Common Health Issues

Workers Safety And Health Measures For 2025

• By Rich Health Editorial Team
• January 01, 2025

You should go to work feeling rested and relaxed. Fatigue not only lowers your resistance to diseases, but it also causes accidents.

 

Excessive drinking is unwise at any time and is especially unwise on the evening before a working day. A worker should never drink so much that he suffers from a hangover at work.

 

Regular periods of rest are essential to good health. You should have one or two days off each week and should consider an annual vacation a necessity, not a luxury.

 

Find out the safety rules on your job and follow them closely.  Make sure you know where the first aid station is located. Be sure your work area is adequately lighted. Poor lighting can cause accidents, eye fatigue, dizziness and headaches.

Company lavatories should be clean and adequately equipped; they should be inspected regularly by health officials.

 

At your place of work, watch out for defective electrical wiring and for wet or slippery floors. The first should be corrected; the second guarded against. Practical jokers are a safety hazard, too, as are workers who do not know how to handle dangerous equipment.

 

If a fellow worker has proved to be a danger to himself or his colleagues, you should take up the matter with someone in authority.

 

HAZARDS FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

Workers in many industries make use of equipment that exposes them directly to the risk of serious accidents. Among these safety hazards are machinery with fast-moving parts; equipment used to move heavy materials from one place to another; chemicals and pressurized containers that may explode; improperly grounded and defective wiring; mechanical operations such as cutting or grinding that throw off chips and particles that may get into the eyes; and liquids or mists that may damage the skin, eyes, or lungs.

If your job brings you into contact with any of these potential dangers, your employer is required to supply you with the instructions and equipment necessary to reduce the risks you face.

 

Other equally serious safety hazards do their damage less directly by affecting the worker’s concentration and alertness—thus increasing the possibility of accident. Noise, heat and vibration are the most common of these hazards.

 

People who work in excessively noisy places are known to have unusually high accident rates. Moreover, a sudden loud noise can rupture the eardrums, and continued loud noise leads eventually to hearing loss.

 

Such workers as firefighters, glassblowers, iron smelters, foundry workers and steelworkers follow occupations that are, by their very nature, risky. The risk is increased by the high temperatures associated with their work because heat accelerates fatigue, decreases coordination, and increases irritability.

 

In addition, overexposure to high temperatures can lead to heat stroke which in some cases can be fatal. Continued exposure to vibration creates a safety hazard for millions of workers—truck and forklift drivers, operators of pneumatic tools, construction workers, railroad workers, drivers of intercity buses.

 

Constant vibration and noise put the body under stress, thus increasing the risk of accidents. Vibration and noise also heightens the chance of an accident by making communication among workers difficult, and by affecting vision.

 

Materials used in many industries expose the workers who handle them to serious health risks. The primary dangers come from dusts; toxic gases, metals and chemicals; carcinogens (substances or agents that can cause cancer); infectious diseases; and abnormal air pressure.

 

INDUSTRIAL DUSTS IMPACT ON WORKERS

Industrial dusts usually come from the grinding, crushing, cutting or drilling of such materials as metals, stone or coal. They most commonly enter the body through the respiratory system—that is, they are breathed in.

 

The damage they do usually has its primary effect on the lungs. Its extent depends on a number of factors, among them the size of the particles, their concentration in the air, and the length of time the worker is exposed to them.

 

Workers exposed to dangerous dusts should be protected by the use of exhaust systems or suction devices that catch the dust at its place of origin, by systematic covering of the dust to keep it from rising, by good ventilation, and by the use of respiratory masks. 

 

Workers exposed to dangerous dusts should have periodic medical examinations, including chest X rays.

 

The types of dust that have been implicated most strongly in occupational diseases are silica, cotton, coal, asbestos and beryllium

Silica Dust

Millions of workers are exposed to silica dust through their work in the mining, quarrying, glassblowing, and stonecutting industries, and in foundries and in granite and brick works. The disease most commonly associated with prolonged exposure to silica dust is silicosis, an illness that shows itself in shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain, and physical weakness.

Silicon may take years to develop, but once the symptoms have become manifest, there is little likelihood that the patient will survive for long. Tuberculosis is a frequent complication of silicosis

 

Cotton Dust

Millions of workers in the textile industry come into contact with cotton dust and are therefore exposed to the possibility of developing byssinosis, more commonly known as mill fever, or brown lung disease. 

The symptoms and effects of brown lung disease are similar to those of silicosis, and the prognosis is equally gloomy.

 

Coal Dust

Workers in the coal mining and processing industries are exposed to the possibility of contracting anthracosis, commonly known as black lung disease. The symptoms and effects of this illness are also similar to those of silicosis.

