Health risks and hazards of pedestal oil-lamp workers in Nachiyar Kovil Village, Tamil Nadu, India

摘要

Work plays a vital role in people's lives, since most workers spend at least eight hours a day, whether it is on a farm, an office, a factory. Hence, working environments should be safe and healthy. But this is not the case for many workers. Every day workers all over the world face with a multitude of health risks hazards, such as dusts, gases, and noise, vibration and the extreme temperatures. Occupational health should aim at ‘the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations’. International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the world’s 2.7 billion workers, at least 2 million deaths per year are attributable to occupational disease and injuries. In India, according to 2001 censuses around 18 million workers were affected by occupational diseases. Recently, occupational health, risk and hazards are empirically studied by many scientists. The health of the industrial workers is influenced by conditions prevailing in their work place. One of the aims of occupational health is to provide a safe occupational environment in order to safeguard the health of the workers and industrial production.