Preliminary Study on Non-Fatal Occupational Injury among Operational Workers in Malaysia Palm Oil Mill

Abstract

Non-fatal occupational injury had becoming major global concern and its consequences to safety and health would be heavily burdening. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the distribution of non-fatal occupational injury among specific group of workers in palm oil mill and to acknowledge potential factors of injury causation. A questionnaire survey was designed to assess injury involvement during the employment period among operational workers of palm oil mill located in Southern Peninsular Malaysia. Thirty three (n= 33) workers volunteered and completed the questionnaire. Prevalence of injury among palm oil mill workers was 39.4% with sprain and burn were the common types of injury reported. Press Plant workers reported to have high cases of injuries. Majority of workers (78.8%) stated noise was the main hazard in the palm oil mill, followed by heat hazard. Press Plant was identified as one of the specific risk group in palm oil mill based on the rate of injury occurrences reported by the workers. Exposure to noise hazard was estimated to be one of the potential factors of injury causation and further study should be made to measure the risk of hazard.