Ergonomic Interventions to Promote Occupational Health and Safety among Workers Employed in Garment Industries

Abstract

Occupational safety and health OSH is a cross disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment The present study was undertaken to study the prevailing situation in garment industries of Tirupur South India and to educate workers on the need for occupational safety and health and fabricate evaluate and implement ergonomically designed furniture in a selected garment industry A newlinebaseline survey regarding workers socio economic characteristics occupational history occupational health hazards facilities and difficulties in their workplace, awareness programme on the concepts of OSH and ergonomical principles assessment of work environment work postures of the workers Spirometry test and heart rate of the workers were conducted An ergonomic table in checking section of garment industry developed earlier was modified based on the suggestions given by the workers and evaluated on ten workers who used for a period of two months An ergonomic chair for stitching workers was designed using the average anthropometric dimensions of 50 male and 50 female workers and evaluated All the workers employed in one selected garment industry were promoted with Personal Protective Equipment PPE modified ergonomic table for checking workers and tenergonomic chairs for stitching workers Improvement in workstation based on ergonomic principles will improve the health of the workers which will in turn increase the productivity