Continental J.

Tropical Medicine 5: 1 - 5, 2011 ISSN: 2141 - 4167

© Wilolud Journals, 2011 http://www.wiloludjournal.com
` Printed in Nigeria

PATTERN OF OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS AND PROVISIONS OF OCCUPATIONAL

HEALTH SERVICES AND SAFETY AMONG WORKERS OF KADUNA REFINERY AND
PETROCHEMICAL COMPANY LTD (KRPC), KADUNA, NIGERIA

A.A. Aliyu and S. Saidu

Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
In today’s world man lives in a “chemical age” as there is hardly any industry that does not make use of
and or produce chemicals in the work process. So every person is exposed to many different types of
chemicals in their occupation or environment. This is one of the most serious public health problems
today that has drawn the attention at both national and global levels. Occupational hazards are those
material substances, processes or circumstances that pose threat to health and well being of workers in
all occupations. Most often the exposure is to several of these chemical agents simultaneously. Of
utmost important is for the workers to be aware of these hazards, guide against exposure and to use
safety devices in the work place. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the pattern of
occupational hazards and provision of occupational health service and safety measures among workers
of Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Ltd (KR PC).

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. All the industrial workers in the refinery
constituted the study population. Cluster sampling technique was used to sample respondents in the 7
industrial Departments of the Refinery. Each Department constituted a homogenous unit from which
the respondents were randomly selected. A structured open – ended and self administered questionnaire
was used to collect data. Information sought was; socio-demographic characteristics, type of
occupational hazards and exposure, knowledge of occupational safety and use of protective devices.

Results
A total of 250 respondents participated in the study. Most of the respondents were in the age range of
30-44 years. Majority of respondents (90%) were males, married (72.0%) and had completed tertiary
education (78.0%) respectively. Majority of respondents (95.0%) knew and were aware of occupational
hazards they are exposed to. These included chemicals (90.0%), noise pollution (64.5%) and machines
(58.3 %.) Forty four percent (44%) of respondents have had injury in the course of their work. The
commonest injuries among respondents were respectively cuts/lacerations (58.7%) bruises (15.6%),
injury to the eye (6.4%) and amputation of the hand (1.8%). Types of chemical injuries sustained by
respondents included gas/chemical inhalation (52.4%) burns (20.6%) and splash into the eyes (19.0%).
Among ergonomic injuries, 64.5% had low back pain. Almost all the respondents (97.0%) were aware
of safety measures in the workplace; and majority (92.1%) had had formal training on occupational
safety. Most of the respondents (78%) admitted to regular use of protective devices. Reasons given for
non-regular use were; feels uncomfortable (29.1%), makes work difficult to perform (25.5%) and no
cogent reason (23.6%)

Conclusion
Despite the knowledge and awareness of respondents to occupational hazards and formal training in
occupational safety, compliance rate is not encouraging. This deficiency needs to be addressed through
public health awareness campaigns in the work place. It is further recommended that the inspectorate
division of federal ministry of industry carry out periodic monitoring/supervision exercises in order to
enforce adherence to and compliance with the regular use of safety devices. Through these, we can
abate the occurrence of occupational hazards and injuries in Nigerian industries.

KEYWORDS: Petrochemical industry, occupational hazards, safety measures, Nigeria.

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 A.A. Aliyu and S. Saidu: Continental J. Tropical Medicine 5: 1 - 5, 2011

