A study on management of occupational health hazards among the food handlers of Christian medical college and hospital, Vellore
Student name: Ms Upasona Choudhury
Guide: Dr Sapna Narula
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: Christian Medical College Vellore, India
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr. D.J. Christopher
Abstract: The Indian work force is over 400 million strong, which contributes about 39.1% of total population of the country. Today it is a 24 hr working society and every individual is engaged in primary, secondary or tertiary activities. To earn for our basic needs we have to work and while on work we are exposed to certain degree of occupational health hazard risk. Occupational health can be termed as any health problems caused due to exposure to work/ occupation. There is a certain degree of risk associated in every work place. In some industries, the outcome of a typical incident may be relatively low and somewhere it may be high. It depends upon the nature of the industry.
The food industry seems to be the easy and simple in terms of work carried out, but in reality it is counted amongst the risky industry. In the food and beverage industry, an estimated 29000 workers (4.8% of the work force) has suffered from ill health caused during work. A food handler is a person who comes in direct contact with food. It can be anyone who works in a food business and who either handles food or surfaces (procurement to services) that are likely to be in contact with food or equipment such cutleries, plate etc. The food handlers’ work might look simple, but repetitive kitchen task can be threat to their health, for eg. peeling vegetables, lifting of heavy sack etc can cause work related musculoskeletal disorder and leading to other physical, chemical, biological, psychosocial hazard.
Through this study the potential hazards faced by a food handler while working in the kitchen was explored and risk assessment of the mechanical hazard was mapped and found the relationship between occupation and occupational hazard.
The objective of the study is to map the health hazard risk and to analyse the health hazards of the food handlers by preparing a Risk mapping tool box, following the technique of HIRA (Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment) approach. The study will also help us to link or bridge the gap towards sustainable development.
