Research Article Knowledge and Understanding of Personal Protective Equipment Use among Laborer Population of the Nepalese Workforce Pratikshya Gurung, 1 Maginsh Dahal , 1 Kushalata Baral , 2 Ankit Pathak, 1 and Sudip Khanal 2 1 Department of Public Health, Asian College for Advance Studies, Purbanchal University, Lalitpur, Nepal 2 Department of Public Health, Nobel College, Pokhara University, Sinamangal, Kathmandu, Nepal Correspondence should be addressed to Maginsh Dahal; maginsh@gmail.com Received 6 July 2020; Revised 26 November 2020; Accepted 13 January 2021; Published 29 January 2021 Academic Editor: Issam A. Al-Khatib Copyright © 2021 Pratikshya Gurung et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. e constructing laborers are mainly unskilled, untrained, migrant, socially backward, and uneducated with low bargaining power.us,weassessedtheknowledgeandprevalenceonoccupationalsafetyandhealth(OSH)oflaborersworkingatprivate constructing sites. A descriptive cross-sectional study of 229 laborers working at private constructing sites selected by 30 cluster sampling methods from the Lalitpur metropolitan city and Mahalaxmi municipality was conducted using a structured ques- tionnaire and observation checklist. EpiData and SPSS were used for data analysis. Most of the laborers (62%) had inadequate knowledge on OSH. e level of knowledge was significantly associated with sex, education, and family type at 95% CI (p value < 0.05). e prevalence of occupational accidents within a year was 19.7% and was significantly associated with the use of PersonalProtectiveEquipment(PPE)at95%CI(p value < 0.05). About one-fifth of the participants had occupational accidents within a year because of the inadequate knowledge of OSH. 1. Introduction According to World Health Organization (WHO), occu- pational health is a multidisciplinary activity aimed at the protection and promotion of the health of workers by preventing and controlling occupational diseases and acci- dents and by eliminating occupational factors and condi- tions hazardous to health and safety at work. Occupational safety is the risk identification at the workplace and pre- ventive measures taken to reduce or eliminate the hazard which may lead to accidents [1]. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), constructing activities cover a building including excavation and the constructing, structural alteration, ren- ovation, repair, maintenance, and demolition of all types of buildings or structures. It also states that constructing sites are any site at which any of the processes or operations of statedconstructingactivitiesarecarriedonandworkersare any person who is engaged in constructing activities [2]. e laborers face many kinds of injury which are su- perficialinjuriesandwound,fractures,dislocations,sprains, strains, traumatic amputations, internal injuries, burns, frostbite, chemical burns, acute poisoning, and infections [3]. e unsafe working conditions, lack of supervision and training, use of old machinery and equipment, lack of sufficient maintenance, bad housekeeping practices, viola- tion of safety rules, and overcrowded production units with very congested areas are the causes of occupational hazards as listed in the article of Occupational Safety and Health Studies in Nepal [4]. In addition, constructing sites provide unfriendly working conditions, exposing to one of the toughest envi- ronments at a workplace to laborers [5]. Lack of legal provisions and enforcements and adequate awareness in Nepal has led laborers to work in hazardous situation without using proper protection. Furthermore, the con- struction of apartment buildings is adding more risk for workers as high-rise buildings increase risks like falling of Hindawi Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2021, Article ID 7679185, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/7679185