Browsing by Author "Kinyua, Maureen Muthoni"

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    Assessing Health and Environmental Impacts of Quarrying In Embu County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2024) Kinyua, Maureen Muthoni
    Quarrying has been studied extensively throughout the world and has been shown to have an effect on the natural environment and human health. Positively, stone extraction has led to job creation and development of areas. On the negative side, quarrying leads to land degradation, noise pollution, production of dust and formation of cracks in nearby buildings due to vibration during the quarrying process. The situation is not different in Kenya since there’s increase in stone use as a result of growth of construction industry and the industry is faced with challenges of poor working conditions, poverty, inadequate occupational safety knowledge, and the absence of laws. The study sought a deeper understanding of these issues and used qualitative and quantitative data descriptive research design. Questionnaires were utilized to collect information from members of the local community, site management, and quarry employees. The impacts of quarrying on the environment, including the landscape, have been studied and documented. It was decided to employ stratified random sample to gather data from the area citizens, while purposive sampling was used to gather data from quarry laborers. It was necessary to evaluate the information acquired with the assistance of statistical package for the social sciences SPSS, which was used for cross tabulation, as well as for the creation of frequencies and statistical graphs for the purpose of data interpretation. It was decided whether there is a link between quarrying activities and the well-being of both quarry workers and residents of the immediate neighborhood using the Chi square test. In this study, a sample size of 100 respondents was used, and findings were obtained from 92 percent of those who responded. Findings from the studyagree with other studies done that quarrying activities cause harm to the environment and human health and that multiple approaches should be used to deal with the menace.