Study of safety behavior against workplace harmful factors in Township of Zanjan

Agricultural profession is one of the most risky occupations in the world of which employees are faced with a variety of occupational hazards and risks. The aim of this research was to determine safety behavior against workplace harmful factors in Township of Zanjan. The statistical population of this descriptive research consisted of wheat farmers in central district of Zanjan Township (N= 5705). A sample size of 254 was selected using a method of multistage sampling. Data collection tools were consist of four questionnaires: “Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire”, “Questionnaire of Importance of Workplace Harmful Factors”, “Scale of Occupational Accidents Occurrence Number” and “Scale of Safety Behavior against Workplace Harmful Factors”. The content validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by 10 experts. Instrument’s reliability was measured using internal consistency (α=0.75) method. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS/20. The results showed that the majority of wheat farmers’ safety behavior against workplace harmful factors (95.3 percent) was at low level (2.01±0.87). In addition, the results of a factor analysis revealed that six factors namely, appropriate use of chemical pesticides (14.136% of variance), proper use of machinery (12.44% of variance), considering the medical issues and compliance with occupational safety (8.709% of variance), observing principles and standards of ergonomics (7.519% of variance), use of protective devices (6.615% of variance) and use of medical- healthy equipments (5.838% of variance) explained 55.3 % of total variances of wheat farmers’ safety behavior in Township of Zanjan. The majority of wheat farmers’ safety behavior against workplace harmful factors was at low level. Conducting educational courses in regard to chemical pesticides and machinery to improve farmers’ health level is suggested.