An Empirical Verification of Occupational Health Hazards on Sawmill Workers

Abstract

The study investigates an empirical verification of occupational health hazards on sawmill workers at various sawmill within the Ibadan land local governments. The data were collected through the use of self-structured questionnaires majority closed-ended with few open-ended question was administered to 10 local government plank markets. Simple descriptive analysis such as respondents frequency and simple percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents while regression analyses were employed to determine respondents health disorders experienced and other preventive measured by the sawmill worker. It was revealed that the average age for all respondents was 35 years, thus showing that majority of the respondent was in the middle age-categories. Result shown that 97.5% of the respondents are Male while the remaining 2.5% are Female, indicating that, it is men’s job.56.25% had no formal education while 20%, 13.75% 7.5% and 2.5% had spiritual, primary, secondary and tertiary education respectively. Three variables were significant in influencing the level of occupational health hazards and disorders of the respondents. These are respondents health disorders experienced (p<0.01), years of experience (p<0.05) and educational level (p<0.1). The study discovered some health hazards and disorders associated with the sawmill work in Ibadan land. It was also discovered that wastes generated in the sawmill industries had a lot of effects on the health conditions of workers. The hazards and disorders need integrated approach in respect of prevention and control. Therefore, advices were given to the government, the factories and the communities in general.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p511