Safety and Health in the Petrochemical Industry in Map Ta Phut, Thailand

Abstract

Background: Petrochemical industries are known as sources of many toxic chemicals. Safety and health risks of the petrochemical workers employed at Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, located in Rayong, Thailand, are potentially high. Methods: The research materials consisted of documents emanating from statutory reports on safety in working with toxic chemicals and the results of interviews by questionnaire among 457 petrochemical workers regarding occupational health and safety issues. Results: Most of workers who were working with toxic chemicals had knowledge and awareness of health risks and chemical hazards at work. We found that safe behavior at work through read the safety information among operational workers less than non-operational workers around 10%. Most of workers had perceived occupational health and safety management in their companies. Some companies revealed that they had not been performing biological monitoring of blood or urine for their health examination reports and that workplace exposure monitoring had not correlated well with health examination of workers. Conclusions: Our study suggested that occupational health and safety for petrochemical industries requires standards and guidelines for workers' health surveillance aimed at protection of workers.