Abstract
An attempt was made in this chapter to explore the agricultural hazards in the farming sectors of Odisha in India. There were three main contributions. At first the agricultural hazard factors were identified by the use of literature and standard Nordic questionnaires. In the second part, the Best Worst Method (BWM) was used to rank the different hazards based on the risk factors involved. Finally, in the third part, an ergonomic evaluation was made by using both REBA and OWAS ergonomic tools, considering different postures taken by farmers in selected farming activities, and accordingly, the corrective measures (if any) were recommended.
TopIntroduction
Workers in various occupations are subjected to various sufferings and pains. As most of the workers spend a lot of time in their workplaces, so the workplace is supposed to be the second home of the workers. But unfortunately due to the ignorance of the workers by not adhering to the guidelines in the occupation, the workers are seriously affected by some of the health hazards. Occupational health and safety refers to factors and conditions affecting the health and safety of workers engaged in different workplaces. The issues related with this can be viewed as infections, mishaps or different risks emerging from workplace or circumstances that emerge in the endeavor to perform undertakings in any occupation. It is surely, a compensable illness that occurs during the span of work. Agriculture has been considered as one of the most hazardous occupation in the world. There is a progressive deterioration of health of agricultural workers. The fatal accident rate in agricultural sectors of several countries has been reported by different studies as to be twice than the average for all other industries. The developing nation like India is facing with traditional public health problems such as under-nourishment, poor environmental cleanliness, infectious diseases, and inadequate medical facilities. For improving the occupational health research still much is to be done like creation of advanced research facilities, human resources developments, environmental and occupational health cells (Habibullah et al., 2004).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Injury: An injury damages to a person's feelings.
Psychological Hazard: It refers to those hazards that affect the mental wellbeing of the workers and affecting the ability of workers healthy and safety manner of working.
Physical Hazard: A physical hazard is an agent, factor, or circumstance that causes harm with or without contact.
Chemical Hazard: It refers to the occupational hazard which is caused due to the exposure to chemicals in the workplaces.
Biological Hazard: A biological hazard refers to the biological substances that pose a threat to the health of human beings and other living organisms.
Hazard: A hazard is something that causes harm.