OCCUPATIONAL & ERGONOMIC HEALTH ANALYSES OF FEMALE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA.

Background: Construction is one of the important industries employing a large number of people on its workforce. The workers engaged in this industry are victims of different occupational disorders with hormonal dysfunctions and psychosocial stresses. Objectives: To outline the effect of cumulative stress factors to which they are exposed and to quantify the damages in terms of newer parameter and to bring to light the different health problems amongst the workers working in the Brick Kiln correlated with building construction industry. Materials & Methods: The study was a community based double blind cross sectional study, conducted on female brick field workers in a brick field of Chinsurah, West Bengal (Experimental group) compared to those with agricultural exposure at Adisaptogram, West Bengal. Result: Blood pressure, serum progesterone status and Progesterone/Estrogen Ratio were found to be much lower in the brick kiln female workers compared to their counterpart showing normal values. However, individual Estrogen status & FSH status was found to be much higher in workers than their respective clinical values. Specific workstation related ergonomic parameters namely; RULA and OWAS scores of the experimental group also indicated the awkward posture followed by them during work, which needed immediate remedial measure. Conclusion: Analyzing the emerged data it was hypothesized that early emergence of PMS (pre menopausal syndrome) amongst these workers who suffer from silent pain & musculo-skeletal disorders probably due to their work posture, working environment and related lifestyles.