Hazardous factories: Nigerian evidence.
The past 15 years have seen an increasing governmental and corporate concern for the environment worldwide. For governments, information about the environmental performance of the industrial sector is required to inform macro-level decisions about environmental targets such as those required to meet UN directives. However, in many African, Asian, and Latin American countries, researching and reporting company environmental performance is limited. This article serves as a contribution to filling the gap by presenting evidence of physical and chemical risk in Nigerian factories. One hundred and three factories with a total of 5,021 workers were studied. One hundred and twenty physical and chemical hazards were identified and the result shows a high number of workers exposed to such hazards. The study also reveals that workers' awareness level of chemical hazards was high. Yet the danger was perceived in behavioral terms, especially by manufacturing firms, which tend to see environmental investment in an increasingly global economy as detrimental to profitability.
Oloyede
Olajide
O
Centre for Development Studies, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa. ooloyede@ufh.ac.za
D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000191:economics; D016272:Occupational Health; D009790:Occupations; D010465:Perception; D012107:Research Design; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000191:economics; D012449:Safety
D015386:Hazardous Substances