Occupational hazards associated with timber workers in Anambra South Senatorial District of South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the occupational hazards associated with timber workers in Anambra South Senatorial District. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design with a population of 1280 timber workers. A multi-stage sampling procedure was utilized to select the 510 samples for the study. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured validated questionnaire tagged "Occupational Hazards among Timber Workers Questionnaire (OHTWQ)" with a reliability coefficient of 0.74. The Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions through Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), version 23.0. The findings, among others, illustrated that timber workers are exposed to biological hazards (mean = 3,06), psychosocial hazards (mean = 3.00) and ergonomic hazards (mean 2.99). Although the findings of the study showed that timber works are less exposed to physical hazards (mean = 2.44), It was concluded that timber workers are exposed to different forms of occupational hazards in their workplace, including biological, psychosocial, and ergonomic. The study recommended that government should organize quarterly occupational safety training for workers, especially those who work in timber industries as an effective intervention to reduce the health outcomes associated with occupational hazards to improve health and safety well-being