Occupational Health and Safety Audit of Fuel Filling Stations in the Agona Nkwanta, Inchaban and Sekondi- Takoradi Metropolis in Ghana

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
AUGUST, 2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Fuel Filling Stations are an indispensable part of modern technological society, but they also pose numerous risks and threats to employees and the environment. The outburst of flames at Fuel Filling Stations (FFSs), especially the June 3, 2015 catastrophic explosion at GOIL filling station at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Accra in which 160 lives were lost has raised a lot of concern among stakeholders. Hence, the need to assess the prevailing safety practices and level of awareness of employees on health and safety at the FFS, and determine the compliance of these FFSs to require standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana. A mixed methodological approach including: field measurement, Geographical Positioning System (GPS) data capturing on locations of FFSs, field survey, questionnaire administration, structured and face-to-face interviews were employed in gathering data for the study which took place at Agona Nkwanta, Inchaban and Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. A total of 80 employees in 40 FFSs were involved in the study and data analyzed with Statistical Product for Service Solutions Software (SPSS Version 20.0) and Excel. The study revealed that though 78.5% of employees were aware of safety measures, the scope was narrow. The ANOVA showed that the Multinational Oil Marketing Companies (OMC’s) outperformed the State Owned and Individual Private Owned OMCs. It was revealed that 90% and 42.5% of FFSs did not meet the required standard (≥ 30 m) of set-back from road and distance from residential areas respectively. Though the respondents claimed they have knowledge of safety measures at their respective work places, yet that did not determine the success of the OMCs in health and safety management because of observed narrow scope. Adequate training on regular basis should be given to employees especially those at the Individual private owned OMCs while research on the effects of volatile organic compounds from petrol fumes on fuel pump attendants in Ghana had to be carried out.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements Master of Science degree in Environmental Science,
Keywords
Citation