Knowledge of, Attitude towards Occupational Hazards, and Compliance with Safety Precautions among Workers in Plastic Manufacturing Industries in Anambra State.

Abstract

The study determined knowledge of, attitude towards occupational hazards, and compliance with safety precautions among workers in plastic manufacturing industries in Anambra State. Seven specific objectives with corresponding seven research questions and fifteen null hypotheses guided the study. The cross-sectional research design was utilized for the study. The population for the study comprised of all the 242 workers in registered plastic manufacturing industries in Anambra State in 2017. Structured and validated questionnaire with five sections served as instrument for data collection. Split-half method of reliability was used to test the reliability of the instrument. Spearman-Brown correlation formular was used to compute the reliability of sections B and C of the instrument while Cronbach Alpha statistic was used to determine the internal reliability of section D and E of the instrument since they are polychotomously scored. After computation, reliability coefficients of .76, .74, .75 and .78 and was obtained for sections B, C, D and E. The general coefficient of .79 was obtained for the instrument. All the research questions were answered using frequency and percentages while all the null hypotheses were tested using Chi-square statistic at .05 level of significance and appropriate degrees of freedom. The findings of the study revealed that more than half (59.1%) of workers identified occupational hazards in plastic manufacturing industries. Majority (64.35%) of the workers possessed high level of knowledge of occupational hazards regarding chemical hazards (68.46%), allergenic agents (68.06%), mechanical hazards (66.0%), ergonomic hazards (64.18%), psycho-social hazards (63.64%), and physical hazards (62.96%) while a little more than half of the workers possessed moderate level of knowledge of biological hazards (57.14%). Slightly more than half of the workers (55.4%) demonstrated positive attitude towards occupational hazards. Most workers expressed positive attitude towards chemical hazards (69.8%), psycho-social hazards (60.8%), and allergenic agents (60.2%). More than half of the workers displayed positive attitude towards physical and mechanical hazards (53.2%), whereas more workers had negative attitude towards biological hazards (61.2%). Workers complied with safety precautions are as follows: always (32.3%), sometimes (35.6%), rarely (19.6%), and never (12.5%). There was no significant difference in the workers’ knowledge of occupational hazards based on age (overall χ2 = 4.630, P-value = 0.352 > .05 @ df = 3). There was no significant difference in the knowledge of occupational hazards among workers based on age (χ2 = 4.630, p-value = 0.352 > .05 @ df = 3), gender (χ2 = 1.013, p-value = 0.474 > .05 @ df = 1), level of education (χ2 = 4.466, p-value = 0.385 > .05 @ df = 3), job description (χ2 = 5.426, p-value = 0.51 > .05 @ df = 5) and job experience (χ2 = 2.653, p-value = 0.517 > .05 @ df = 3). There was no significant difference in workers’ attitude towards occupational hazards based on age (χ2 = 9.182, p-value = 0.470 > .05 @ df = 9), gender (χ2 = 2.791, p-value = 0.523 > .05 @ df = 3), level of education (χ2 = 12.063 , p-value = 0.239 > .05 @ df = 9), job description (χ2 = 16.335, p-value = 0.404 > .05 @ df = 15) and job experience (χ2 = 12.063, p-value = 0.239> .05 @ df = 9). There was no significant difference in workers’ level of compliance based on age (χ2 = 15.251, p-value = .084 > .05 @ df = 9), gender (χ2 = 1.384, p-value = .709 > .05 @ df = 3), level of education (χ2 = 11.976, p-value = .215 > .05 @ df = 9), job description (χ2 = 15.119, p-value = .443 > .05 @ df = 15) and job experience (χ2 = 7.820, p-value = .552> .05 @ df = 9).The study concluded that majority of workers possessed high level of knowledge of ocuupational hazards and expressed negative attitude towards biological hazards. Based on the findings and conclusions, the study recommends among others that employers should give periodic in-service training, sensitizations and workshops to increase workers level of knowledge of hazards especially biological hazards.