The Brick and Tile Industry - Report Example

Summative Assignment The Brick and Tile Industry] By of of of Department] Date Introduction This report is aimed at evaluating the results of a study which was conducted in order to assess the possible health hazards that factory workers in the brick and tile manufacturing industry may be exposed to. This particular study, conducted by the HSL, the Health and Safety Laboratory noted levels of LDH (Lactate dehydrogenase) in the blood stream of the workers. These levels and the percentage cell damage associated with them were statistically analyzed in order to evaluate whether any substantial damage to the workers health was taking place. The report presents the results of the statistical analysis along with proof of the analysis and concluding remarks and attests whether the workers may be at a danger of suffering from silicosis which was a disease that damaged major organs of a human body. Background The brick and Tile industries form an integral component of the construction industry of any country. The flawless execution of the manufacturing of bricks and tiles are essential in order to ensure the sanctity of the structures being bought up physically. Recent health and safety laboratory (HSL) of workers from the brick and tiles industries conducted a study and recorded certain observations. This study was conducted with the consent of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The aim of the study was to evaluate and analyze if the procedures involved in making bricks and tiles were completely in line with the health and safety standards that were essential for human beings and specially the factory workers well being. The reasons behind the conduction of this study are stated underneath. The making of tiles and bricks involves the use of quarts, feldspar and china clay. The process of making bricks and tiles often results in the emission of very fine particles which may be respired by humans. These particles contain respirable crystalline silica (RCS), a chemical the inhaling of which may is a serious health hazard. Incapacity and Premature death are few of the serious repercussions of inhaling these fine dust particles of RCS for long durations of time. One of the indications of continuous exposure to RCS resulting in possible cell damage would be the presence of high levels of Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the workers working in the brick and tile manufacturing factories. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an intra cellular enzyme whose presence in high levels is an indicator of permeability of cell membranes (Corsini et al., 2003, p. 1521) of many vital organs of a human body that include heart, liver, muscle and blood. In the study conducted by the HSL, the health and safety laboratory, the levels of LDH present in the bloodstream of workers working in the brick and tile production factories have been evaluated and recorded. The results have also been evaluated to calculate a percentage of cell damage. Research Question These are two potential research parameters that are intended to be evaluated in this statistical study. They are: 1. Measuring cell damage and analyzing whether the health of workers working separately in the brick and tile making operations are any different from each other. 2. Assessing whether the recorded health effects and the length of service of the workers are inter related or not. Also narrating if there are any associations present. Data The collection of data for the research was done by taking samples of blood from 65 workers who worked in the brick and tile making factory. This random selection of 65 workers involved the selection of 38 workers from the brick making unit and 27 workers from the tile making unit respectively. Prior to the collection of data, in order to make the results free from any impurities, it was ensured that the samples were taken from workers who had not worked in both the units and also did not have any history of smoking. The data collection was done by recording the following variable values: 1. A worker ID. 2. Unit of employee work (Brick or Tile). 3. Years of employee service. 4. Employee Age. 5. Cell Damage Percentage. Descriptive Statistics: The group wise descriptive statistics regarding the rate of cells damaged is presented in Table 1.0. The grouping is done on the basis of working sector i.e. brick and tile. The number of workers deployed in the brick sector is 38 while in tile sector it is 27. According to the elementary analysis conducted through the descriptive statistics the mean values of “% cells damaged” for both the groups seem to be insignificant. In other words it appears that that the extent of cell damage due to RCS exposure in the workers of both the sectors appears even. The box plot (see figure 1.0, appendix A) also highlights the fact that there is no genuine evidence of difference in the potential health hazard between workers at the two operations. Table 1.0: Group wise Descriptive Statistics (%damage by sector) Variable sector N Mean Median Tr Mean StDev SE Mean % damage brick 38 1.524 1.35 1.459 1.087 0.176 tile 27 1.337 1.1 1.256 1.065 0.205 Hypotheses formulation and testing: In order to test the initial findings, appropriate hypothesis is formulated and tested through independent 2 sample t-test. The selection of 2 sample t-test is justified due to the fact that the data under study represents two separate groups of workers that are associated with two different operations. The formulation of hypotheses is as follows: Let µ1 and µ2 represent the mean values of the % cells damaged for brick and tile sectors’ workers respectively. The null and alternative hypotheses would be, H0: µ1 = µ2 (There is no difference between mean values of both the groups) H1: µ1 ≠ µ2 (The mean values of both the groups are significantly different) The study of table 1.1 reveals that with α = 0.05 and p-value (0.49) > α, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. Hence it seems that there is no significant difference between the mean values of both the groups. This in turn asserts the initial findings that workers of both sectors are equally affected by RCS. Table 1.1: Two Sample t-test (% damage by sector) sector N Mean StDev SE Mean brick 38 1.52 1.09 0.18 tile 27 1.34 1.06 0.2 95% CI for mu (brick) - mu (tile ): ( -0.35, 0.73) T-Test mu (brick) = mu (tile ) (vs not =): T= 0.69 P=0.49 DF= 56 Correlation: Considering the current scenario at hand another point that may be evaluated is that the more the number of years a worker would have worked, the higher would be the number of his damaged cells. In order to analyze the suspected relationship (i.e. of length of service and potential health hazard) the respective correlation is studied via Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r=0.42). This is a mediocre level correlation which is neither too strong nor too low. However it represents the extent of association. Similar trend is exhibited when plotted as a scatter plot (see figure 1.1, appendix A). Conclusion: Results of the research and the statistical analysis conclude that workers in both the tile and brick manufacturing units are equally at the risk of getting infected with silicosis. The tests conducted revealed that there is no genuine evidence of difference in the potential health hazard between workers at the two operations. The study of correlation indicated that there is a weak association between worker length of service in the industry and the potential damage to their health. It is proposed that this factor should also be taken into consideration that whether the workers higher in age than the others are at a greater risk of undergoing damage as compared to the young workers. References: Corsini, E, Giani, A, Lucchi, L, Peano, S, Viviani, B, Galli, C, & Marinovich, M 2003, Resistance to acute silicosis in senescent rats: role of alveolar macrophages, Chemical Research In Toxicology, 16, 12, pp. 1520-1527, MEDLINE, EBSCOhost, viewed 2 February 2013. Appendix A Figure 1.0. Figure 1.1: Scatter Plot between Length of Service and % damaged cells Read More