Assessment of the level of consideration of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) aspects within a soap industry : Case of the Financial Partner with Christ (PAFIC)

Abstract

The study carried out over a period of six months within the soap factory called “PAFIC” had as general objective, the assessment of the level of consideration by the company of health, safety and environmen- tal (HSE) aspects, as well as the identification of risks and action plan within the company.

The methodology used to conduct the present work was based on the collection of data which was done through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, direct field observations as well as the collection of opinions in order to support these analyzes.

From the results, it comes out that hygiene and safety measures exist within the company but are insufficient and might be responsible for the poor state of the art of the soap factory. Interviews carried out with one hun- dred and twenty-seven employees of the factory revealed that 20.7% of employees have a notion in HSE, 79.3% of employees have no notion in HSE, 86.5% have a notion in hygiene, 51.4% have a notion in hygie- ne-safety, 15.3% have a notion in hygiene-environment, 12.6% have a notion in safety-environment and 58.87% of PPE are non-compliant. According to the activities carried out in the various work units, we found out during the six months study period that, 14.73% employees were victims of occupational accidents, 14.96 employees were victims of occupational diseases, 27.55% suffering from other diseases and 15.73% not belonging to any category mentioned above. The results obtained also revealed that out of forty-three (43) identified risks from seventy (17) activities, the risks vary with a 62.79% majority in the work place.