Respiratory Health Problems among Sawmill Workers At The Timber Market, Accra

ABSTRACT

The sawmill business is a thriving business in Ghana because of the availability of Timber and a high demand for the product in the export market. Exposure of sawmill workers to saw dust is a major occupational hazard facing the industry (Rastogi, 2009) as chronic respiratory symptoms are quite common.

METHOD:

This study looked at the respiratory health of sawmill workers. It was carried out at the Timber Market, Accra, with a sample size of 155 sawmill workers. Data was collected through questionnaires and spirometer readings of lung function (FEV1, FVC and FEV/FVC %). The data collected was analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel.

RESULTS:

The result of the study indicated that all the respondents of the study were males and majority of them were below 40 years. 47.7% of the respondents had worked at the sawmill for 10 years and above. Some of the respiratory symptoms presented by respondents include cough (77.4%), cold (76.8%), wheezing (47.75%), tightness of chest (47.7%), shortness of breath (52.9%) and phlegm production (60.6%). Analysis of spirometer values showed 14.8% of the respondents had obstructive lung impairment whiles 7.1% had restrictive type of lung impairment. The study identified a strong association between the duration of working at the sawmill and the odds of developing respiratory symptoms among the respondents. Respondents who have worked for more than ten years are more likely to develop respiratory symptoms than those who have worked for less than ten years. Those who have worked for more than ten years are more than twenty eight time more likely to develop cough (OR 28.50), six times more likely to develop cold (OR 6.21), four times more likely to develop shortness of breath (OR 3.51), three times more likely to produce phlegm (OR 3.31) and twice likely to experience wheezing (OR 1.72) v On the use of PPE, the study showed that, majority of the respondents (69%) said they do not use any protective devices whilst only 31% used personal protective equipment. Some of the reasons cited for not using PPE were that equipment were not available (53.3%) and the PPE felt uncomfortable (46.7%).

CONCLUSION:

The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was high among the sawmill workers at the Timber market. Also about a fifth of the respondents had lung function impairment and this relationship was influenced by the duration of working at the sawmill, age of respondents and smoking. It was also identified that, respondents who have worked at the sawmill for ten years or more are more likely to show respiratory symptoms and lung function impairment than those who have worked there for less than ten years. Finally, most of the respondents did not use PPE as required.