**3.1 Definition of occupational health**

*Occupational Wellbeing*

leishmaniasis, ascariasis, and hookworm.

(iii) Tools and farm equipment: Injuries, cuts, and hearing impairment;

(iv) Physical labour: musculoskeletal disorders, e.g. pain and fatigue; (v) Pesticides: poisonings, neurotoxicity, reproductive effects, and cancer; (vi) Dusts, fumes, gases, particulates: Irritation, respiratory tract, allergic reactions, respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and (vii) Biological agents and vectors of disease: Skin diseases, fungal infections, allergic reactions, malaria, schistosomiasis, sleeping sickness,

Work has both social and economic importance because work is done in any society primarily to produce and distribute goods and services that are needed by people in the society [5]. WHO [5] further explains that work plays a psychological role in the formation of self-esteem, a sense of order, and in the shaping of a person's self-identity. Work and sound health are highly and positively correlated in the sense that the more healthy a worker is, the more likely he is to work both effectively and efficiently while an ill-health per positively correlated in the sense that the more healthy a worker is, the more likely he is to work both effectively and efficiently while an ill-health person may likely work effectively and efficiently. Egbetokun [6] reported that a 1% improvement in farmers' health condition will lead to a 21 percent increase in work efficiency. On the other hand, poor farmers' health will reduce income, efficiency and productivity [7]. Hence, for one to work optimally, it is important to keep and maintain sound health especially at the workplace. Like every other work or means of survival and livelihood, the fisheries sector is not without some work-related hazards and risks. In fact, like other agriculture-related works, fisheries have been recognized as one of the riskiest work in the world [8, 9]. Injuries and illnesses are among the health-related factors limiting the productivity from fisheries. According to the Global Burden Disease [10], approximately 2.78 million deaths that occur annually are associated with work-related hazards. The World Health Organization also noted that between 20 and 50 per cents of workers; especially in developing countries like Nigeria are suffering from occupational risks [5]. In Nigeria, fisheries supply and its products come from two broad sources viz. – importation of fish and fisheries products, and local fish production. With the nation's increasing human population, most of whom are youths within the economically active age groups, the nation's expenditure on fish importation is too high enough to put tangible developmental projects to the nation. This is despite the natural resources which favour fisheries production from both aquaculture and wild capture sources. For the purpose of this chapter, the authors are interested in the domestic fish sources which come from aquaculture, artisanal fishing and industrial fishing. All these sources are with their unique work-related hazards which affect the health and general wellbeing of those who take part in them. As hazards can occur during the different stages of the fisheries value chain (production, processing, handling, storage and transportation), occupational hazards is treated in this chapter in totality as it affects all the value chain actors in the Nigerian fisher-

The remaining of this chapter is structured under the preceding headings: overview of occupational hazards, classification of occupational hazards, fisheries in Nigeria, occupational hazards in fisheries, and empirical evidence of occupational

Information used in this chapter was obtained through the desk review of published journals, conference proceedings and books as well as personal experiences

**16**

ies sector.

**2. Methods**

hazards in fisheries in Nigeria.

Health is defined as a condition of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing which does not mean the mere absence of disease and infirmity. Health is associated to the physical conditions of both mind and body, of all people at the workplace including the workers, contractors and visitors, and their protection from harm in the form of injury or disease [11]. Occupational health is a branch of medicine concerned with the prevention and treatment/control of job-related injuries and illnesses. It is closely linked to public health and health systems development. According to WHO [12], occupational health is a multidisciplinary field of healthcare which deals with all aspects of health and safety, in order to enable a worker to discharge their occupational responsibilities, in a way that causes least harm to their health. This is achieved through the prevention of hazards.

According to the definition jointly provided by International Labour Organization and World Health Organization [13], the aims of occupational health include promoting and maintaining the highest level of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; preventing amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; protecting the workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, above all, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job.
