Analysis of occupational health, safety and environmental management practices at the Twifo Oil Palm Plantations

Abstract

Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Management (OHSEM) aims to foster a safe working environment, including the protection of employers, employees and nearby communities. The study sought to examine the effectiveness of OHSEM practices at Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP) in the Hemang-Lower Denkyira District. A total of 377 respondents were sampled from a population of 19,657. Both purposive and stratified random sampling procedures were used to sample respondents for the study. The study employed interview guides and schedules as instruments for gathering data. The quantitative data were processed with Statistical Product for Service Solutions version 21. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The study revealed that out-growers were more exposed to Occupational Health Safety and Environmental (OHSE) risks than the community residents and unionised workers. Some of the OHSE risks the out-growers and community residents were exposed to were burning of eyes, chemical pollution of water bodies, and skin diseases. Many of the out-grower farmers did not adhere to the safety standards established by TOPP in terms of protection during spraying and safe modes of storing chemicals. The unionised workers of TOPP had the capacity to identify hazards and inform management to address them. OHSEM practices adopted by TOPP were more effective within its internal operations than with the other stakeholders. It is, therefore, recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should extend its monitoring and supervision to the out-growers to ensure their compliance to OHSEM standards. This would help to reduce the health complications reported by the out-growers following the application of chemicals on their farms.