Ilo C. I., Njoku P. O., Nwimo I. O., Elom N. A., Orji S. A., 2018, Workers’ Compliance with Measures for Safe Environment in Quarry Industries in Abakaliki Town of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 63, 661-666.
Hazards in quarry industries are unavoidable and inimical to the health of man and environment. Occupational health and safety measures mitigate the effect of the hazards. This study investigated the extent of workers’ compliance with measures for safe environment in quarry industries in Abakaliki capital development territory of Ebonyi State. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of 3450 workers of quarry industries in the area under survey. A sample of 358 workers was chosen using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a 15-item structured questionnaire tagged Measures for Safe Environment Compliance Questionnaire (MSECQ). Internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha co-efficient and the overall reliability coefficient was 0.96. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while hypotheses were tested using t-test and one way analysis of variance. Alpha level for test of hypotheses was set 0.05. The results show that workers highly comply with measures for safe environment, exhibit high compliance with measures for safe environment in relation to reporting safety problems and every faulty equipment to management as well as working only when there is proper lighting. They show low compliance with measures for safe environment with regard to urinating into toilet/urinal within the quarry and defecating into toilet within the quarry. There is no significant difference between male and female workers in the level of compliance with measures for safe environment. There is significant difference in workers compliance with measures for safe environment based on level of education. It is recommended that the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) should liaise with state and local health authorities in the health education of quarry workers and general control of quarries. Also, owners of quarries should take responsibility for every act of non-compliance in quarries and should ensure regular health education and training of workers and regular hazard control in the quarries.
