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Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 58, No. 11, November, 2004, pp. 486-488 Letter To Editor Smoking pattern among the workers engaged in textile industries of desert districts of Rajasthan Singh MadhuB, Lakshminarayana J, Fotedar Ranjana Desert Medicine Research Centre (ICMR), New Pali Road, Jodhpur - 342005, Rajasthan Code Number: ms04081 Sir, Nearly 21000 workers are engaged in various type of activities in textile industries located in desert districts of Rajasthan. These workers are also exposed to harsh conditions of desert besides to the hazards of the textile industry and due to higher stress of work, most of them start smoking which further lead to various health problems viz. cancer, cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis, etc. Though the studies exist from different parts of country[1],[2],[3] on the smoking habits but none from desert areas. With this aim, pattern of smoking was studied in the textile workers of Jodhpur and Pali districts so that the findings of this can be utilized while planning antismoking campaigns for them. In desert parts of Rajasthan majority of textile industries (21,00 workers engaged in 700 units) are situated in Pali, Jodhpur and Barmer districts. WHO[4] criteria for random sampling was used in estimating the sample size (10% prevalence of malnutrition and 20% relative precision as observed in earlier studies). The required sample size for workers was estimated 864 and comparative group was 430 (fifty percent of the required sample). The industries were selected by systematic sampling and the individuals by Simple Random Sampling. A total of 1240 individuals involved in various activities of textile industry such as dyeing, printing and bleaching were interviewed out of which 845 were textile workers from 33 textile industries, and 395 comparative group non textile workers. From each worker, information on Socio-demographic aspects and smoking habits were recorded in pre-structured schedules. The workers, who worked in the textile industry for at least one year were considered for the present study. Chi-square test and proportion test were applied. Analysis of data revealed that 96.9 percent were male workers and majority of workers (55.3%) belonged to 18 to 30 years age group. Among textile group 51.4 percent workers were smokers whereas in comparative group, 46.8 percent. Percentage of smokers were observed to be significantly higher in the textile workers than comparative group (P<0.05). The work category-wise the highest smokers were found among the printing group (34.5%) followed by finishing (33.6%), Dying (22.9%) and least in the bleaching and caustisizing group (8.9%). Smoking ′Beeri′ and consuming ′Gutka′ were higher in textile workers (25.0 and 30.1%) than comparative group (16.7 and 24.8%), whereas, the percentages of consumers of ′Zarda′ and ′Cigrette′ were significantly higher in comparative group (50.8 and 5.9%) than textile workers (P<0.05). It means that textile workers opt for the smoking which is cheaper, easily available and contains higher tobacco contents which give them more relaxation during their heavy work in contrast to the comparative group. Age-wise distribution of smokers revealed high percentage of workers (53.5%) than comparative group (50.2%) in less than 30 years age groups. Religion showed no association with smoking but in Muslims, percentage of smoking was higher in textile workers (8.5%) than comparative group (2.7%) though statistically insignificant (P>0.05). Education-wise, upto primary standard, the percentage of smokers was observed significantly high (55.1%) in the textile workers showing an inversely proportionate relationship whereas in comparative group, the association was found proportionate to the educational qualification which may be attributed either a status symbol or luxury. Earlier studies reported from India on students showed prevalence of smoking varying from 7.1% to 8.2%.[5] The high percentage (54%) of smokers in early age groups (upto 30 years) among textile workers may be due to their low education, as 55.1% of smokers were educated only upto primary standard, which is further responsible for their unawareness regarding the various hazards of the smoking in relation to health. So there is a strong need of organizing anti smoking campaigns for them to change their attitude towards smoking which in turn will be beneficial for their health. REFERENCES
Copyright 2004 - Indian Journal of Medical Sciences |
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