Wednesday, March 9, 2011

HEALTH STATUS OF TEXTILE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA

Industrialization is necessary for prosperity and at times for the survival of a nation. The production is the real wealth of a Nation. Only industrialization is not enough, real benefit is brought by continuous top performance of the worker which is only possible by their good health. Industrial workers constitute only a segment of general population and the factors that influence the health of the population also apply equally to industrial workers. Occupational health is undoubtedly an issue that calls for more research by experts and activists. Respiratory problem is one of the major health threats to Textile Workers. It leads to some systemic symptoms in exposed Workers, along with a number of other physical problem like, hearing loss or noise problem, low back pain Respiratory symptoms and pulmonary functions. Byssinosis diseases Colour vision dysfunction in long term solvent (dye) exposure, till now the studies are mostly clinically based. A lacuna in anthropological perspective is observed. In the present study an attempt has been made to study the morpho-physiological changes among textile workers of District Varanasi, Utter Pradesh. The study has been conducted to assess changes in lung functions and airway reactivity resulting from exposure to textile dust.
The subjects comprises of control group (non-workers) and test group (workers) of the same ecological condition (Industrial environment). Effect of dust was seen on anthropological and physiological variables Effect of dust was categorized based on the duration of exposure to dust, concentration of dust, socio economic factors and life styles. The 300 workers of three different sectors (cotton, wool/synthetic, silk)of the textile industry who worked in a textile unit containing 8 subworking sectors. The pattern of disease incidence in different production center of the textile industry is grossly dissimilar. As the result suggest that exposure to textile dust is responsible for acute and consistent decrease in lung function as well as a slight increase in airway reactivity.

Read My Published article here http://eaa.elte.hu/Jaiswal.pdf


By
Dr. Ajeet Jaiswal, Ph.D.
Asst. Professor
Department of Anthropology
Pondicherry University, India
rpgajeet@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. The First Statement "Industrialization is necessary for prosperity and at times for the survival of a nation" itself is flawed and a subjective statement.
    Rather, any mention of occupational hazards and the need for augmenting health care systems, would have been a valid point of start!

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