Objectives as stated in the project proposal:
 

1. To elucidate & minimize the occupational hazards of poor high risk women 
2. employed in brassware industries.
3. To assess the occupational hazard of women engaged in brassware industries of Moradabad & Aligarh.
4. To collect base line data on the working environment of women engaged in brassware industries of Moradabad and Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh.
5. To detect prevalence of various health hazards and provide door-step health and environmental services to the poor high risk working women of metal industries.
6. To determine the susceptible levels of various toxic metal in women occupationally exposed to them and assess their toxicity with with emphasis on their reproductive performance.
7. To detect the presence of various metals in the milk of lactating mothers engaged in metal industries.
8. To find out remedial measures to protect the women from occupational hazards of brassware industries.

The spurt in the health hazards amongst the factory workers particularly the women-folk 
has drawn the attention of the scientists more so from the environmentalists because their relative vulnerability to the toxic hazards posed by the exposure to variety of exogenous substances, specially the heavy metals.

Aligarh and Moradabad, the twin metal cities, are better known as metal cities 
because a sizeable population is engaged in the cottage industries of brasswares. The 
socio- economic backwardness of the state of Uttar Pradesh and the larger section of the population living below the poverty line are the compelling factors for the women folk to 
opt for seeking petty jobs in this unorganized sector to augment the family earning to sustain livelyhood.

The lapses in our knowledge of occupational and environmental hazards of women may largely be attributed to the fact that most of the epidemiological survey have been confined to male's occupation so far. But the underlying fact is that the occupation and/or environmental hazards are not uniformly distributed between males and females and therefore, it is all the more significant to understand such variation as well.

A coherent effort is required to identify and quantify the magnitude of occupational and environmental health hazards of the women engaged in brassware factories of the twin 
cities of Uttar Pradesh and to advocate the remedial measures. The documentation of the state-of-the-art is a pioneer step in this direction. The foremost objective of conducting the epidemiological studies was to collect the baseline data on the working environment of the women engaged in brassware industries and to detect the prevalence of the various occupational hazards in order to provide the door-step 
environmental and occupational hazards services to the poor high risk women. To 
meet out the epidemiological requirement of this study, the survey team comprising of the P.I./CO-PI and other project staff recruited for the purpose made intermittent 
visits to Moradabad & Aligarh along with field equipments/apparatus to obtain the 
following data by approaching the existing small & medium size factories with or without 
the permission of the labour department.

During the course of the study spread over a period of three years, more than 1,475 factories located in different parts, mostly scattered throughout the cities of 
Moradabad and Aligarh were approached and data on the following parameters were obtained:
 

1. Name:
2. Husband's Name/Father's Name:
3. Factory Location & Name: 
4. Working Hours:
5. Job Description:
6. Age:                          Weight:                  Height:
7. Caste                         Dietary Habits:
8. Area of Residence:
9. Salary & Social/Economical Status:
10. Any Other Source of Income:
11. Married/Unmarried:
12. No. Pregnancies Completed Term:
13. No. Miscarriage / Premature Deliveries:
14. No. of Children:
15. No. of Children Dead:
16. Children through Normal/Caesarian Delivery:
17. Details of Menstrual Cycle:
18. If Married, whether lactating:
19. Marriage age:
20. Where suffering from Congenital Disease:
21. Where suffering from Chronic Disease, if so, history:
22. Clinical observations:
23. Duration of factory exposure:
24. Blood Pressure:                               Haemoglobin:
25. Any other problem experienced after taking up job in the factory:

Susceptibility to UTI                24               Most of them did not know

Frequency of abortion/ 
Premature labour                     54 

Frequency of repeated 
Abortions                                85               Cases Only.

Infertility                                  4.6              It is not established whether
                                                                   it was due to male or female
                                                                   as no conclusive proof was
                                                                   there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 

Women with breathing              78 
problem

Women with grey hairs            60                Scanty grey hairs are not
                                                                    considered as grey haired.
Attaining menopause 
before 40 years                        40                Among those who attained

Susceptibility to chronic 
diseases                                 17 

Eye sight defect                       28                Most of them did not get 
                                                                    their eyesight tested.

Dermatitis                                34               Confined to hand and some
                                                                    leg portions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 

Susceptibility to UTI                48                Most of them did not know

Frequency of abortion/ 
Premature labour                      65 

Frequency of repeated 
Abortions                                 72              Cases Only.

Infertility                                   11              It is not established whether
                                                                   it was due to male or female
                                                                   as no conclusive proof was
                                                                   there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 

Women with breathing             85 
problem

Women with grey hairs             74               Scanty grey hairs are not
                                                                    considered as grey haired.
Attaining menopause 
before 40 years                       28               Among those who attained

Susceptibility to chronic 
diseases                                  44 

Eyesight defect                       36                Most of them did not get 
                                                                    their eyesight tested.

Dermatitis                               48               Confined to hand and some
                                                                    leg portions.
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Fe                                          724.52                               1059.08

Pb                                           45.72                                    68.11

Cd                                             2.58                                     3.04

Ni                                           17.61                                     24.42

Cu                                          12.84                                     19.63

Zn                                           72.00                                     85.16

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Fe                                           261.10                                310.33

Pb                                          192.88                                224.05

Cd                                          116.27                                184.68

Ni                                           180.15                                 209.14

Cu                                          459.62                                 663.71

Zn                                            520.04                               791.07

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"When you come to a sick person, say Hippocrates, it behoves you ask what uneasiness he is under, what was the cause of it, how many days he has been ill, how his belly stands and what food he eats, to i'd presume to add one interrogation; 
namely what trade he is of" 

Occupation health hazards, and therefore, occupational diseases, are present  everywhere. A project on "Environment & Occupational Hazards of Women Employed in Brassware Industries of Aligarh & Moradabad, U.P." was initiated by 
the society, in the light of the statement above. It was found that the women employed in these industries were exposed to such toxic metals like Lead, Nickel, Zinc etc. A 
prolonged period of exposure to such toxic metals increase their susceptibility to associated diseases as well as hampers infra uterine growth and development of 
foetus. The project over a period of 3 years, surveyed 960 units and screened more than 8500 women. The study was a major contribution to the existing literature on occupational hazards and was highly appreciated by the UNICEF. The study was sponsored by DST and the results constituted the edifice on which the organisation was conferred with the affiliate membership of the International Commision on Occupational Health, Geneva, Switzerland.