Occupational Health Assessment of Rice Mills’ Workers in North-East, India

Abstract

Assam has more than four thousand old rice mills where large numbers of workers are employed. They are involved in various kind of works namely loading/unloading, spreading, bag opening at feeding, filling, sewing, separate broken rice from husk and bag repairing, respectively. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the rice mill workers health status. A total of 145 rice mill workers were selected from 18 rice mill of Assam. A modified Nordic questionnaire and posture analysis using OWAS method were used. Polar heart rate monitor was used to measure the workers heart rate. The PEFR test was carried out by a Portable micro-quark spirometer for the selected subjects. The analysis of OWAS method indicated that most of the working posture of the workers needed immediate actions to improve working conditions as well as the technical equipment. Rice mill workers are suffered from discomfort feeling in different body parts and maximum discomfort reported in lower back (68.9%). It was observed that loading/unloading type of workers is suffered maximum discomfort manifestation compare to the other types of rice mill workers. Average working heart rate (138.1 beats/min) which was observed in loading/unloading workers which is indicated heavy work load and extremely high category drudgery index. Further, it was observed that the mean value of PEFR is 22.9% and it was lower for second level of experience compared to first level of experience. From the analysis it was concluded that rice mill workers health are highly affected by improper bending posture and work load in dusty condition.