Safety and Health Issues in Textile and Garment Industry

Shubham Anil Jain
Sr. Consultant
Cent Edge Solutions LLP, Bangalore, India
Email: [email protected]

Introduction:
As we know that, basically the textile industry involves a number of units related with spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing, finishing and even many of the other operations which are particularly needed to transform fiber into a finished product, i.e. fabric or garment. Along with this there are many of the several safety and health issues related with the textile and garment industry. After the Covid-19 case, these problems are becoming more apparent to everyone. These specifically involves exposure to cotton and various other organic dust, exposure to many of the chemicals and dyeing of materials, kind of musculoskeletal stresses, uncovering to noise as well as ergonomic issues. This article particularly helps at understanding each of these issues in detail.

Safety and Health Issues in Textile and Garment Industry:

a) Exposure to cotton dust:
As in the processing and spinning operation, it is seen that the cotton fiber tends to generate cotton dust and then these dusts are finally exposed to particles of pesticides as well as soil. Firstly, it is found that they all mix up into the air and then goes into the lungs of workers and which probably develop serious lung issues, the particularly most common of these is known as ”brown lung”.

It is also found that, the workers who are working in the cotton dust environment are generally affected by a chronic cough. Chronic cough basically is different from that of regular asthma, because it is more characterized by persistent cough which is generally more than 3 months. Due to the inhalation of allergic cotton dust, it tends to irritates the throat which particularly results in a dry cough.

There is a prominent difference in breathing ability when compared between exposed and non-exposed workers in cotton dust surrounding. As per the study conducted by AV Hinson, it simply involved 656 exposed workers and 113 workers which are not exposed to cotton dust, highlighting that almost 7.2% of chest constrictions and 9.9% of total experienced respiratory distress

b) Exposure to chemicals:
It is seen that specifically the relation of chemical dyeing for the purpose of cleaning, finishing and softening process are generally been exposed to chemicals. These chemicals particularly consist of Benzedrine, optical brighteners, solvent and fixatives, formaldehyde and different antimicrobial agents. When it comes to the exposure to formaldehyde, it mainly causes diseases like brain cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer. It is not required that there should be contact of chemicals with skin, just with the inhalation of chemicals can also lead to many serious health issues.

It is been seen that Dimethylformamide which is particularly used in aramid fibers is a solvent of good properties that provides to a good percentage of military fabrics. N, N-Dimethyl amide is found to be toxic to many of the animals like cats, rabbits and rats. Dimethylformamide is generally a carcinogenic chemical, which is totally responsible for cancer and toxic liver issue. It also tends to affects the female reproductive system and also leads to many of the birth defects.

c) Exposure to noise:
When it comes to the noise, in the textile industry it deals with any unwanted signal. If there is a high noise level particularly in the processing department, it can definitely cause lifelong hearing loss. There are majorly different noise classifications like continuous noise, impact noise, and discontinuous noise. So, it is found that more exposure to higher levels of noise is more generous in textile industries. When it comes to spinning and weaving industry, they are particularly creating high noise level. This has even caused hearing loss as well as many of the other problems such as sleep disorders, hypertension, weariness, non-appearance, uncomfortable, alteration in pulse rate and blood pressure etc.

d) Ergonomic issues:
When it comes to these issues, they are very prominent in many developing countries, most of the workers are going from unsafe and unhealthy conditions due to the cramped work surrounding because of poor lighting and ventilation. It is also seen that many of the garments industries workers goes through from musculoskeletal disorders, like carpal tunnel syndrome, some of them also suffers from lower and tendinitis, back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain.

Various Ways to Deal with These Problems:
The following are some of the important suggestions, which can done to improve the safety and health conditions in textile as well as garment industry:

1. The seats, tables as well as chairs of the workers should be well matched in height correctly, so there will not be any musculoskeletal strain.
2. The industry should follow proper lighting at the place of work so that the stress to the eyes can be eliminated.
3. When it comes to the machinery, it should be well maintained in order to minimize the amount of noise. In some of the cases, some of the parts of machines can be replaced.
4. If by chance, the level of the noise cannot be controlled, employees should be given the earplugs so that exposure to noise can be minimized.
5. In case of the noise issue, workers can be rotated within job profiles so they will not face the continuous noise exposure for a long time period.
6. Proper ventilation should be there at the place of work.
7. When it comes to reducing the exposure to dust, employees should be provided with face masks.
8. Well trained medical authority and first aid facilities, also with all the safety equipment’s like fire extinguishers and fire alarms should be properly placed at the work environment.
9. When the employees are working with dangerous chemicals, they should be provided with proper safety gloves.
10. Correct dust control tools and equipment’s should be available and maintained at work place to minimize the workers exposure to cotton dust.

Conclusion:
So, to summarize with, solving the safety as well as health issues is the top most priority for textile and garment industry. And it is even more prominent because there are huge numbers of employees in this sector. As discussed in the article, there are many health issues in the textile and garment industry. It is important that the management of the industry should find the solution to protect the workers from critical environment. It is necessary for the workers to find and eliminate these problems. If these particular problems are solved then the textile and garment industries will be able to reach a better state than now.

References:

1. “Safety and health issues in workers in clothing and textile industries”, Neelam Singh Ph. D Scholar (Home Science Dept.) Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.
2. “Occupational health hazards in textiles industry”, SUDHA BABEL Department of Textiles and Apparel Designing, College of Home Science, MaharanaPratap University of Agriculture and Technology, UDAIPUR (RAJASTHAN) INDIA.AJHS Volume 9 | Issue 1 | June, 2014 | 267-271
3. Occupational safety and health in the textiles sector, Occupational safety and health in the textiles sector.
4. Diffuse lung disease caused by cotton fibre inhalation but distinct from byssinosis, H Kobayashi, S Kanoh, K Motoyoshi, S Aida, Thorax 2004;59:1095–1097. DOI: 10.1136/thx.2003.014027

FAQs:

Q1. What are the 4 most common types of hazards in garments industry?
Ans: The following are the hazards in the apparel industry

1. Accident hazards
2. Physical hazards
3. Ergonomic hazards
4. Psychosocial hazards

Q2. What are the most common health problems associated with garment workers?
Ans: As per the research and analysis, the common problems are malnutrition, anemia, respiratory problems, mental health issues, neck pain, back pain.

Q3. Which are the common injuries that happen in the textile industry?
Ans: The common injuries are slip-and-fall accidents, generally on floors which are covered with loose fibers and/or dust, also sometimes worksite fires or explosions, vehicle which can get injured by forklifts, pallet movers or similar equipment, etc.

Q4. What is the safest fabric to put in?
Ans: When it comes to some of the common skin-friendly fabrics they are “cotton, linen, cashmere, silk, hemp and those made with wood pulp.

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Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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