Introduction: Workers represent half of the world's population. Maintaining a safe working environment is reflected on a healthy worker. Some reasons for not implementing the safety policy by most developing countries are lack of effective enforcement system, lack of information and accurate records of occupational diseases and accidents, and lack of basic professional training in occupational health and safety. Aim of Work: To assess a technical school students' knowledge, attitude, and practice toward the occupational health hazards. Changes in their knowledge were also measured before & after the health education session. Materials and Methods: A health education training session was done on fifty students in a technical education school in Abbasia district, Cairo. Their level of knowledge regarding occupational health was measured by means of a questionnaire distributed among them before and after the session. Results: Only 12.2 % of studied students have reported a previous training on occupational hazards. Thirty five students (71.4%) reported that their work require personal protective equipments (PPEs), 63.3% of students reported that they are protective to their health in workplace and 61.2% prefer to wear them; however only 26.5 % were always wearing them. Only about half of students (51%) knew the correct definition of periodic medical examination. After the health education program, there was a statistically significant improvement in the knowledge of occupational law, proper management of chemical spill and knowledge of hazard of machinery noise. Conclusion: Technical school students require further training sessions to provide them with the knowledge needed to protect themselves and their working environment.

Introduction: Food handlers represent an occupational group which plays a major role

Introduction: Respiratory disorders are one of the documented hazards affecting workers involved in the industry of washing products. Aim of Work: This study aims to assess the frequency of sensitization to enzymes in detergent industry. It also describes work-related respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function parameters among detergent workers in a detergent plant in Cairo, Egypt. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on all plant workers, where Radioallergosorbent testing (RAST) positive subjects underwent further detailed history taking, clinical examination, x-ray and pulmonary function measurements. Results: Among 1329 workers, 9 % of them were sensitized using RAST. Of those, 56.8% reported chest complaints. The RAST grading of workers revealed that 39.2 % of workers were grade I, 24 % were grade II and 36.8 were grade III. It was found that 75.2% of them were exposed to hazardous materials during work. The majority of them reported exposure to dusts and powders (58.4 %). Pulmonary functions testing revealed that 52% showed restrictive lesions and 2.4 % obstructive lesions. The majority of workers who had obstructive and restrictive lesions were RAST grade III (66.7 % and 52.3 % respectively where P<0.001). By Comparing pulmonary functions of workers with dust exposure, it was evident that the majority of workers who had obstructive and restrictive lesions were exposed to dust within the workplace, 100 % and 83.1 % respectively (P<0.034). The study of pulmonary functions among different RAST grades revealed a statistically significant lowered mean of FVC, FVC percentage and FEV1 among grade III workers than other grades (P<0.001). Conclusion: Dust exposure in detergent producing plant has a negative impact on workers' respiratory systems.

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