Environmental Risk Assessment and Occupational Health and Safety of Tobacco Manufacturing Industry Located in Qadrabad, District

Abstract

Manufacturing cigarettes and their packaging is highly resource intensive. The tobacco product manufacturing process generates vast amounts of waste. Scientists believe the production of cigarettes, contributes to global warming and jeopardizes various ecosystems. Not only this but it also uses up a lot of land area and thus responsible of deforestation. More than that it also affects the health of workers involved in making the cigarettes. The study focused on determining the occupational risks and environmental affects posed by this process. For this purpose, a detailed environmental monitoring was done with different parameters in focus such as levels of CO, O3, SO2, NO2 and particulate matter to analyze the ambient air quality of industry. Moreover, noise pollution, water pollution and soil pollution were also taken in account which were monitored and evaluated using standard procedures and comparing the obtained results with international and national recommended safe limits. As for the determination of occupational risks for the industry workers a detailed walk through survey was conducted to evaluate the potential risk hazards within the industry along with individual interviews from workers in every unit of the industry. The study revealed that industry is not only a safe environment for the workers to do their job but also the environmental parameters were in check and the industry has done an efficient job in making sure that it’s activities and operation pose least possible threat and impact on the environment