title: Health profile of workers in a ship building and repair industry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The modern ship building industry, which encompasses the ship yards and marine equipment manufacturing, is an important and strategic industry. The various activities in modern ship building, maintenance, and repair have to be carried out at heights, or in closed confined spaces along with the added risk of exposure to chemicals and metal fumes. These activities expose the workers to various health hazards.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study was carried out with an aim to assess the health profile of workers in the ship building industry and to assess the occupational health issues related to ship building.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a cross-sectional study carried out on 100 randomly selected workers in a ship building yard in Mumbai, and their health profile was studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  The workers were enquired for history of co-morbidities, addictions and personal protective equipment use, health-related complaints, and were examined systemically as well as for bedside tests for hearing and detailed systemic examination as per the history or co-morbidity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The important observations were those of prevalence of addictions (69%), irregular use of personal protective equipments (PPEs) among 50% of paint workers, presence of hypertension (20%), overweight (53%), osteoarthritis (10%), hearing loss (25%), and poor self-care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health education to the workers regarding occupational hazards and lifestyle diseases along with more emphasis on the use of PPEs with regular health examination needs reinforcement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Terna Medical College, Nerul, Navi Mumbai and Central Labour Institute, Sion, Mumbai, India.
authors.forename: Vaishali R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Lokhande
keywords: Health education; occupational health hazards; personal protective equipments; shipbuilding workers