A Study on Awareness and Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Among Factory Workers Of GIDC Dared, Jamnagar city, Gujarat

Abstract

Background: The proper use of safety measures by workers is an important way of preventing and/or reducing a variety of health hazards that they are exposed to during work. There is a lack of knowledge about hazards and personal protective equipment (PPE) and the use of PPE among the workers in industries of Dared GIDC is limited. Objectives: We designed a study to assess workers' awareness of hazards and PPE, and the use of PPE among the workers of industries of Dared GIDC and to find a possible correlation between awareness and use of PPE among them.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2018 to November 2018.Total 640 subjects were selected by simple random sampling after conducting a pilot study, who provided data via the completion of a structured questionnaire. Results: As there are more chances of accidents in industrial set up, injuries due to accidents can be prevented by proper use of PPE during work. But the results indicate that only 45.16% workers knew about health hazards related to their occupation. Only 43.75% workers knew that these hazards could be prevented by use of PPE. Out of all only 38.6% workers were actually using PPE. Conclusion: The workers using PPE were those who were aware of hazards and PPE. There is a gap between being aware of hazards and use of PPE at work.