Prof (Dr) M.S.Parmar, Shweta Saxena and Vasundhara Verma
Northern India Textile Research Association, Sector-23, Rajnagar,
Ghaziabad-201002, U.P, India
The demand of cement requirement is increasing every year in India. At present, the capacity of cement production in India is 390 million tones, which is expected to further increase due to government’s push for large infrastructure projects. With the increase in use of Portland cement in India, its adverse effect on health of workers working in cement construction sites and manufacturing industries has become a burning issue. Thousands of construction workers are exposed to concrete every day without knowing its harmful effect on their health. Cement is chemical and highly alkaline in nature. At wet stage, the pH of cement is more than 12.9, has the ability to create third degree burns. When the skin of worker, come in regular contact of this wet concrete, it may get affected and resulted dermatitis. Signs and symptoms of dermatitis can include itching, redness, swelling, blisters, scaling and other changes in the normal conditions of skin.
In India, workers are still not provided proper protective work wear while working in cement related work especially during the use of concrete. Therefore, to understand the performance requirements on the fabric for cement workers protective clothing, a survey was conducted by NITRA on DMRC, NDMC, PWD and private builders. Workers of some cement manufacturing units were also surveyed to gather information related to protective work wear. It was found by survey that most of the agencies are not providing suitable protective work wear to the workers. A few of the agencies are providing cotton gloves, masks and reflective jackets, which are not sufficient to protect them from cement dust and slurry. To prevent cement dust, cement porters/workers generally wear multiple layers of garments. But these layering of garments do not give full proof prevention from cement dust. It was also reveled from the survey that they were having good health before joining this trade. But after joining this trade they began to show symptom of eyes swelling, respiratory problems, skin burning etc.
From survey and personally interviews with cement workers following requirements were identified:
To fulfill the above requirements NITRA in collaboration with M/s Arvind Limited, are working to develop protective work wear for cement workers. The project is sponsored by Ministry of Textiles, Govt or India.
For further details, please contact
Prof (Dr) M.S.Parmar
Joint Director (A)
Northern India Textile Research Association
Sector-23, Raj Nagar, Ghazuabad (U.P)
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Phone: 0120-2783090/094/095/586/592/638/334, Fax: 0120 2783596
