Background: Exposure to various physical, mechanical, chemical hazards and unsafe practices by workers of fertiliser industries leads to many illnesses. So far not much attention has been given to occupational hazards in fertilizer industry. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess selected morbidities among workers in a fertilizer industry in Goa.Methods: The study was conducted over a period of November 2018 to December 2018. The data of the workers was obtained from an occupational health and safety (OHS) centre catering to a fertilizer industry in North-Goa which conducted periodic medical check-ups of the workers. The date included details regarding selected morbidities among workers of the fertilizer industry.Results: Among the workers, over one-third i.e. 104 (37.3%) were overweight and 38 (13.6%) were obese with body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2. 22 (7.9%) workers were hypertensive, 35 (12.5%) were diabetic, 46 (26.5%) had abnormal far vision and 24 (8.6%) had near vision abnormalities. Spirometry reports showed 17 (6.1%) workers suffered from mild restrictive lung disease. Assessment of audiometry reports revealed that 2 (0.8%) workers had mild hearing loss, 4 (1.6%) had moderate hearing loss and 2 (0.8%) had severe hearing loss.Conclusions: Workers in a fertilizer industry suffer from several morbidities, including the diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Apart from this, they also suffer from hearing impairment, visual impairment and conditions impairing their pulmonary functions. Periodic medical examinations are needed for timely detection and appropriate treatment of these health conditions among the workers.

India is the highest burdened country with Tuberculosis (TB) bearing over one fourth of the global TB burden. HIV and drug resistance have further complicated the scenario. Thorough knowledge about TB, its diagnosis and treatment as well as about HIV-TB and drug resistance is needed to make RNTCP and TB control a success. Materials & Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 90 medical interns who answered a self-administered semi structured questionnaire consisting of 30 questions, answered over 30 minutes, conducted over a 3-month period from July to September 2019. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS 14.0 software. Results were expressed in percentages and proportions. P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: The response rate was 100%. Mean age of interns was 23 to 25 years with 56.6% of them being females. 98.8% of the interns correctly identified the chief symptom of TB. 90% of them knew the role of DOTS centre in TB control. However, the overall knowledge regarding HIV-TB and Drug resistant TB was poor. None of them had received prior RNTCP training. Conclusion: Our study has identified several gaps in the knowledge among medical interns in Goa regarding various aspects of TB diagnosis, RNTCP, HIV-TB and Drug resistant TB. RNTCP training and sensitization must be a mandatory part of the interns training to improve the control of TB in India.

Background: The toxic nature of chemicals & pollutants associated with an adhesive plaster industry is well established. A disastrous health sequel would occur among workers of these industries due to exposure to pollution, created & stored wastes, and constant noise & bright light. Objective:To describe selected morbidities among workers in an ad-hesive plaster industry in Goa. Methodology:The study was conducted over a period of two months during which, the data of 135 workers was obtained from an Occupa-tional Health and Safety (OHS) Centre catering to an adhesive plaster industry in North Goa which conducted periodic medical check-ups of these workers. The data included socio-demographic characteristics and details regarding selected morbidities among the workers of the adhesive plaster industry. Result: Among 135 workers, the mean age was 40.96 ± 11.1 years. Majority of the participants were males. It was observed that 5 (3.7 %) had a known history of diabetes and 48 (35.6 %) were hypertensive. Near-vision abnormalities were seen among 66 (48.9 %), whereas 60 (44.4 %) had uncorrected far-vision abnormalities. Obesity was detected among 6 (4.4 %) whereas 40 (29.6 %) were overweight. Obstructive & restrictive respiratory diseases were seen in 3 (2.2 %) & 40 (29.6 %) persons respectively. Audiometry reports revealed 4 (3%) workers had mild to moderate hearing loss. Conclusion: Workers in the adhesive plaster industry suffered from several lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, as well as occupational diseases like audio-visual impairment and lung diseases. This study emphasizes the importance of periodic medical examinations for timely detection & appropriate treatment of the health conditions among such workers.