 

Asbestos Dust

Workers in the asbestos mining, insulation and construction sector, sheet-metal workers, and automobile mechanics—are regularly exposed to asbestos dust. Breathing in these particles over a period of time can cause asbestosis, a lung disease that produces coughing, weight loss and breathing difficulties.

 

The disease does not reverse itself even when exposure to the dust is discontinued. Prolonged exposure to asbestos particles can have even more damaging results. It is known to cause mesothelioma, a type of chest tumor, and it can cause lung cancer, cancer of the pleura (the membrane that lines the chest cavity and covers both lungs), and cancer of the intestine.

 

Berryllium Dust

A chronic lung disease associated with prolonged inhalation of beryllium dust, berrylliosis, is a threat to workers in the metallurgical(1), ceramic, and fluorescent-lamp business, and in industries where the metal is extracted from ore. 

 

 

Fortunately, berrylliosis can be treated and cured, often within six months, and the number of workers risking berrylliosis is relatively small. On the other hand, workers who come into prolonged contact with beryllium dust run a higher risk than average of developing lung cancer and cancer of the liver, gallbladder or bile duct.

 

HEALTH IMPACT OF TOXIC GASES, METAL AND CHEMICALS ON WORKERS

The gases, metals, and chemicals used in many industrial processes can present a serious risk to the health of workers who come into contact with them.

 

Toxic materials that enter the body through the respiratory system in the form of fumes can cause a wide range of medical problems. Benzene, for example, is widely used in the rubber, oil and insecticide industries. Inhalation of large quantities of benzene vapor can cause headaches, dizziness, and fatigue; breathing in the vapor at sufficiently high levels can cause convulsions and death.

 

Fumes from the materials used in some hair sprays and hair dyes are dangerous to hairdressers and cosmetologists, who are regularly exposed to them. Constant inhalation of these fumes can lead to chronic lung disease and even to lung cancer.

 

Workers whose jobs bring them into constant or frequent contact with chemicals and gas fumes should be protected by efficient ventilation systems and, if necessary, by the use of respiratory masks.

Toxic materials can also enter the system through the skin. Dermatitis, or skin cancer, is one of the most common of all occupational diseases. The chief troublemakers are petroleum products, solvents, and alkalis.

 

Several important precautions can be taken to prevent dermatitis. Gloves, sleeves and aprons offering protection against skin diseases should be worn, kept clean, and often changed. Soap and water should be used generously and frequently during the working day, and especially before eating lunch and before leaving the job.

Your doctor can recommend special ointments to be used to cover the skin before contact with an offending agent. If, in spite of all precautions, you develop a skin disease that seems to be related to the work you do, consult your doctor. Your problem may require a prescription drug

 

CARCINOGENS HAZARDS FOR WORKERS

It is now widely accepted that environmental factors play a major role in the development of many forms of cancer. Substances used by workers in many industries may cause certain forms of malignancies. 

 

For example, workers in the plastic industry, where vinyl chloride is commonly used, run a higher risk than the rest of the population in developing liver cancer and brain cancer. Exposure of workers to coal combustion products increases their chances of developing lung cancer, bladder cancer and cancer of the scrotum.

 

Workers in the rubber and dye industries, where benzidine is commonly used, may develop urinary bladder cancer. Some workers in chemical processing plants, coke ovens, mines and smelters are exposed to arsenic, which can lead to lung cancer, liver cancer, or cancer of the lymphatic system.

 

Asbestos dust and tar are especially dangerous because they are carcinogens. As well as being a health hazard for smokers, tar is an occupational health hazard for professional fishermen, who, statistics show, have a higher incidence of lip cancer (2) than the rest of the population.

 

Apparently, this phenomenon occurs because tar is used to keep fishing nets from rotting, and fishermen often put mending needles in their mouth when they repair nets, thus inadvertently exposing their lips to tar.

 

Radiation can also be carcinogen. Prolonged exposure to X rays is associated with the incidence of leukemia. Welders, glassblowers, steelworkers, foundrymen and electricians are often exposed to high intensities of ultraviolet light—a form of radiation associated with the development of melanoma, or skin cancer.

 

Workers in industries that use known or suspected carcinogens should take care to observe all the industry rules for health and safety. It is especially important for the employees to have regular physical examination.

 

IMPACT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES ON WORKERS

Workers who handle cattle may get brucellosis, or undulant fever; those who work with animal hides may contract anthrax and those working in slaughterhouses should guard against tetanus. Dog-pound workers must beware of rabies. Barbers and beauticians should guard against ringworm and other fungus based infections

 

References

(1) Berylliosis in a 56-year-old Welder by Matthew Loss, Graeme McCauley and Chris Carlsten

(2) Occupational Variation in The Incidence of Lip cancer in the Nordic Countries by Rayan Mroueh et al