Study on toxic waste handling and safety practices with health effects among petroleum gas production workers / Siti Hawa Basri

This study is on toxic waste handling and safety practices in a selected gas manufacturing industry with health effects among petroleum gas production workers. Petroleum industries are involved in a broad spectrum of petroleum operations ranging from oil and gas. One of its key areas of management is by complying with the country's laws which includes the Environment Quality Act, 1974 and Environment Quality (Schedule. Waste) Regulations, 2005. The study objective included the management methods of toxic and hazardous chemicals (scheduled waste) and related practices that are used in the Petroleum Gas industry. Further, a comparative cross-sectional study was carried out among exposed workers (n=60) in the petroleum gas production and the data compared with a control group (n=60) in of office workers. The respondents were selected on simple random sampling and included inclusive criteria such as male (sex), Malay (race) and worked for at least three years. The study data revealed that three (n=3) -, symptoms namely sore throat, asthma and headache were identified among the exposed workers with a significant association (p<0.05) due to toxic and hazardous waste exposures. All these symptoms that occurred are related to health effects (toxicity and irritation) among workers. Lube oil (present as a toxic and hazardous waste) has been linked to cancer of the skin and scrotum. The poor control measures that lead to adverse health effects due to the Spent Lube Oil (SW 305) exposures were shown among the exposed groups. It can be concluded that these presence of waste chemicals with toxic and hazardous properties led to health risks to workers who were exposed to these toxic and hazardous chemicals. Improved risk controls based upon the hierarchy of controls would be vital in improving the safety and health among these workers.