Survey on Health and Safety Concerns of Laboratory Animal Workers in the Philippines

Abstract

Occupational health and safety are important aspects of the workplace. This study was carried out to identify the common occupational health and safety concerns of laboratory animal workers (LAWs) in the Philippines. Specifically, it aims to describe the frequency of encounters with the different health and safety concerns plus the encounters based on the workers’ demographic profiles, animal contact, and the frequency of personal protective equipment (PPE) usage at work. An online survey questionnaire was developed and confidentially administered to the respondents via email through the Philippine Association for Laboratory Animal Science (PALAS). A total of 44 responses met the research inclusion criteria. The three most common health and safety concerns encountered by LAWs at work were animal-related injuries (34/44, 77.3%), sharp-related injuries (30/44, 68.2%), and allergy from animals (23/44, 52.3%). These were consistent regardless of the workers’ age, gender, job title, years of work experience with laboratory animals, animal contact, and frequency of PPE usage at work. A high rate of experiencing animal-related injuries was observed even with the frequent use of available PPE. With this, the study revealed that LAWs in the Philippines are exposed to different health and safety concerns present at work. Moreover, the study showed the need to evaluate further the current practices and ensure implementation of additional safety measures to lessen the occurrence of these concerns and protect the health and safety of the workers.