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Subject: Family Resource Management × End date: 2017 × Start date: 2017 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Occupational hazards of workers engaged in brick kiln units and its ergo solutions
    (CCSHAU, 2017) Gahlot, Neha; Rana, Kusum
    The Indian brick industry, next to that of China, is the second largest producer of brick in the world. The brick industry in India falls into small scale and unorganized sector. Jobs in brick kiln production demand a very wide range of physical activities involving diverse postures and positions that may not be ideal and might predispose the workers to associated risks and hazards. The present study was conducted to ascertain the work profile, workplace conditions and occupational hazards at brick kiln units and to conduct ergonomic evaluation of most hazardous activity and explore ergo solutions and its feasibility testing. Study was conducted in two districts of Haryana state, viz. Hisar and Mewat. Three brick kiln units were selected from each district and a total of 134 workers were selected for Phase I study. The results revealed that majority (57.46%) of the workers were male, belonging to age group less than 25 years (44.03%), had rural background (100%) and belonged to scheduled caste (67.92%) category. All the workers were working in brick kiln industry on account of unavailability of other work and money taken in advance as debt. Majority (47.02%) of the workers were working 10-12 hours a day (55.98%) in brick kiln units and took only a single rest break during work. Workplace conditions revealed that 43.28% respondents were not getting potable water facility while 56.71 percent had no access to toilet facility. There was no medical insurance for the workers, no provision of medical leave with payment and personal protective clothing at any Brick Kiln Unit (BKU). Workplace hygiene was found to be poor. No educational facility was available for children of BKU workers. The level of temperature, SPM and CO2 were also found more than the recommended levels. Scores of Heat stress Index in summers (137) indicated that to avoid the possibility of extreme sunstroke, heat cramps and heat exhaustion occurring on account of prolonged physical activity, some shade or protection should be provided for the workers during working hours. The overall picture of hazard assessment and discomfort showed that nikasi activity got average 3.44 mean score with first rank. In Phase II, ergonomic evaluation was conducted on 20 women nikasi workers from different brick kiln units of Hisar district selected during Phase I studies. The selected women workers were having good physical health status. Mean age of the respondents was 26.30 years, mean height was 156 cm, mean weight was 50.40 kg and BMI was 20.61 kg/m2. Regarding physiological responses, while performing the activity, heart rate of women workers increased over base by 55.45 percent and the workload of nikasi activity fell under heavy workload category. Energy expenditure and oxygen consumption rates also increased statistically while performing the activity and fell under very heavy work category. RPE was found to be 4.40 indicating that workers felt very heavy exertion while performing this activity. Postural analysis of women engaged in nikasi activity through RULA showed that they had to bend down for lifting the wooden trolley after transporting brick. Scores of RULA and OWAS suggested an immediate correction in posture adopted by the workers. In Phase III, a modified brick carrier was developed and its ergonomic evaluation revealed that heart rate of the workers decreased by 7.4 beats m-1 and energy expenditure (1.17kJ/m-1) compared to traditional wooden trolley was found statistically significant. Similar pattern of decrease was observed in oxygen consumption (0.93 lit.m-1), TCCW (551beats) and PCW (11.02 bmin-1) when compared to traditional wooden trolley. Feasibility testing indicated that the improved brick carrier tool was found acceptable on different parameters, viz. musculoskeletal stress factor (75.33%), physical factor (64.66%), work output (62.66%), tool factor (63.60%) and overall acceptability (67.25%). Therefore, an emergent need is felt for promotion of training programmes at brick kiln units for addressing the issues of musculo-skeletal problems of workers with emphasis on maintaining proper posture during different activities, including nikasi activity, performed at the workplace. Modified brick carrier can be used by workers to reduce musculoskeletal discomfort, overall discomfort, exertion, grip fatigue and thermal discomfort. The study will be helpful for brick kiln unit workers to make them aware about occupational health problems and ways of their prevention.