METHODS
Plants and workers
A stratified sample of plants from the cotton industry in
the Faisalabad region in Punjab, Pakistan was selected.
Care was taken to investigate a broader variety of different
types of plants ranging from small weaving (power
loom) to large spinning and compact units, representative
of the different types of mills in the area. The
Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry provided
a list and contact information about different mills
in the district. From that list, factories were chosen randomly,
the owner or manager of the mill was contacted
by telephone, and on permission the mill was visited. In
each plant, available workers on duty were randomly
chosen from the list of employees provided by the
administrative/human resource section and accessed to
fill in a structured questionnaire either by themselves or
(in case of illiteracy) with the help of the researcher
(AWK). Only those workers were selected who had a
recent minimum of 6 months of experience in the
cotton industry. Written or oral informed consent was
sought.