Occupational Health Survey And Countermeasures Among Wood Furniture Manufacture

Objective:To identify the status of occupational health management and service among the enterprises for wooden furniture manufacture. And to clarify the major supervision of occupational diseases and to set up specific measures to improve the prevention and control of occupational diseases in these enterprises.Methods:All enterprises for wooden furniture manufacture are investigated for collecting data, field investigation and questionnaire. And there were employees’survey for occupational health such as occupational health management, occupational hazards, workers’health surveillance and personal protection, and so on. All participants selected by stratified random sampling. Here the present status of occupational health in such enterprises are stated as a percentage. According to chi-square test, we compare the implementation of occupational health measures in different scale enterprises and the health knowledge among different labors, etc.Results:1. There are one hundred enterprises in this city which manufacture wooden furniture. Most of them are small-businesses. About 5811 workers are exposed to the occupational hazards. In 2011, the declaration rate and the detection rate of occupational hazards were 60.9% and 63.6% separately. The rate for occupational health examination was 61.8%. The implementation rates of other occupational health management measures were all above 80%.2. From 2011 to 2013, the detection rates of occupational hazards were 64.5%,29.1% and 19.1% each and the qualified rates were 84.9%,86.5% and 87.8%. The main occupational hazardous factors included wood dust, noise, other dust, xylene, toluene, benzene, formaldehyde, etc. During these three years, the rates of occupational health examination in the wooden furniture manufacture enterprises were 61.8%,30.0%、25.5% separately.3. Among 30 enterprises under investigation, only 13.3 percent of enterprises reached to criteria for occupational hazards. The unqualified items included noise, wood dust, benzene, other dust, etc. Benzene was beyond the criterion significantly. CATEL is over 11.1 times for the criterion, CSTEL is out of limit 6.6 times. The occupational health surveillance wasn’t perfect. The pre-employment health examination rate was only 10% and the off-job health examination rate was O.The actual review rate is 77.4%. The dust-removal equipment can not meet the actual needs.82.8 percent of enterprises installed water curtain system to reduce drug toxic reaction and water detoxification facilities, but they didn’t close the lacquer bucket or cover the solvent drums.4. There are 260 workers attending survey at worksite. Most of them are young rural migrant workers and are not well educated. About 60.4% of those workers know occupational hazard and its health consequences; 70% of them know the Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment Act in China; 88.1% of them know occupational health surveillance and 57.3% of them know the occupational hazard detection. The workers know the occupational health knowledge to some extent, but they don’t protect themselves. The adoption rates of PPE were relatively low, those workers can’t use PPE normally and can’t change them in time. So the workers demand for much more occupational health knowledge.Conclusions:1. Most of enterprises for wooden furniture manufacture are small businesses. Because regulatory functions were transferred, the management activities were in decline quickly from 2011, so this duty transfer for occupational health supervision must be speeded up.2. In the wooden furniture manufacture enterprises, the detection rate of occupational hazardous factors has low acceptance rate. The existing protection equipment for noise and dust in woodworking factories was poor, the protection facilities in paint shop are better. But the routine management of occupational health is not enough. Engineering protection, routine management and personal protection should be strengthened.3. The surveillance of occupational health for employees should be strengthened and some reasonable ways of various occupational health examinations should be used to improve the inspection rates.4. Though these workers have some knowledge of occupational health, only few can operate correctly. There is a gap between such knowledge and operation. Thus, in order to promote workers’ health, health education should be carried out to intervene the improper operation.