HYDERABAD: Occupational hazards are causing serious health problems among industrial workers in and around Hyderabad, point out various studies conducted by researchers from the city.
While the state government is aiming for high industrial growth, especially in the wake of standing first in the country in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), studies say that there is also a need for government to ensure that the industrial workers are provided all safety measures.
One such study was conducted by researchers from the Human Genetics and Molecular Lab of the Osmania University on workers in shoe factories, located around Hyderabad. Manufacturing of shoes involves usage of toxic organic solvents, which are used in adhesives and sometimes are also used as hardeners or as cleaners. These solvents contain harmful chemicals such as benzene or toluene.
The study was conducted by two researchers under guidance of Dr K Rudrama Devi on 156 married couples, in which the men had been exposed to organic solvents working in shoe manufacturing units for close to two decades. For the study 122 healthy couples of same age group without any exposure to organic solvents were also taken as control group.
The study was conducted with an aim to find out the effect of organic solvents on reproduction related issues such as still births, abortions and neonatal deaths. It was found that among the percentage of live births in couples exposed to organic solvents was much lower (50 pc) when compared to the healthy couples (71 pc).
Still births, neonatal births and congenital malformations were also higher among the group exposed to organic solvents. Another study by Dr Devi had found genetic instability among workers in tanneries around Hyderabad.
Another such study was conducted by Dr M Mahesh Kumar, faculty of community medicine at a city based medical institute on workers of cotton mills. The study was conducted to find prevalence of Byssinosis among the cotton workers.
He found that 40 pc of the cotton workers he studied had byssinosis, which causes irreversible damage to lungs. Dr Kumar says, “Basic protection measures if implemented in industries can prevent occupational hazards among industrial workers. For example, in the cotton mills wearing a simple face mask will prevent occurrence of byssinosis.”