Unsafe Behaviors and Accidents in Waste Management Process of Purchase Recycle Waste Shop at Bangkhen District, Bangkok Metropolitan

Abstract

This research aimed to study unsafe behaviors and the incidents of accidents in waste management process of 3 waste recycle shops in Bangkhen District, Bangkok; and to study factors related to the risk behaviors and accident of recycle waste workers. This was a cross-sectional study. The population and samples were the workers who working for waste recycle shops. There were altogether 124 persons. Data were collected by using questionnaire. Industrial hygiene instruments were used for measuring the light intensity, sound levels, total suspended particulate matter and fungi in the air. Statistical tools were descriptive statistics to analyze personal characteristics; and inferential statistics for association analysis were chi-square analysis (Chi-square), univariate analysis by Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval, and logistic regression analysis. The results showed that most waste management workers were male with an average age of 31.2 years. The education level of workers were primary school, marital status was single, no children, no parental care, average experience of 1.8 years, work for six days per week, working session of eight hours per day, average daily earning of 356.3 baht, no part-time job, and no underlying disease. They had a high level perception on self-protection behaviors and a high level of knowledge on hazard prevention. Most of them had a medium level attitude of protection behaviors and had a middle level motivation to prevent hazards. Majority of workers had unsafe behaviors and had accidents in the last year. The factors associated with unsafe waste management behaviors were the education level and work experience. The external factors correlated with accident were slippery or wet floors in the working areas. Assessment of sound levels, total suspended particulate matter and fungi in the air reveled standard afety levels; but the light intensity was lower than the standard level. Therefore, to reducing unsafe behaviors in waste recycle shops, hazard preventive attitude and worker motivation in the waste management process as well as safety trainings for employees should be promoted.