Occupational Hazards in Construction Industry: Case Studies From Housing and Construction Workers at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The status of occupational injuries in workplaces in general is ill defined in Ethiopia. Pocket studies indicate that occupational injury due to an unsafe working environment is increasing. Construction industries are growing industries region wise that has higher rate of work-related injuries. Knowing the associated factors of work-related injuries can be a critical step for improving the working condition of workers in the sector.
 Objective: This mini research aimed to evaluate occupational hazards and to describe factors affecting its happening among construction workers’ in Addis Ababa housing and construction project sites.
 Institutional based cross-sectional study design was employed to assess occupational injuries among randomly selected construction workers from June 30 –July 20, 2014. A structured questionnaire based interviews, work environment observation were used to collect the data.
 The response rate of this study was 82.7%. The majority of respondents were male which account 74.7% and 60 (96.8%) respondents were not using personal protective devices all the time while they are on duty. Out of the total participants, 67.7% of the workers experienced occupational injuries at least once in the last 12 months. Moreover, the three leading cause of injuries were puncture (21.0%) followed by hand injury (11.3%), and back pain (9.7%).
 Increased rate of work related injury in construction workers was observed and implementation of basic occupational health and safety services is required together with regular supervision to ensure and promote work place safety. So Preventive measures concerning functional occupational health and safety programs are essential to safeguard the health and safety condition of workforce in construction industries.

Occupational injuries and contributing factors among industry park construction workers in Northwest Ethiopia

“…The prevalence stated above was consistent with 39% in Gonder ( 15 ), 39.2% in Robe town ( 27 ), 38.3% in Addis Ababa ( 10 ) studies in Ethiopia, and 39.3% in Nigeria ( 15 ). The result of this study is lower than 84.7 and 67.7% in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( 20 , 22 ), 79.8% in Iran ( 28 ), and 46.2% in Egypt ( 20 ). The result of this study is also higher than 15% in Gondar, Ethiopia ( 29 ), 32.4% in Uganda ( 30 ), and 34.8% in China ( 31 ).…”

“…Accordingly, workers who did not engage in the work by wearing personal protective equipment were 1.67 times less likely to develop occupational injuries than those workers who did use PPE. This finding was supported by studies done in Bahrdar, Ethiopia ( 11 ), and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( 20 ), Uganda ( 30 ), which indicated that the use of PPE in a working environment reduces the occurrence of occupational injuries. This could be due to personal protective equipment protecting the worker against the hazards to which the worker may be exposed.…”

“…The magnitude of work injuries among construction employees in Egypt was reported to be 46.2% ( 20 ), 74% in Kenya ( 21 ), and the magnitude range from 38.3 and 84.7% in Ethiopia ( 10 , 22 ). Although unsafe work environments are frequently the cause of workplace injuries, other factors are also mentioned as contributing to occupational injuries, including sex, age, workload, lack of safety training, job stress, the absence of safety signs, sleep issues, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, chewing khat, and poor exercise habits ( 10 , 13 , 21 – 23 ).…”

Prevalence of Work-Related Injury and Its Determinants among Construction Workers in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…All the included studies were cross-sectional studies. e least number of participants in a study was 62 construction workers, and the largest comprised of 806 construction workers [12,17]. e lowest prevalence (32.6%) of work-related injury was reported in the study conducted in Dessie, Amhara Region [11], whereas the highest prevalence of 84.7% was reported in a study conducted in Addis Ababa city (Table 1) [12].…”

“…e risk of bias for each original study was assessed by using a risk of bias assessment checklist which has nine different items [15]. Among the 10 included studies, our summary assessment showed that two studies had a moderate risk of bias [17], whereas eight studies had a low risk of bias.…”