An assessment of the health and safety potential hazards of employees in funeral services

Abstract

Funerals provide a time for the community, family and friends to celebrate the life of the loved one and provide satisfactory environment for mourning and expressing grief, whereas grief is experienced with a mixture of emotions - sadness, anxiety, fear and anger. A funeral serves to be one of the few times where love is given and not expected in return. The aim of this study was to identify what funeral service employees are exposed to in their daily repetitive activities. A sample of 12 funeral director services was selected from a total of 36 and 3 employees were interviewed from each of those funeral director services selected. A questionnaire designed to retrieve information on the potential hazard exposure of these workers included 39 specific questions directed at their working environment, status of health and work activities. All except four of the funeral director services selected were reluctant to take part in the study for a variety of reasons. Repeated approaches were not successful and the limitations encountered in all but 4 of the services were enhanced by carrying out an observational assessment to supplement the results. This approach also clearly determined the risks that arise from such hazards that funeral service employees are exposed to. No statistical data was found with regards to accidents that occurred in the funeral service sector. In Malta the Disease Surveillance Unit (DSU) of the Department of Public Health made various studies but none was identified with regards to transmission and deaths from notifiable infectious diseases to funeral service employees. The results which must be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size indicate that risks that arise from the hazards that funeral service employees are exposed to, are almost all preventable and recommendations have been made to this effect.