INTRODUCTION
The importance of occupational health is often overlooked and people tend to equate occupational illness with
industrialization and huge factories in urban areas. This narrow view hampered the development of occupational
health in developing countries. While at work, people face a variety of hazards almost as numerous as the
different types of work, including chemicals, biological agents and adverse ergonomic conditions etc. Globally,
there are 2.9 billion workers who are exposed to hazardous risks at their work places [Meswani, 2008].
Annually there are two million deaths that are attributable to occupational diseases and injuries while 4% of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost due to occupational diseases and injuries. WHO’s programme on workers
health is concerned with the control of occupational health risks, the protection and promotion of the working
populations and the humanization of work [Berenice et al, 1998]. Also work has its positive effect as increased
productivity, higher quality work and increased workforce morale among others are indices of workers well
being and to some extend job satisfaction. However the importance of occupational health is often overlooked.
This is because, the level of occupational safety and health in Africa is low compared with the rest of the world.
In Sub-Saharan Africa public health problems of child mortality, malaria, water quality and HIV/AIDS have
overshadowed occupational health problems [Spee, 2006]. In today’s world, Man lives in a “chemical age” as
there is hardly any industry that does not make use of and or produce chemicals in the work process. Petroleum
products are derived from crude oil that occurs as a complex of chemicals, primarily hydrocarbons. This
undergoes fractionalization to yield a variety of products for various uses. The petrochemical industry has been
cited as a major pollution source, as the industrial processes involved ranged from prospecting for petroleum to
refining of the crude and finally the arrival of the finished products. The petrochemical workers are thus
exposed to many and varied health hazards, accidents/injuries with heavy tools and equipments, pipeline
explosions, fire and transportation accidents and adverse ergonomic conditions etc. Risk factors leading to
injuries are present in every work place. Among all occupations, industrial and agricultural workers have the
highest risks [WHOa, 1983; WHOb 1996].

Therefore occupational health practice in the oil and gas industry must take cognizance of the known hazards
that exists in the particular locale of operation in order to prevent control their occurrence. To the best of our
knowledge, there has not been any recent study to assess occupational hazards and safety of petrochemical
workers in this part of Nigeria. Thus the aim of this study was to assess the pattern of occupational hazards and
provision of occupational health service and safety measures among workers of Kaduna Refinery and
Petrochemical Company Ltd (KRPC), Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Kaduna refinery and petrochemical company was commissioned in 1980 with initial capacity to refine 100,000
barrels per stream per day. It is the 3rd refinery owned by Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in the
country. It produces a wide variety of petroleum products – gasoline, kerosene, and lubes products etc.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. All the workers (both shift and non-shift) within the 7 industrial
departments constituted the study population. The departments are production, manufacturing, maintenance, fire
and safety, engineering and technical services, power plant and utilities, pipeline products quality and control.
Cluster sampling technique was used to sample respondents from each of these departments. Each department
constituted a homogenous unit from which the respondents were randomly selected.

Structured open-ended and self administered questionnaire was used to collect data on; socio-demographic
characteristics of respondents, types of occupational hazards and exposure, knowledge of occupational safety
and use of protective devices. At the end of the exercise, environmental evaluation was carried out with a view
to assess aesthetics and general housekeeping. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 12 and was presented
using frequency tables/charts. Consent to undertake the study was obtained through a letter to the management
and informed consent of the study participants who were assured of the confidentiality of information collected.

RESULTS
A total of 250 respondents participated in the study. Most of the respondents were in the age range of 30- 44
years [Table 1]. Majority of respondent s (90%) were males, married (72.0%) and had completed tertiary
education (78.0%) respectively. Fifty six percent of respondents operate on shift duty. Majority of respondents
(95.0%) knew and were aware of occupational hazards they were exposed to. These included chemicals
(90.0%), Noise pollution (64.5%) and machines (58.3%), [Table 2]. Forty four percent (44.1%) of them have
had injuries in the course of their work. The commonest injuries among respondents were respectively,

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 A.A. Aliyu and S. Saidu: Continental J. Tropical Medicine 5: 1 - 5, 2011

cuts/lacerations (58.7%), bruises (15.6%), injury to the eye (6.4%) and amputation of the hand (1.8%) [Table 4].
Sixty four percent had low back pain [Table 3]. Types of chemical injuries sustained by respondents included
gas/chemical inhalation (52.4%), burns (20.6%) and chemical splash into the eyes (19.0%). Almost all the
respondents (97.0%) were aware of safety measures in the work place, and (91.1%) had had a formal training in
occupational safety. Most of the respondents [Table 5] admitted to regular use of protective devices. Reasons
given for non-regular use were; feels uncomfortable (29.1%), makes work difficult to perform (25.5%) and no
cogent reason (23.6%). In all, fire extinguishers were available and functional in 64% of facilities inspected.
Generally, there was adequate house keeping and well maintained cloakroom facilities for staff.

