ASBESTOS SAFETY AND HEALTH RISK AWARENESS AMONG MAINTENANCE WORKERS IN KENYAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
James Mithanga, Erastus Gatebe and Charles Mburu
James Mithanga: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya.
Erastus Gatebe: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya.
Charles Mburu: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya.
ABSTRACT
This study evaluated asbestos safety and health risks awareness among maintenance workers in public universities in Kenya through four aspects of education, policy, perception and knowledge. The study anchored on positivism philosophy with a descriptive design approach achieved by survey of394 respondents using a semi-structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were analysed. The regression coefficients model analysis showed that knowledge (beta = .242, p =.000) and perception (beta = .177, p=.002) statistically predicted university awareness for asbestos safety and health risks (p<.05). However, both education (beta = .018, p = .217) and policy (beta =.115, p = .380) had poor significance (p>.05) indicating that the two constructs failed to predict the awareness of asbestos safety and health risks. Overall, majority of the public universities had awareness levels of over 40 percent but all below 50 percent with an average of 44 percent. Having focused on the safety and health risks awareness aspect, the study recommends concerted efforts by public universities in raising awareness over the banned asbestos and asbestos containing materials at the work place. Additionally, public universities need to increase training funds allocation while aiming to improve on the implementation of the safety and health risks policy.
Keywords: Asbestos, Awareness, Health, Risks, Safety, Kenya.