ABSTRACT
This research looked into the impact of pollution on the health of female manufacturing employees. The study’s goal was to determine the sources of pollution in the chosen workplaces and how they affect female manufacturing workers. The survey was conducted using survey descriptive methodology with a total of 250 participants. Chemical vapour and smoke, burning waste in the open, engine exhaust, oil and sewage, and solid waste are among the various sources of pollution identified in the responses received and analyzed. Further research demonstrates that industry pollution has an impact on female manufacturing workers’ fertility. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that industry pollution poses a significant perinatal danger to female manufacturing employees. As a result, at.000, The null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternate hypothesis was adopted, stating that pollution puts female industrial employees’ fertility and foetal health at risk. According to the findings, chemical producers should demonstrate that a chemical is safe before selling or using it. Furthermore, companies and governments must bear responsibility for chemical substances in use, and a chemical compound should only be replaced by a safer material, not by another dangerous substance.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Pollution is defined as a large amount of something in an improper location. Some previous toxins are beneficial when used in appropriate proportions. Phosphates and other plant supplements are essential for amphibian survival; yet, many of these supplements result in eutrophication. Carbon dioxide in the environment helps to maintain the globe warm enough to be livable, but massive volumes of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption and other sources are currently changing the planet’s climate. Different toxins, such as dioxin and PCBs, are so harmful that even the most recent health risks, such as malignant growth and conceptive hindrance, are present. Toxins are frequently released into the environment as a result of some beneficial activity, such as generating electricity or raising cows. This type of pollution is a type of rubbish removal. It occurs when the financial costs of eliminating pollution outweigh the financial benefits, or at least the benefits to the polluter—a calculation that is skewed in favor of pollution because air and water are treated as free removal destinations. Toxin arrivals, on the other hand, can be planned, as with pesticides, where biocidal substances are delivered into the earth in exchange for monetary benefits, or unplanned, as with oil slicks, where the polluters themselves suffer harm.
Traditional pollution classifications include receiving media, sources, types of pollutants, and affects. The pollution classifications that focus on the accepted medium, such as air (emanations), water (effluents), and land, are perhaps the most common (dumps and removals). Inland and marine waters, surface and groundwater, troposphere and stratosphere, and perhaps space as well, given the satellites and various flotsam and jetsam gathering out there, would be recognized in a slightly more modern breakdown.
The majority of pollution discussion and regulation revolves around these categories, but attention is increasingly shifting to cross-media impacts, such as the fermentation of lakes and streams caused by air pollution, or the removal ashore or in the expanse of slimes and other residuals from air- and water-pollution control measures.
Our affluent families generate massive amounts of trash and other solid waste, as well as fluid sewage and debilitates from our automobiles and trucks. Pollution from agribusiness has recently gotten a lot of attention. Agribusiness is currently the largest source of toxin loadings into streams and lakes, according to certain measures. Soil particles, composts, pesticides, animal waste, salts, and other chemicals washed into waterways by horticulture cost Nigerians millions of Naira per year (Conservation Foundation 1987).
While pollution is caused by a variety of human activities, two stand out: our reliance on petroleum derivatives, which when ignited produce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, heavy metals, and particulates; and our reliance on the chemical and metals industries, which produce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, heavy metals, and particulates. Most pollutions are of worry because of their synthetic movement, whether it’s harmful effects on living organisms or structural damage and metal consumption. Radiation, both ionizing and nonionizing; warm pollution; infrared catching; clamor; water-borne and different microbes; sediment, garbage, and other strong squanders; and tasteful pollution, including scents and perceptibility debilitation, are a few examples of non-compound pollution that are notable primarily because of their physical impacts. It is common knowledge that pollution has an impact on people’s health, particularly industrial workers who spend the majority of their working days inhaling and exhaling dangerous pollutants.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Workers’ health is a prerequisite for household income, productivity, and economic growth. As a result, health services play a significant role in recovering and maintaining job capacity. Heat, noise, dust, toxic chemicals, unsafe machinery, and psychological stress are all examples of health pollution that can induce occupational diseases and exacerbate existing health issues. Workers, particularly women with complicated anatomical disorders, are at risk. Workers’ health is also influenced by their working environment, job descriptions, and places in the corporate hierarchy. The most prevalent occupational ailments caused by factory pollution include chronic respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, noise-induced hearing loss, and skin problems.
