The Effects of Footwear on Industrial Hygiene

Workplace safety is a concern of any, government, organization, and employee. As such, governments and usually come up with standards and regulations to guide companies as they endeavor to ensure the safety of their workers. While some of the safety requirements have universally been accepted and applied, a section of them has attracted a lot of controversy. One such controversial regulation has been the requirement of mandatory occupational safety and health standards to help reduce the extent to which employees are exposed to various hazards. Among these measures has been the mandatory wearing of specific designer shoes. One of the categories of those whose work is mostly affected by the requirement is the security personnel across various industries. Unlike other employees, this group of workers is subjected to standing and/or walking for long periods and are in most cases working in environments with hard floors. The implication is that though the footwear is meant to protect them, it causes a lot of health problems. The current study was aimed at establishing how forcing security personnel working in industries to wear specific designer shoes for their work may affect their health. The study employed a secondary research design in which the researchers relied on the literature review. However, the study reviewed both quantitative and qualitative past studies, thereby, enabling the researchers to benefit from the strengths of both the two approaches to research and, thus, an enhanced reliability and validity. The study has concluded that there is a significant relationship between mandatory footwear and work-related health problems.