19.Awareness About Unsafe Plastic Utensils and Linked Health Hazards Amongst Doctors
Bushra Anwar1, Khushbakht Anwar2, Aashi Ahmed1, Nadia Nisar1, Saima Omair1 and
Warda Wazir1
ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the awareness about plastic utensils in doctors of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Study Design: Cross-sectional study
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at two medical colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad in a period of six months in year 2017.
Materials and Methods: Data was collected from 228 doctors selected using simple random sampling technique in three medical colleges and hospitals. Their knowledge about different qualities of plastic, the number allocation of plastics, and which plastic numbers to avoid as utensils was assessed. Also, their awareness about the leaching of chemicals from plastic utensils, factors increasing this leaching, and diseases associated with the use of plastic, was assessed.
Results: Only 27.2% of doctors in our study sample were aware of plastic safety as measured using our awareness scale. Lowest awareness was found for the question about which plastic numbers to avoid (1.3% awareness). The highest awareness was found for the question about the leaching of chemicals from plastics into food (93.4%)
Conclusion: According to our results, the majority of the doctors were unaware of plastic safety
Key Words: Awareness, Plastic safety, leaching of chemicals
Citation of article: Anwar B, Anwar K, Ahmed A, Nisar N, Omair S, Wazir W. Awareness About Unsafe Plastic Utensils and Linked Health Hazards Amongst Doctors. Med Forum 2021;32(10):86-90.