The stone and marble industry is one of the most important industrial sectors in Palestine, as it is the source of income for a wide portion of families. Development of such sector will lead to the development of the Palestinian economy and increase national income. However, workers in such industry face a many risks and hazards that could lead to major injuries or in worst scenarios the end of their lives. Such incidents could lead to huge financial losses to owners that will cause in worst cases the business being closed. This project intends to pin point the safety and health problems in the stone and marble industry in the Palestine, and how such problems could be reduced and even eliminated.
The main safety problems caused by the stone and marble industries are the accidents that occur to the workers in the course of production, these problems include dust effects on workers’ health the effects of noise on the hearing of workers, injuries and amputation caused by rock falls …etc. The work will focus on identifying all of the hazards in such industry, how to eliminate them, what equipment should be used to reduce the risks and improve the workers’ Safety.
There are over 206 stone production facilities in the West-Bank. The study will be conducted on a sample of the sector. After reading and surveying the literature, a questionnaire will be designed to address the issues mentioned previously. The team will make field visits on these stone and marble production facilities to complete Information required. Then the data will be analyzed to get how to improve the safety level in such sector.
The results drawn from the project will help the Stone and marble industry. These results will help the quarries in utilizing the needed safety requirements that will help them eliminating or reducing the effects of major problems. It will also help them obtaining a reduced cost insurance policy to cover their workers. This will eventually help the workers to work under safe conditions.