الفهرس 
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Abstract
The clothing industry (CI) is a high value-added industry in the global textile manufacturing. However. this industry is still suffering from poor application of the health and safety •egulations.
:1 has a special economic role in Egypt, such as covering the local needs and creating new ob opportunities. There are more expectations on the expansion of new investments in the Cl n Egypt, besides being a labor intensive industry. This may be the key to our study and the najor concern about the health and safety conditions in the Cl in Egypt.
’he previous researches and the current practical investigation carried out through this esearch have shown that there are still some pitfalls related to the CI and especially in the eady-made garme.Jt factories. There are work-related problems occurring in the CI, affecting he workers’ health and may have a cumulative effect afterwards.
:he current research is aimed at investigating the health and safety conditions in the C1. ocusing on the ready-made-garments, especially in Alexandria. The investigation would be ,arried out from the safety management point of view, to show the different practices in the Irivate sector and to assess the risk factors arising from this industry. The private sector has a 3ajority over the public sector due to the frequent evolvement of new foreign investments.
’he research work can-ied out the investigation by focusing on two factors, the work nvironment conditions, and the workplace design. Two ready-made garment factories were elected on randOl.1. They were ”Vestia” and International Textile Industry ”III”. Several isits were made to collect the relevant data. However, there were difficulties to collect ocumented data froni the factories due to their restricted rules.
’he challenge then started when the research engineer joined a ready-made garment factory dIed ”Rubyred”; so as to facilitate collecting data, gain experience in CI and hence be more Ivolved in every day problems. This factory represented a quantitative sample of the :oblems arising in the ready-made garment factories, and examined the consistency of Iformation collected from the visited other factories. It was recorded that most accidents lused by operators were minor injuries, e.g. repetitive strain injury or needle stick injuries.
ne production line in the sewing department was investigated. A sample of 100 workers ere considered for data collection, including 24 males and 46 females involved into five ain operations, 13 males and 17 females were helpers including 3 quality control females spectors, and the overall age ranged between 22 and 30 years.
Ie study then considered the most problematic workstation to collect data for its operators. ; the majority of operators were females, a sample of 20 female operators was selected. The llected data was used to assess the operators’ postural discomfort.
This was followed by taking the mean anthropometric data of the single and double neec machines’ workstation design. Considering the Egyptian females’ antJu’opometric dimensio (the target population) the results were compared to show the bias and assess the problem.
The manual material handling was also studied which showed that the exerted force w excessive and much higher than the maximum allowable limits. As a result. a majority workers complained from pain in the lower back, the mid back. the shoulders and the neck.
Nevertheless, the mean heights of the tables used for cutting, sorting, checking and ironi: were observed to be either above or below the recommended levels (elbow level) and t strained posture had to be maintained tJu’oughout the work day, causing pain in the shoulde the upper arm and the forearm. The high stool forced the workers to bend their trunk a: head toward the table to have a clear view of the point of operation.
The same investigation was carried out in ”Vestia” factory. A sample of 50 operate working in a single production line was considered for data collection. The informati, collected was consistent with ”Rubyred” and ”ITI” factory.
The research results showed that the improperly designed workstation represent an unhealtl working conditions and above all the lack of a safety culture within operators and employe This was reflected on the workers’ health and thus their performance.
The workers in the ready-made garment factories suffered from work-related musculoskele’ disorders such as IlJwer back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and osteoarthritis of the knees.
Mismatch between man and machine is one of the major factors contributing musculoskeletal problems. This may be mainly due to the attempts made by the employers ’fit the man to the job’ rather than to ’fit the job to the man’. The recent efforts in this ar were directed to fitting the job to the man by redesigning the workplace to the optimu comfort levels of the workers.
The recommendations were based on the findings of the quantitative part of this research, t discussions with the management, the workers and the walk-through inspection of t factory. The recommendation started with interventions to:
• Provide ergonomically designed workplace in the ready-made garment factories f seated operators.
• Modify the tables’ height for the standing workers and maintain the working tools if good condition.
• Introduce proper handling equipments and provide wheel carts with handles’ height allow pushing at the mid-chest height.
In addition, introduce training lessons for workers to create knowledge about proper workiJ postures, movemeJ.ts, & how this affects their health. Above all, the management should’ committed to the application of the occupational health & safety regulations.