards Among Carpentry Workers

TABLE 6 –Level of Prevalance

Level of prevalence	Frequency	Percentage
High prevalence	5	8.33
Moderate prevalence	8	13.3
Low prevalence	23	38.33
Very low prevalence	24	40

INFERENCE:

Table 6 shows that 8.33% carpentry workers have highly prevalence, 13.3%have moderately prevalence, 38.33 have low prevalence and 40% have low prevalence rate.

Table 7: range, mean, median, standard deviation, mean percentage of the workers.

Range of score	Mean	Median	Standard deviation	Mean percentage (%)
1-33	11.8	11	7.641	34.7

SECTION C:

Association Between the level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and demographic variables

Association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and demographic variables such as age, gender, religion, educational status, marital status, type of family, monthly income, age at beginning of work, year of experience and past medical history before joining the industry. To find out association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazards and selected socio-demographic variables.

The association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and selected demographic variables are shown below the following table.

TABLE: 8

S No:	Demographic variables	Chi square	Degree of freedom	Table value	P – value	Inference
1	Age	0.8308	3	7.815	P> 0.05	NS
2	Gender	0.419	1	3.814	P>0.05	NS
3	Religion	0.89	3	7.815	P>0.05	NS
4	Educational status	0.3271	2	5.991	P>0.05	NS
5	Marital status	188.81	1	3.841	P<0.05	S
6	Type of family	0.033	1	3.841	P>0.05	NS
7	Monthly income	2548.37	2	5.991	P<0.05	S
8	Age at beginning of work	4.175	3	7.815	P>0.05	NS
9	Year of experience	0.2569	2	5.991	P>0.05	NS
10	Past medical history before joining the industry	3.1047	3	7.815	P>0.05	NS

INFERENCE:

The data presented in the table shows that marital status and monthly income showed significant association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and socio-demographic variables (calculated value more than the tabulated value at 0.05 level of significance) and other socio-demographic variables are not significant.

RESULT OF THE ANALYSIS:

The collected data was tabulated in the master sheet and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The collected data was tabulated in the master sheet and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.H1: There is a significant association between level of prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers and selected socio-demographic variables is accepted.

Prevalence:

The present study shows that selected samples had problems like respiratory problem, musculoskeletal problems and allergies. The study result reveals that 8.33% showed high prevalence of occupational health hazards, 13.3% showed moderate level prevalence rate, 38.3% showed low prevalence rate and 40% of workers showed very low prevalence of occupational health hazards.

Association:

The demographic variables of the present study reveals that, the majority (41.66%) of the subject is between 41 50 yrs of age group, 33.33% is between 31-40 yrs of age group, 13.33% is up to 60 yrs of age group and 11.6% is between 20- 30 yrs of age .65% of subjects are males and the 35% of subjects are female. Highest percentage (86.6%) of carpentry workers were Hindus, only 1% constituted Muslim and Christian and 6% was others. 53.33% of employees were educate up to 10^th std, 38.33% were educated up to 11^th and 12^thstd and 8.33% were completed the degree.78.33% carpentry workers are married and 21.66% were unmarried. 71.66% employees belong to nuclear family and 28.33% belongs to joint family.48.33% of workers were having monthly income ranges between 10,001-20,000 Rs, 50% of employees were having monthly income ranges between 5000-10,000 Rs and only 1.66% of employees have monthly income below 5000 Rs. 48.33% have started job at the age between 30-40 yrs, 46.66% between the age of 20-30 yrs, 3.33% below 20 yrs and 1.66% above 40 yrs. 81.66% of carpentry workers have working experience above 5yrs, 15% between 1-3yrs and 3.33% between 3-5 yrs.70% of workers were not having any past medical history,15% have allergic problems, 8.33% have hand arm vibration syndrome, 6.66% have respiratory problems.

CONCLUSION:

The present study shows that selected samples had health hazards like respiratory problem, musculoskeletal problems/hand arm vibration syndrome and allergies in terms of high prevalence, moderate prevalence, low prevalence and very low prevalence. The chi square test shows that there is significant association between the marital status and monthly income of selected demographic variables and other variables doesn’t have any significant association.

NURSING IMPLICATIONS:

The present study conducted to assess the prevalence of occupational health hazards among carpentry workers in a selected furniture factory at Kannur district. Providing educational sections regarding occupational health hazards among carpentry workers will help to reduce the occurrence of hazards. Nursing implication in this study included in the areas of nursing practices, nursing education, nursing research and nursing administration.

Nursing practice:

Prevalence among carpentry workers of occupational health hazard is a challenge in present scenario requiring active awareness classes and immediate concern. Assessing the prevalence of occupational health hazard help in providing prompt care to the needed ones.

Nursing education:

Nursing education is an independent activity that the nurses can conduct different teaching programs and health education to the high risk groups. So that a safe and healthy work environment culture can be promoted.

Nursing administration:

The Heath care administration can mobilize the available resources towards creation of awareness among employees regarding the prevention and management of health hazards. Administration should consider the concept of ergonomics.

Nursing research:

Studies can be conducted to identify the attitude and practice of employees regarding safe and healthy work concept.

CONCLUSION:

Occupational environment should aim at the promotion of the highest degree of physical, social and mental well being of workers in all occupations⁹. Development of a working culture in the direction which supports health and safety at work and doing so promotes a positive social climate and may enhance productivity of the undertakings¹⁰.

REFERENCES:

1. Suryakantha AH. Community medicine with recent Advances: 4th edition. New Delhi: Jaypee Publication; 2017. 219-236.

2. Frances A, Maurer et al. Community/Public health nursing Practice: 5th edition; Elsevier Sounders Publication; 2013. 248-255.

3. Dr. Vijay. Community Medici: 3rd edition; New Delhi: I Publications PVt Ltd; 2007.356-359.

4. Carpentry Wikipedia, https//en.wikipedia.org

5. Carpenters-what do carpenter do? https://students scholerships.org

6. Carpentry health and safety hazards-Metzger law group, www.toxic torts.com

7. Pulmonary function analysis in carpenters, study from Kerala, https://www.msjonline.org.pulmfunction

8. Occupational exposure to wood dust and respiratory health status, https://www.longdom.org

9. Job safety assessment of wood work industry in the Southwest Nigeria, http://www.researchgate.net

10. Study regarding the management of occupational hazards in wood processing industry in South west Nigeria, https:// ssjournels.com

Received on 08.12.2019 Modified on 31.12.2019

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2020; 8(2):235-240.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2020.00051.4