A comment on “Occupational hazard exposure and general health profile of welders in rural Delhi”

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Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine - December 2014 - Volume 18 - Issue 3
162
A comment on “Occupational hazard
exposure and general health profile of
welders in rural Delhi”
Kanica Kaushal
Department of
Community Medicine,
Indira Gandhi Medical
College, Shimla,
Himachal Pradesh,
India
For correspondence:
Dr. Kanica Kaushal,
Department of
Community Medicine,
Indira Gandhi Medical
College, Shimla,
Himachal Pradesh,
India.
E‑mail: kanicak8
@gmail.com
Dear Sir,
This is in reference to the article, “Occupational hazard
exposure and general health profile of welders in rural Delhi”
published in Indian J Occup Environ Med 2014;18:21–6.[1]
The authors have done a commendable job to assess the
duration of occupational hazard exposure and its association
with symptoms among the welders.
However I have a few concerns regarding this study.
On one hand the authors have mentioned in the Material
and Methods section that more than 75% of the males in
the village were employed outside the agriculture and on
the other hand they mentioned that the study was done in
rural Delhi. Furthermore, they have mentioned Slums under
the heading “Definition of Variables.” So it is not clear as to
which study population the authors referred to in their study.
Secondly, under the heading “Work Profile of the Welders,”
the authors have mentioned seven welders (7%) doing
unskilled work, whereas rest of them were either involved
in semi‑skilled (n = 51; 48%) or skilled job (n = 48; 45%).
Although they have given the general definitions of unskilled,
semi‑skilled, and skilled workers, the readers would have been
benefitted more if the authors had classified welding positions
depending on the training and types of welding machines that
a welder is capable of using. For example, the authors should
have categorized the welders as skilled workers who had
the experience of using multiple welding machines and were
involved as the arc welder, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder,
and metal inert gas (MIG) welder. Unskilled welders should
have been those who did repetitive work, which requires little
or no special skill such as work on assembly lines and so on.
Furthermore, the authors have
included all workers older than
15 years who were involved in
Manual Metal Arc Welding for at
least 1 year in their study (Inclusion
Criteria). But there seems to be no
reason why workers specifically
above 15 years of age only were
included.
Lastly, the authors have not provided
any details on how the sample size
was collected. The authors have only
mentioned that after mapping (of
welding small‑scale industries and
mechanic workshops), welders
involved in Manual Metal Arc Welding
at their workplace were located and
contacted on the day of survey. It is not
clear as to how it was done: Whether
they did simple random sampling to
take up different workshops in that
area or they just started from one
direction and interviewed the workers
till they achieved the required sample
size.
REFERENCE
1. Chauhan A, Anand T, Kishore J,
Danielsen TE, Ingle GK. Occupational
hazard exposure and general health prole
of welders in rural Delhi. Indian J Occup
Environ Med 2014;18:21‑6.
Letters to the
Editor
Access this article online
Website: www.ijoem.com
DOI:
10.4103/0019-5278.146918
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