Abstract
M.A. (Public Health)
Background: Occupational health and safety is an integral part of medical laboratory practice. Adherence to standard occupational health and safety practices is important in preventing laboratory accidents, laboratory-acquired infections and toxic chemical exposures. Adherence to standard occupational health and safety standards is critical to laboratory accreditation with local and international bodies. Objectives: The main objective of the study was to evaluate the adherence to standard occupational health and safety guidelines in medical laboratories. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in Harare metropolitan province of Zimbabwe. A sample size of 27 laboratories was considered. The data was collected using a questionnaire and laboratories which were considered in this study were sampled using stratified random sampling. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Assessment of compliance to different aspects of occupational health and safety was done using Fischer’s exact Chi-squared test and logistic regression. Results: There was a significant association between laboratory ownership of ISO:35001 to the number of years of operation of the laboratory (p=0.018), to the standard organization of laboratory premises and workflow (p=0.027), to laboratory cleaning and waste management standards ((p=0.002), to good laboratory practices and provision of personal protective equipment ((p=0.011). Compliance with occupational health and safety standards in the laboratory was about 97% significantly lower among level 2 bio-safety containment laboratories compared to level 3 bio-safety containment laboratories (crude odds ratio (COR): 0.03, 95% CI: 0.00-0.76, p=0.033). The overall assessment showed that a quarter (25.9%) of the 27 laboratories had high compliance to standard occupational health and safety standards. Overall compliance to occupational health and safety standards was about 10 times significantly higher among laboratories that owned ISO: 35001 (COR: 9.51, 95% CI: 1.39-65.05, p=0.022). Conclusion: Enforcement of standard occupational health and safety standards needs to improve to protect people working in the laboratories. National level interventions including medical laboratory-specific legislation on occupational health and safety can greatly improve adherence to standard occupational health and safety standards.