Role of Personal Protective Equipment in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Industrial Workers

With industrialisation, radical alterations in the life of many rapidly developing countries are visible. Lack of well-designed and appropriate safety measures leads to serious adverse health consequences to the workforce found in MSMEs. Workplace injuries are a leading cause of substantial disabilities globally. According to the International Labour Organization, 270 million workplace accidents occur annually. The factors that emerged to significantly influence personal protective equipment (PPE) use included acceptability, availability, attractive and not using PPE despite being trained and aware of the hazard. There was no significant relationship between lack of co-worker/supervisor influence to use of PPE and social demographics. It is recommended that employers and other stakeholder intensify their roles on PPE policy guidelines, training and awareness campaigns, compliance surveillance on PPE use by all workers in these industries as well as ensure a safe working environment. Employers should ensure that PPE are available, accessible, well-fitting and comfortable to wear and that they are used appropriately and consistently by the workers at all times. PPE is any material, device, equipment or clothing used or worn by workers to protect them from exposure or contact with any harmful material or energy which may cause injury, disease or even death. The study assessed the utilisation of PPE among workers in small-scale industries in Chennai city. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design. Purposive sampling technique was used to select Chennai city. Simple random sampling was used to select 10 industries that were included in the study. Random sampling technique was also used to select a sample of 250 workers from the selected industries.