Occupational hazards faced by commercial laundry men

Abstract

Commercial laundering plays very vital role in human being life. Commercial laundering services is perfect for all bedding linen, work wears, uniforms and towels. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the commercial laundering practices, to know which type of cleaning agent and methods are used in commercial laundering and problem faced by them. Sample for the study was randomly selected by Udaipur doing commercial cleaning from last one to two decade. Study results revealed that soap and detergent powder was mainly used for cleaning of white and coloured cotton and synthetic clothes while silk and woollen garments were washed using neutral detergents and usually dry cleaned. The bleaches commonly used in the laundry process are sodium perborate and sodium hypochlorite. For sizing of cotton, refine wheat flour was used but for silk, gum starch was used. Major health hazards faced by commercial laundry men were physical hazards i.e.muscular pain, shoulder pain and back ache. Health problems due to chemicals were skin allergies, breathing problem, eye irritation and itching.