Environmental Safety Assessment of a Printing Plant in Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Background: The workplace environment impacts workers health, morale, productivity and engagement - both positively and negatively. The workplace environment in most of industry is unsafe and unhealthy. During the past ten years, the printing services have met a large development. Technological changes and the introduction of new work processes in the matter of printing have had a deep impact on labor, security and health. Objectives: to describe the environmental features of a printing press in Cairo. Methods: A descriptive observational study was carried out in a big printing press in Cairo, Egypt. Assessment of the work environment (prepress department, printing department, bookbinding section & office) was done using checklist modified from that of occupational safety team, 2012. Results: The majority of the study participants (79.5%) in the printing press were working in the printing and bookbinding department. which complains from poor ventilation, poor housekeeping, presence of spills & tripping hazards, lack of personal protective equipments, presence of noisy machines, significant manual handling & awkward body positions, lack of first aid kit & hazardous containers (ink containers in the printing department & adhesives in the bookbinding department) were left open. By comparing the departmental total score of the items in the environmental checklist; the prepress department were the highest in fulfilling the positive items with score (86.66%) and the printing & bookbinding department were the least with total score (40.09%). Conclusion: The study concluded that some areas of the printing press (printing & bookbinding department) need urgent attention to the work environment and recommend periodic environmental examination, good housekeeping, training, health education & provision of protective measures. Further work to confirm these findings in other study settings & population is also needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]