ABSTRACT
Background: The salt pan workers are exposed to severe health hazards like extreme heat, intense manual labour, direct contact with salt, sunlight glare from salt crystals. This paper describes their knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding their work related hazards as well as availability and use of personal protective equipments (PPEs).Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in 4 randomly selected villages among the 10 salt worker villages in Marakkanam, Tamil Nadu. A house to house survey of the selected villages enrolled 331 salt workers. The data was collected using a pre designed and pre tested questionnaire.Results: Majority of salt worker (78.5%) reported of being aware of one or more hazards like physical stress (70.7%), direct sunlight (38.7%) and glare from salt crystals (16%) in salt work that resulted in musculoskeletal problems, ophthalmic problems, headache and giddiness. 87% of the salt workers were aware of one or the other personal protective equipments. However, only less than 10% were using the conventional PPEs. The reasons for not using PPE were mainly inconvenience in using and PPE not provided by the employer.Conclusions: Most of the study population is aware of the hazards as well as one or the other methods of protective equipment but actual use of PPE is very low because of non-availability and perception of inconvenience in using them. There is a large gap between awareness and practice regarding PPE usage among these salt workers.
ABSTRACT
Background: The occupational hazards faced by salt pan workers during their occupation are myriad, a fact compounded by the lack of basic amenities at their workplace and lack of awareness regarding usage of personal protection equipment.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among fifty-six salt pan workers in Marakkanam, Tamil Nadu to assess their common health problems and a qualitative component was added to assess their felt needs in work place and daily living. Data was collected using pre-designed data collection sheet for assessing the common morbidities. For the qualitative aspect of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted among twenty workers based on convenient sampling, using open ended questions. Data was collected after obtaining informed consent and steps were taken to ensure confidentiality at all stages.Results: The most common health problem of the workers in present study area included dental caries (41.7%), skin conditions (38.1%) musculoskeletal problems (36.7%) and anemia (35.1%) being other significant health problems. The qualitative aspect of the study revealed that the felt needs were improvement of their working conditions and more social support from the Government and the employers. There was very little awareness among the workers regarding use of PPE and none of them used any form of PPE.Conclusions: Salt pan workers had dental problems, dermatological problems and musculoskeletal problems as most common morbidities among them. Harsh working conditions, financial insecurity etc. are some of their work-related problems. Provision of housing facility and financial assistance during off- season by the government, basic amenities at the work place, paid leave in case of injuries, and insurance schemes for them by employer are their main felt needs. They also had no awareness regarding usage of personal protective equipment at the work place.