Prevention of occupational injuries: Evidence for effective good practices in foundries
Section snippets
Problem
Occupational injuries are still very common and have strong and serious consequences for workers, employers and companies, and society at large (Castillo & Collins, 2013).
According to the International Labour Organization, 317 million accidents occur worldwide on the job annually; every 15 s 153 workers have a work-related accident and 1 worker dies from a work-related accident or disease, with a vast human cost and an economic burden estimated at 4% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each
Methods
The study was performed in a sample of 33 Italian foundries, mainly located in industrialized areas of Northern and Central Italy, all belonging to the Italian Association of Ferrous and Non-ferrous Foundries (ASSOFOND) that lists more than 200 associated enterprises representing about 20% of the national foundry industry (Ariotti, 2014, Assofond, 2015). No selection criteria were applied; the foundries participated in the study on a voluntary basis. Such voluntary participation was determined
Descriptive data
The 29 foundries, for which three data points after intervention were available, and thus an evaluation of effectiveness was feasible, can be divided into the following:
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22 (76%) ferrous (cast-iron and steel) foundries equal to 11% of the Italian ferrous foundries reported from 2007 to 2008, employing 2,750 male blue collar workers per year between 2007 and 2008 equal to 18% of the total workers that were estimated to be occupied in this specific sector in the same period (Assofond, 2015)
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7 (24%)
Discussion
The prevention of occupational injuries still represents a priority for occupational safety and health research worldwide (Castillo and Collins, 2013, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2014, Rondinone et al., 2010). Especially, there is a well-established need for the following: more well-conducted multidisciplinary pragmatic intervention studies, including an effectiveness evaluation in order to create an evidence base for the prevention of occupational injuries; efforts to
Summary
Our intervention showed effectiveness in reducing all the main occupational injury rates (incidence/employment-based, frequency/h-based, severity) in ferrous foundries. In particular, a significant ‘step-effect’ was shown for incidence/employment-based rate independent of other changes (e.g., secular trends), which is opposite of the baseline trend observed in the national reference population. Moreover, the intervention determined a reduction of severity rate, although not significant, in
Practical applications
The present study suggests that a multifaceted, pragmatic, accountable intervention leads to a reduction in the burden of occupational injuries in small-, medium- and large-sized enterprises, with good generalizability to other working environments, also by means of sector-specific benchmarks. This translation research potentially provides an effective new model for prevention and management of occupational injuries, especially in smaller businesses that rarely have resources for comprehensive
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to the Association of Italian Foundries (ASSOFOND) for its full assistance and support as well as to the employers, the occupational health and safety personnel, and the workers of the foundries participating in the study.
We would also like to thank very much Anne and Kaitlin Ryan for their valuable English language editing.
Stefano Porru (MD-1986; certified occupational physician-1991, associate professor of occupational health, School of Medicine-2001) works at the Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia. Responsible for clinical activities at the Occupational Health Unit, General Hospital “Spedali Civili” in Brescia, Italy; Director of the University Research Center “Integrated Models for Prevention and Protection in Environmental and
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Cited by (0)
Stefano Porru (MD-1986; certified occupational physician-1991, associate professor of occupational health, School of Medicine-2001) works at the Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia. Responsible for clinical activities at the Occupational Health Unit, General Hospital “Spedali Civili” in Brescia, Italy; Director of the University Research Center “Integrated Models for Prevention and Protection in Environmental and Occupational Health” (Mistral).
He has long been involved in practice and research on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of work-related diseases and injuries, as well as on health surveillance and fitness for work. He dedicates a relevant part of his activities in prevention of occupational injuries especially in the metal sector, with a focus on the role of occupational physicians and effectiveness interventions.
Stefano Calza (PhD, biomedical statistics, associate professor biostatistics) has a long time experience as applied biostatistician with collaboration in various medical areas ranging from oncology to dentistry. His main areas of expertise are statistical and computational methods applied to genetics and genomics and bioinformatics.
Cecilia Arici (MD-2004, occupational health physician-2008, research assistant) works in the Section of Public Health and Human Sciences at the University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy. Her main scientific interests are: occupational injuries, immigration and work, occupational cancer, contribution of genetics and genomics to occupational safety and health, systematic search of work-related diseases, biohazards. Especially, since 2008 she is actively involved in the fields of safety intervention research and accidents investigation.