DISCUSSION
The findings from this study revealed that this is a male (90%) dominated occupation. This is not surprising
considering the nature of work involved in petroleum refining. This is consistent with the findings in earlier
studies [Jinadu, 1980; Warrel, 1975; Aliyu et al, 2006]. Majority of the respondents had completed tertiary
education; they also knew and were aware (95.0%) of the occupational hazards they are exposed to. The high
literacy level among these workers agreed with the report of [Asuzu, 1992] that 73% of the workers in a
construction industry have completed at least high school.9

The study showed that the workers were exposed to a wide variety of hazards which can be broadly classified
as; physical, chemical and mechanical/ergonomics respectively. Accidents can cause various forms of
disabilities; loss of man-power leading to decreased productivity and in severe cases may lead to death [Isah, et
al 1997]. The most common occupational hazard among respondents were cuts/lacerations (58.7%),
gas/chemical inhalation (52.4%), burns (20.6%) and chemical splash into the eyes (19%) respectively. The
handling of heavy machinery, uncomfortable ergonomic postures and probably working long hours makes the
workers vulnerable to these injuries. The volatile nature of petroleum hydrocarbons makes it highly reactive to
give out gaseous vapours. And the ambient temperature can significantly increase the environmental levels of
these vapours. Thus making the workers highly exposed to gas/chemical inhalation as a result of their presence
in the air. A similar environmental exposure has been observed among service station attendants [Perriago et al,
2006]. Sixty percent of respondents were exposed to noise. However no worker reported occupational noise-
induced hearing loss. Occupational exposure to high noise levels has been reported to depend on a variety of
factors including occupation and industry, workplace factors and use of protective devices etc
[http://www.who.int/publications/cra/chapters/vol.2 (cited June, 2008)].

High noise levels can cause masking of warning signs, annoyance and fatigue. Low back pain accounted for
64.5% of musculoskeletal symptoms. This figure is higher than 58.5% and 37.7% reported by [Isah et al, 1997
and [Asuzu, 1995] respectively.

Almost all the workers were aware of safety measures in the workplace and majority had had a formal training
on occupational safety. Despite all this, there is knowledge-practice gap in the use of protective devices as only
78% of respondents admitted to regular use. This is a worrisome practice as who reported that workplace risks
are almost entirely preventable [Berenice et al, 1998; WHO, 2002.]

Conclusion: Health and safety must be an integral part of production process. Periodic education and
information services should be made available, encouraged and enforced by the inspectorate division of Federal
Ministry of Industry. Furthermore, management at all levels needs to look at health and safety performance of
their company just as they consider performance in terms of productivity and profit. These can only be
maximized by a healthy workforce, so the employees must be urged to utilize regularly the protective devices
provided.

Acknowledgment; we acknowledge and appreciate the assistance of S. Hamada in data collection.

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Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents

Age group (yrs) No. (n=250) %
<20 6 2.4
20-24 24 8.5
25-29 29 11.6
30-34 33 13.2
35-39 51 24.0
40-44 61 24.0
45-49 23 9.2
>50 19 7.2
Sex
Males 225 90
Females 25 10
Marital Status
Married 180 72.0
Single 70 28.0
Educational status
No formal educ. 11 4.4
Completed primary 12 48
Completed sec 32 12.8
Completed tertiary 195 78.0

Table 2: Distribution of Exposure to occupational hazards by respondents

Hazards No. %
Chemicals 225 90.0
Machines 146 58.4
Noise 162 64.5
Accidents 140 56.0
* Multiple responses

Table 3: Distribution of ergonomic injuries among respondents

Ergonomic injury No. %
Low back pain 91 64.5
Sprains 7 5.0
Strains 32 22.0
Hernia 12 8.5

Table 4; Profile of occupational injuries among respondents

Accident/injury No. %
Cuts/laceration 64 58.7
Injury to the eye 7 6.4
Crush injuries 17 4.6
Fracture/amputation 17 5.5
Others (eg falls) 6 5.7

Table 5; Profile of usage of protective devices by respondents

Protective devices No. %
Helmet 242 96.8
Goggles 219 87.6
Face masks 210 84.0
Ear muffs/plugs 200 80.0
Apron/overall 233 95.2
Fire blanket/jacket 150 60
Hand gloves 224 89.6
Safety boots 224 89.6
Others (barrier creams) 94 39.6
* Multiple responses

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 A.A. Aliyu and S. Saidu: Continental J. Tropical Medicine 5: 1 - 5, 2011

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Received for Publication: 05/02/2011

Accepted for Publication: 14/03/2011

Corresponding Author:
A.A. Aliyu
Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
Email:draaaliyu@yahoo.com