Environmental Exposure and Health Problems among Male Leather Tannery Workers: A Study of Kanpur City, India

The tanning industry is known for polluting environment due to the use of many hazardous chemicals in tanning process. Leather tannery workers are more susceptible to many chemicals and physical hazards as they are exposure to... [ view full abstract ]

The tanning industry is known for polluting environment due to the use of many hazardous chemicals in tanning process. Leather tannery workers are more susceptible to many chemicals and physical hazards as they are exposure to lot of hazardous materials and processes during tanning work. Tannery workers are exposed to many health problems. This study aims to investigate the association between environmental exposure and health problems among male leather tannery workers. A cross- sectional household study was conducted from January to June, 2015 on tannery and non-tannery workers as a part of PhD program from the Jajmau area of Kanpur city, India. The sample of 286 tannery and 295 non-tannery workers has been collected from the study area. A symptoms shown the highest prevalence of symptoms of asthma, cough first thing in the morning (24.13%), feeling of tightness in chest (10.14%), cough most days and night at least 3 months (11.54%), cough up with phlegm most days and night for 3 months in previous year (11.19%), chest contestation (17.83%) among the tannery workers compared is the higher to their counterpart. The symptoms of TB, breathing difficulty (14.34%), excessive sweating especially at night (18.53%), fatigue (25.17%) and weight loss (14.69%) these symptoms often experienced by the tannery workers. Having “cough first thing in the morning” had statistically significant association with the chemicals in the air, high exposure (OR= 9.55**, p<0.05) among the tannery workers. Results from the logistic regression analysis for low back trouble that the age was significantly associated with low back trouble in age group >36 (OR=4.16***, p<0.001). This study concluded that the working condition at tannery had exposure to lots of hazardous materials and processes during tanning work and its enormous linkages between health problems of the leather tannery workers of Kanpur city, India.