Some occupational health hazards among fishermen in Alexandria city

İskenderiye şehrindeki balıkçılar arasında bazı mesleki sağlık tehlikeleri

Abstract

Where the fisherman's nature of work consumes much of his time and energy, and this is incompatible with normal family life. The work environment is uncomfortable in most cases, especially with the length of work periods at sea on the surface of the compound as well as isolation for long periods of time away from the external environment. Also, many of them suffer from instability therefore since 1713 fishing has been noted as an occupation with a high risk of occupational hazards. There are many problems that can be taken into account when studying occupational health problems for fishermen. Main problems that have been observed: accidents and injuries, musculoskeletal problems, stress, hearing problems caused by noise and skin burns, so the provision of occupational health services for this category is an urgent need which should be available. Cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 124 fishermen who work in Alexandria city, and a control group of other comparable consisting of 130 salesmen working in the same city. Previously prepared questionnaire was conducted on all participants in the search for data collection and the work of an environmental assessment to measure the noise level in the work environment. This study showed a statistically significant difference between the fishermen and control group in different health problems (P<0.001). The results of study also found that the most common causes of accidents among hunters are falling from the top deck (71.0 %), and injury during transport and handling equipment (44.0%), and trading of fish (26.4%). This study has shown that most of the fishermen (62.9%) suffering from nervous high pressure. With regard to noise induced hearing loss, the results of the current study showed that only a small percentage of fishermen are suffering from hearing loss. The results of this study showed that the majority of fishermen complained of sunburned at different intensity from mild to moderate (51.6 % and 19.4%, respectively). As for the results of the environmental assessment conducted during this study showed that the average noise in the engine room large vessels (greater than 150 horsepower) was 113 dB, and the average hours of work hunter inside this room were an hour and a half, while on board of ships, the average readings 77.55 dB and the average working hours of fishermen on these ships almost 13 hours. Either on the surface of vessels of small (less than 150 horsepower) where no separate room for the engine, the average noise level was 90.83 dB and average working hours was 9 hours and 53 minutes, but if there is no follow-up the engine regularly and maintain the quality of work, the noise level became 105 dB approximately. From this study, it can be concluded that the fishermen in the Alexandria city are exposed to many occupational health hazards that lead to many diseases and disabilities.