Prevalence of ocular morbidity amongst industrial workers in goa, india

Objective: To study the prevalence and nature of ocular morbidity amongst the industrial workers in select industries in Goa. Material and methods: Three industries were purposefully chosen for the study. The industries studied were: a chemical and fertilizer industry; a ship building industry and a rubber tyres manufacturing industry. The total worker strength at the selected three industries of 2886 was the study population for this study. The study was conducted ‘on site’ through a mobile eye care unit. Each worker was subjected to thorough ophthalmic evaluation. Data was entered in predesigned format and analysed using SPSS software. Results: The overall prevalence of ocular morbidity was 32.1% among the workers in the three industries. The prevalence of acute industrial eye trauma was 2.2%. The highest prevalence of ocular injury was in ship building industry at 2.7% followed by rubber industry (2.3%) while it was lowest in chemical industry (1.3%). Around 62.5% of ocular injuries occurred because the workers failed to use safety eyewear provided by the company. The combined prevalence of conjunctival melanosis, pterygium, pingecula and chronic conjunctivitis was found to be 7.2% among all the workers. Conclusion: Almost all of occupational eye disorders are more easily prevented than treated. Several preventive measures are now available. With such preventive measures readily available both employers and employees must work aggressively to decrease the number of workers affected with an occupational eye disorders.