An epidemiological analysis of occupational poisoning in Malaysia: A retrospective study from the National Poison Centre

Abstract

The present study aims to describe occupational poisoning in Malaysia by assessing the epidemiological characteristics and identifying the risk factors. Retrospective analysis of telephone enquiries made to the National Poison Centre (NPC) regarding occupational poisoning from 2006-2019 was conducted. The NPC received a total of 1,597 calls of occupational poisoning whereby sociodemographic analysis showed that the most high-risk group included males (80.7%) of Malay race (39.2%) aged between 19 and 29 years (33.6%) who were working at agricultural sites (42.9%) or factories (25.1%). Doctors (87.2%) reported mostly acute (95.5%) exposure through the major routes of inhalation (44.2%) and ingestion (36.6%). Data analysis indicated that state, age and race played a significant role (p<0.05) in determining whether occupational poisoning occurred via pesticide (44.8%) or industrial agent (40.5%), which caused the majority of cases. This study emphasized the importance of occupational safety and health (OSH) and the need for designing interventions, strategies and future research for quality improvements in safety at the workplace.

Keywords

• occupational safety and health
• workplace
• agriculture
• manufacturing
• pesticide