Environmental Sanitation and Work Safety among Workers in the Waste Recycling Shops at Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

This survey research aimed to : 1) to survey the environmental sanitations; 2) to describe the health problems of workers; and 3) to identify factors related to work safety among workers who worked in waste recycling shops in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. By using a questionnaire 79 workers were interrogated and an environmental survey were conducted in 25 waste recycling shops by waste recycling shops assessment sheet designed by the Pollution Control Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand. Data were collected during May-July 2016 and analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment correlation. The results of the research showed that : 1) main problems were related to environmental issues were below standard including the environmental area conditions (88.0%), pathways of the entrance and the exit (80.0%), and wastewater treatment systems (76.0%), respectively; 2) health hazards among 74.7% of the workers had cough, 70.9% had muscle aches, and 62.0% had nose irritation; and 3) the overall performance had signififcant relationships with knowledge (r = 0.595), perception health problems (r = 0.359), access the opportunity PPEs used (r = 0.368), economics status (r = 0.612) at p < 0.05. The result of the study could be used as a guide for the implementation of work safety activities and increase the frequency of safety training to protect reduce health problems in workers.