Assessment of Safety Practices and Injuries Associated with Wood Processing in a Timber Company in Ghana
Assessment of Safety Practices and Injuries Associated with Wood Processing in a Timber Company in Ghana
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Date
2015-01-10
Authors
Mitchual, Stephen J
Donkoh, Mark
Bih, Francis
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Publisher
Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology
Abstract
This paper reports the assessment of safety practices and injuries in a timber company in Ghana. A
cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Data were collected from 300 respondents at
a sawmill in Ghana using a 5-point Likert-type scale questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential
statistics were used for the data analyses. The result indicates that the mean rating of the respon dents on their use of personal protective equipment ranged from 1.09 to 2.51. This implies that
the workers of the sawmill rarely or never wear: gloves, overall, goggles, face shield, nose and
mouth mask, earplugs or helmet during wood processing. Additionally, the mean ratings of the
respondents regarding safety practices, machine and maintenance ranged from 2.42 to 4.03 with
three out of the eight items having mean ratings higher than the theoretical mean of 3.0. The rat ings of the respondents of the saw doctoring department on their practice of safety on machine
and maintenance were significantly higher than those of the other departments. The result of the
study further suggests that the workers of this sawmill do rarely report of: skin irritation/derma titis, eye irritation, lack of appetite, arm/leg amputation, neck pains, hearing loss and poor eye
sight problems. However, they usually report of headaches, nausea, respiratory problems, small
cuts, back pains, and hip and leg pains. The outcome of this study therefore suggests that the
management of the sawmill studied needs to do more to enforce practice of safety, especially the
use of personal protective equipment, to reduce hazards and injuries associated with wood
processing in the firm
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Citation
Mitchual, S. J., Donkoh, M., & Bih, F. (2015). Assessment of safety practices and injuries associated with wood processing in a timber company in Ghana. Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology, 5(01), 10.