The study dealt with the data on 1 097 cases of occupational diseases that were first identified in 702 employees of the copper-nickel industry in Murmansk region in the period from 1970 to 2010. It has been established that in the structure of occupational diseases of workers engaged in all kinds of nickel and copper production, chronic bronchopulmonary diseases dominated. It was important that the nosological spectrum of respiratory pathology was largely determined by the nature of production. In contrast, the pathology of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems including the vibration disease occupied the leading segment in the structure of the occupational pathology of the copper-nickel ores miners. It has been concluded that in order to reduce the risk of occupational disabilities, it was necessary to decrease the degree of exposure to nickel aerosols (in nickel and copper metallurgical workers) and harmful physical factors (in copper and nickel ore miners).
Operating Surface Haul Trucks (SHT) exposes mineworkers to whole body vibration (WBV), but risk assessment methods are not uniform in the Barents Region. We intended to measure WBV exposure from SHT, and discuss and compare risk assessment outcome by European and Russian methods. 17 WBV measurements were performed at the operator seat interface on 14 SHTs in an open cast mine in Northwest Russia. Measurement periods ranged from 13 to 58 minutes in real work cycles during 8 hours of driving. It was found that mean WBV exposure (A(8) rms) for the 14 SHT’s was (1.0 ± 0.23) m/s 2, mean crest factor - (12.78 ± 5.26) and mean vibration dose value - (10.35 ± 2.61) m/s 1· 75. The study shows that WBV levels defining the lower limit of hazard class 3.2 (Russia) is close to the limit value 1.15 m/s 2 (European countries).
It is known that development of health problems is caused by a combination of genetic, behavioral, environmental and occupational factors. The aim of the study was to identify and quantify the importance of production and non-production risk factors for chronic bronchopulmonary diseases (CBPD) in 1 530 employees of the nickel industry in the Kola North. The study of the structure and prevalence of CBPD showed that the risk of their development was higher in the employees of the electrolysis shop as compared to the workers of the auxiliary shops (RR = 1.81). In the former group of the employees, the highest risk for chronic bronchitis (CB) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was found in the electrolysis workers (RR = 1.54). In both groups of the workers, the most significant risk factors in the CB and COPD were exposure to tobacco smoke (RR = 2.42-1 1.73) and harmful production impacts (RR = 2.05-13.22). The risk of the developing CB and COPD was also increased by misuse of alcohol (OR = 1.59-2.32) and low physical activity (RR = 1.61-1.97). Causal risk factors for toxic fibrosis were different — age of an employee over 40 years (RR = 6.75) and overweight (OR = 4.44). No risk factors for asthma have been found within the scope of the studied causes. It has been concluded that in determination of the degree of the CBPD development risks in the nickel industry workers, a combination of production and non-production impacts should be taken into consideration. Only improvement of working conditions is not enough to reduce the CBPD risk. The task also requires influence of modifiable non-work related adverse factors, with tobacco smoking being the most important of them.
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