Occupational Health Hazards among Workers in Garment Factories in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Garment workers constitute a lion share of the total labour force in Bangladesh, which bring most of the country’s foreign currency. The competitiveness of the garment industry in the world market is seriously affected by the ill health of the workers, since ill health decreases the labour productivity to a great extent. The competitiveness of the garment industry in the world market is seriously affected by the ill health of the workers, since ill health decreases the labour productivity to a great extent.Objective: To find out the occupational health hazards among the workers, working in different garment factories in Bangladesh.Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted from January 2013 to June 2013. Total sample was 145 and purposive sampling technique was followed for data collection, which was done by face to face interview by an interviewer. The data was collected on a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed by computer by SPSS version 17.0. Results: Out of 145 respondents, majority (40%) were found in the age group of 16-20 years where mean age was 23.30 years with S.D. of ±6.92 years. Among all the respondents, 89% were female. 45.52% were educated institutionally. 52.4% respondents were machine operator, but maximum (75%) were unskilled and 72% had length of job between 2-7 years. 91% respondents normally worked for 8-9 hours. 85.5% did 2-3 hours overtime. In the last one year 64.8% had no accident but minor cut, burn or injury was faced by 28.3%. Most of the (44%) respondents did not complain about physical environmental pollution but 33.8% complained of noise pollution. Majority (84.8%) told that doctor & nurse were constantly present in their factory and they were satisfied with their health facilities. Maximum (51%) respondents suffered from headache or shoulder pain. Majority did not mention any permanent illness. In this study the prevalence of occupational health hazards was 88.28%. A significant relationship was found between noise pollution and headache (P value 0.014). Conclusion: More emphasis should be given to the workers to improve their health condition and working environment, so that they can increase their efficiency which can ultimately increase the production and add GDP to the country. Government should provide more fund for research purposes in order to improve the condition of the working population and their working environment.

Keywords: Occupational Accidents, Bangladesh.