Impact of cotton dust pollution on women workers’ health and absenteeism: A cross sectional study in textile industries, Pakistan

Abstract

The textile sector is one of the largest sectors of world and it contributed a lot in the GDP of every country. In Pakistan it contributed 8.5% to the overall GDP of the economy. A large fraction of working women found in the textile sector of Pakistan. The textile industries are creating a lot of pollution which contributed a lot in both air and water pollution. In textile sector women workers’ wages are not satisfied and polluted work environment leads to serious health issues which cause negative impact on workers’ health. Worker also has to bear economic cost of bad health. So, the objective of the research is to find out the impact of cotton dust pollution on women workers’ health, the research also aims to estimate the health and economic burden which is faced by workers due to bad health. The data is collected from the 18 textile spinning mills of Faisalabad and Lahore districts in March to June in 2015. Total 541 women worker selected from these mills compared to 513 women those are non-textile workers. The survey found that only 9% women are permanent employee and the average wage of women is PKR. 9857 per month which is less than the minimum wage law of Pakistan. The survey also shows that women workers bear high diseases burden than the control group. The analysis have also provides relationship between exposure to cotton dust pollution and many diseases like byssinosis, wheezing, phlegm, blood phlegm and chronic cough etc. These diseases are high among those workers who use firewood for cooking. Work days lost of worker is also estimated with work characteristics and it is found that if a worker is permanent employee and workers who work over time in both cases their absenteeism rate is high. Workers performance is also estimated and half of the worker explains that their performance at work is worse than normal. It is found that many diseases have negative impact on worker performance. The research therefore suggested that government should take some strict action ad textile mills should pay compensation because workers are bearing diseases like byssinosis. Safety culture should be promoted by giving workers training and advisory services. Because most of the diseases can be