Unsafe Behaviours at Workplace and Occupational Exposure to Organic Solvents

摘要

The aim of this work has been to analyse work safety from the viewpoint of accident risk resulting from the behaviours of workers occupationally exposed to organic solvents. The results of 14 psychological studies performed mainly in the Scandinavian countries and of 6 author's own studies performed at the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine on the Polish population show that the exposure to organic solvents may result in disturbed neuropsychological functions, including impaired memory, attention, perception, psychomotor function, and a number of subjective symptoms. The resultant list of all observed disturbances was used to prepare a questionnaire. A set of 20 items has been developed to describe behaviours or reactions, which are more likely to occur during performing occupational duties by workers exposed to neurotoxic chemicals. The questionnaire has been suggested for use as a tool to assess the frequency of the unsafe behaviours. The assessment is performed by persons directly in charge of the workers, i.e. foremen or masters. Each of questionnaire items describes a different behavioural category and has a status of 4-nominal dependent variable. The independent variables are: exposure to organic solvents, sex, age, and years of employment. The main part of the study was performed in two plants manufacturing solvent-based paints and varnishes (283 people), a plant manufacturing viscose fibre and film using carbon disulfide (376 people), and two food-processing plant employing 416 people (control). In total, 1075 production workers were involved in the study. The assessment was performed by 68 shift foremen. Our analysis has shown that the exposure does affect the unsafe behaviours. The exposed people (men in 12 behavioural categories and women in 8 behavioural categories) behaved in a way which led to errors, disturbances or delays and changed the working environment so as to increase the risk of accidents or injuries.