Contribution of Welding Pratices to Ocular Injuries in Owerri Municipal Imo State Nigeria

The eye remains the delicate organ in the body. A number of things can go wrong in any of the structures of the eye, causing visual impairment and blindness when fully not protected during welding practices. This study gave contributions to the welding practices that were associated with ocular injuries in Owerri Municipal, Imo state Nigeria. A total of 200 sample of the welders was identified from a list of registered workshops and Structured, pretested questionnaires elicited in English language was used to collect data from 200 consenting welders. A cross sectional study was used for the study. Using uncontrolled direct observation and face to face interview method as the sampling technique. Method of data anaiysis was Descriptive. Eye screening and examination were used to validate questionnaire findings. It was found that age, marital status and work category showed a moderate association with the awareness of prevalence of eye diseases but with strong association with ocular eye injuries as the correlation coefficients is 0.898, 0.893, 0.930 and 0.865 respectively. Combined 200 welding related ocular eye injury claims, 93 welders had ocular eye injury giving a prevalence of 84.5 . Single eye injuries were distributed evenly among the left and right eye 42.0 . The most frequent nature of injury was foreign body 51.5 and then burns 20.2 . It is concluded that exposure to the radiations emitted during welding at the welder's work environment without appropriate protection gear mainly produce the ocular conditions, including pterygium, photokeratitis and cataract with their major symptoms, such as burning sensations, photophobia and eye pain. Consistent use of eye protection, face protection should be encourage. Enlightenment program should be embarked on. These findings therefore have provided possible guidelines for proper education, awareness and screening of welders to avoid eye injuries. Uchejuru A. C | Uchejuru O. U | Uchejuru N. C | Onwuchekwa I. O "Contribution of Welding Pratices to Ocular Injuries in Owerri Municipal Imo State Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-3 , June 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd57397.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/57397/contribution-of-welding-pratices-to-ocular-injuries-in-owerri-municipal-imo-state-nigeria/uchejuru-a-c