According to WHO (2018), just one-third of nations have programs in place to address these concerns.
Long-term illness and mortality are on the rise as a result of work-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), as well as cardiovascular disease and depression induced by pollution. Occupational cancer, chronic bronchitis, and asthma are examples of non-communicable diseases that can be induced by pollution. Despite these disorders, most doctors and nurses in most countries are not well equipped to deal with pollution-related work-related health problems.
According to the World Health Organization, outdoor air pollution causes 4.2 million premature deaths in the general population, including workers, each year. In 2016, 91 percent of the global population resided in areas where WHO air quality criteria were not reached.
Particulate matter (PM2.5) and coarse particulate matter (PM10) are the most common outdoor air pollutants, followed by ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) (SO2).
Indoor air pollution is also a serious concern, and occupational health and safety legislation and programs have historically addressed it. Technological processes, material and waste combustion, cleaning, transportation vehicles and internal combustion engines, heating, and other factors all contribute to pollution in factories. Chemical substances and preparations, gases, fumes and aerosols, particles, fibers, and other air pollutants are all present in industries. Pollution levels in factories can be much higher than they are outside.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study’s main purpose is to look at the impact of pollution on the health of female manufacturing workers. The research will look into the following topics:
Matori Industrial Area’s different sources of manufacturing pollution.
The effects of various types of pollutants on female factory employees.
The preventive actions that businesses could take to reduce the impact of factory pollution.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What are the sources of pollution in the Matori Industrial Area from factories?
What are some of the effects of pollution on female factory workers?
What preventive actions may businesses take to reduce the impact of factory pollution on female employees?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
H0: Pollution does not harm female manufacturing employees’ fertility or foetal development.
For female industry employees, pollution poses a reproductive and foetal risk.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Pollution in manufacturing has a significant impact that cannot be overstated. This is why investing in safety is beneficial to any corporation that wants to be in business for a long time while achieving its objectives. As a result, our research will shed light on the dangers that female manufacturing employees face and educate them on how to avoid them.
It will also assist policymakers in revising production norms to guarantee worker safety, particularly for female workers.
Furthermore, this research will be used as a resource for future research on manufacturing worker pollution and health risks.
Overall, this research has provided some useful insights into industrial safety programs/policies from the perspective of workers’ attitudes, safe/unsafe behaviors, industrial safety practices, and the extent to which workers’ attitudes and perceptions are linked to their culture in terms of preventing industrial accidents. It has also contributed to a better understanding of the consequences of Nigerian cultural values on industrial safety, as well as providing fresh information for safety experts in dealing with human errors, which are responsible for the majority of industrial accidents.
DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The impact of industrial pollution on worker health is a global issue, with a higher alarming incidence in underdeveloped countries than in industrialized ones with proper safety safeguards. As a result, this study does not cover everything, but rather concentrates on Nigeria, specifically the Matori Industrial Area in Lagos State. Aside from a variety of factors that contribute to workplace injuries, this study focuses on worker industrial pollution as a means of maintaining a healthy working environment.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Industrial safety is the administration of safety actions within a certain industry with the goal of reducing risks and injuries in a specific job function.
An industrial accident is a series of unplanned occurrences that occur during the course of industrial work and result in physical or mental impairment.
Workers’ attitude is a mental and neutral state of preparedness among workers that is organized through work experience and has an impact on the individual worker’s response to all objects and events with which he is associated in the workplace.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) consists of the following items: Personal protective equipment, or “PPE,” is clothing that is worn to reduce exposure to a number of risks. Gloves, foot and eye protection, protected hearing equipment (earplugs, muffs), hard helmets, respirators, and complete body suits are examples of PPE.
SMS (Safety Management System): A SMS is a method for systematically identifying hazards and controlling risks while ensuring that these risk controls are effective.
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), often known as Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), is a field concerned with the safety, health, and well-being of people in the workplace.
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