Knowledge of Occupational Hazards and Safety Practices among Petrol Station Workers in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State, Nigeria

Due to the growing population and automobiles, there has been a massive growth in the number of petrol stations worldwide. The oil and gas sector is quickly becoming one of the largest employers in Nigeria, particularly in urban and peri-urban regions where it has drawn a sizable labour force from the petrol station industry. Like any other sector of the petroleum business, a petrol station's activities are fraught with danger. Nevertheless, there is scant or no recorded data on safety procedures and hazard awareness among petrol station employees in the city of Ibadan, which might be applied to health hazard management measures. In order to provide relevant data for health hazard control strategies, this research thus identifies gaps in safety practices as well as factors that influence these behaviors. Employees at petrol stations are a high-risk group that are subject to work-related risks and have no control over the frequency or duration of safety regulations. The study's objective was to evaluate the workers at petrol stations in Ibadan metropolis with regard to their understanding of safety procedures and occupational dangers.

The research was a descriptive cross-sectional study that employed a multi-staged selection technique. To achieve the required sample size, 650 randomly selected petrol station employees were chosen from 130 petrol stations with an average age of 29.4 ± 4.6 years in the Ibadan metropolitan area. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 20. Based on the results of occupational safety practices, it was discovered that 48.7%, 47.7%, and 48.2% of the respondent’s wear face masks, do not eat or drink while working, and do not use personal protective equipment, respectively. The results of the distribution of occupational safety practices showed that 48.7% of the respondents wore face or nose masks 47.7%, of the respondents did not drink or eat while working and 48.2% of the respondents did not use personal protective equipment while working. The distribution of respondents' knowledge of safety practices showed that 98.2%, 52.6%, 58.7%, 66.5%, 62.9%, 63.2%, 50.8%, 70.3%, 67.7%, and 46.8% of the respondents did not light a match or smoke near the nozzle, made sure car engines were off when dispensed, ensured good nozzle handling, did not answer a cell phone while dispensed gasoline, wash hands before eating or drinking at work, used personal protective equipment while dispensing gasoline, used chemical hand gloves, cleaned hands with water and soap after closing, and use of uniforms and wear boots while working respectively.

The discovery of low awareness of safety procedures and occupational hazards among employees in gas stations makes it necessary for these workers to recognize potential risks at work, implement safety controls to mitigate them, retrain and onboard new employees in safety protocols, and supply and enforce the daily use of personal protective equipment (PPE).