Introduction
Occupational
health and safety laws cover only about 10 percent of the population in
developing countries, omitting many major hazardous industries and occupations.
With rare exception, most countries defer to the United Nations the
responsibility for international occupational health. The UN's international
agencies have had limited success in bringing occupational health to the
industrializing countries (Loewenson R.
1998).
The Laws: Occupational health is not a goal achievable in
isolation.
Section 19 of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act 1984 sets out the obligation of an employer
'where it is not practicable to avoid the presence of hazards at the workplace,
[to] provide the employees with, or otherwise provide for the employees to
have, such adequate personal protective clothing and equipment as is
practicable to protect them against those hazards, without any cost to the
employees' (Odeku KO & Odeku O: 2014).
It should be part of a major
institutional development that touches and reforms every level of government in
an industrializing country.
Occupational health and safety
should be brought to industrializing countries by a comprehensive consultative
program sponsored by the United States and other countries that are willing to
share the burden.
Occupational health and safety
program development is tied to the economic success of the industrializing
country and its industries.
Only after the development of a
successful legal and economic system in an industrializing country is it
possible to incorporate a successful program of occupational health and safety.
Employees are important to the
progress of any organisation so, they should be kept happy and provided for
with sustainable wages, welfare packages and other incentives which are not
always given.
It is therefore not unusual to
see labour unrest as a result of complains of poor welfare provisions and
services to the workers.
Employees are of the perception
that although capital is provided by the employers, they are the main resource
used to bring about output and production which eventually bring back the
investment and huge dividends to the employers.
Protective clothing in
various occupation
·
Respiratory protection - for example, disposable,
cartridge, airline, half or full face.
·
Eye protection – for example, spectacles/goggles,
shields, visors.
·
Hearing protection – for example, ear muffs and plugs.
·
Hand protection – for example, gloves and barrier creams.
·
The lungs, e.g. from breathing in contaminated air
·
The head and feet, e.g. from falling materials
·
The eyes, e.g. from flying particles or splashes of
corrosive liquids
·
The skin, e.g. from contact with corrosive materials
·
The body, e.g. from extremes of heat or cold
Occupational
asphyxiation
This is a
condition where there is insufficient or lack of oxygen supply to the blood
stream, and the tissue do not receive adequate supply of oxygen. Asphyxia
is the condition where the body either doesn't get enough oxygen to continue
normal function or has too much carbon dioxide to function properly. Without
adequate oxygen, nerve cells in the brain begin to die in about 2-4 minutes,
and cell death is irreversible. When Stephen inhaled water, the water in his
lungs blocked the lungs' uptake of oxygen. Drowning or near drowning can cause
asphyxia, but so can a number of other conditions (Odeku KO & Odeku O. 2014).
The causes of this health problem
are as follows:
·
Absence or
insufficient oxygen to breath in an environment e.g. confined area, inhalation
of poisonous gases or water.
·
Failure of
lungs and heart from functioning properly as a result of an accident or
disease.
·
Air
passage obstruction due to drowning, strangulation, etc.
·
Paralysis
of the respiratory nerve centre and muscles due to electrocution, carbon
monoxide poisoning, fracture of the spinal cord or disease of the nervous
system.
·
Muscles
contractions as in the case of tetanus (lockjaw).
Symptoms
of Occupational Asphyxiation.
·
Deep and
difficulty in breathing which increases with time and later becomes noisy with
frothy mouth.
·
Congestion
of the head, neck and/or face.
·
Lips,
fingernails and toes become bluish (cyanosis)
·
Loss of
consciousness.
Prevention
/Control of Occupational Asphyxiation
·
Ensure
proper ventilation of work place.
·
Ensure
proper management of poisonous gases in the workplace.
·
Proper pre-employment
medical examination of workers to detect cardiac infections/diseases.
·
Early
treatment of cardiac infection/disease when detected.
REFERENCE
Loewenson R. (1998). Situation analysis of and issues in
occupational health and safety in the SADC region. Paper prepared for the
Employment and Labour Sector meeting of the Southern
African Development Community, Grand Bea, Mauritius.
Dubovsky H. (1993). Occupational lung disease. South African
Medical Journal, 1993, 83: 436.
Trapido A.S. (1996). Occupational lung disease in ex-mineworkers sound
a further alarm! South African
Medical Journal.
Steen T. (1994). Prevalence of occupational lung disease
amongst Botswana men formerly employed
in the South African Mining Industry. Unpublished data.
Loewenson R. (2000). Occupational hazards in the informal sector:
a global perspective. In: Health
effects of the new labour market. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Jinadu M. Occupational health and safety in a newly
industrializing country. Journal of the Royal Society of Health, 1987,
107 (1): 810.
Lukindo J. (1993). Comprehensive survey of the informal sector in
Tanzania. African Newsletter on Occupational
Health and Safety, 1993, 3:
3637.
Odeku KO
& Odeku O (2014). In
pursuit of the employees' welfare in the workplace: issues in perspectives OF - Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences,
2014 - mcser.org
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