Relation between workplace accidents and the levels of carboxyhemoglobin in motorcycle taxi drivers

Abstract

Objective: to investigate the relation between workplace accidents and the levels of carboxyhemoglobin found in motorcycle taxi drivers. Method: correlational, quantitative study involving 111 workers and data obtained in July 2012 through a questionnaire to characterize the participants and blood collection to measure carboxyhemoglobin levels. Result: 28.8% had suffered workplace accidents; 27.6% had fractured the lower limbs and significant symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure were verified in smokers. The carboxyhemoglobin levels were higher among smokers and victims of workplace accidents. Conclusion: motorcycle taxi drivers had increased levels of carboxyhemoglobin, possibly due to the exposure to carbon monoxide; these levels are also increased among smokers and victims of workplace accidents. The study provides advances in the knowledge about occupational health and environmental science, and also shows that carboxyhemoglobin can be an indicator of exposure to environmental pollutants for those working outdoors, which can be related to workplace accidents.

Comparison of Quality of Life and Work Ability of Taxi and Motorcycle Taxi Drivers: Evidence from Brazil

“…It would be interesting to repeat the data collection a few days after the first collection, but this practice is difficult and expensive, and ensuring the volunteers’ acceptance is difficult, which would probably reduce the number of responses. Since the motorcycle taxi drivers demonstrated worse evaluation scores on the variables, it is believed that there was no social desirability bias for this population, and the literature corroborates the findings [8,9,11,15,17,18,21,22,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33]. To eliminate this bias, the questionnaire could be delivered together with the others to provide verification [41].…”

“…Gas inhalation, poor working conditions, noise, and poor sleep quality result in cardiovascular risks and increased incidence of systemic arterial hypertension and arterial occlusion. Sitting on a warm seat for long hours can result in genitourinary conditions, such as infections and trauma [28,29,30,31,32,33].…”

Associação entre aspectos psicossociais do trabalho e qualidade de vida de mototaxistas

“…Sabe-se que trabalhadores que realizam suas atividades "a céu aberto" estão expostos às temperaturas altas/baixas, ventos e poluição ambiental consequente da exposição ao monóxido de carbono (CO), dióxido de enxofre (SO 2 ), ozô-nio (O 3 ), óxidos de nitrogênio (NO x ) como o dió-xido de nitrogênio (NO 2 ) e óxido nítrico (NO) 34,35 . Os mototaxistas além de estarem expostos diretamente à poluição, que pode resultar em agravos diversos à sua saúde, estão expostos aos riscos decorrentes do trabalho em si, como acidentes de trabalho, risco de apresentarem alterações psicológicas e assaltos 24,36 .…”

Fatores associados à capacidade para o trabalho de mototaxistas

“…Motorcycle taxi drivers are known to be exposed to diverse risks that may affect their work capacity, health potential and quality of life, since they often submit to extensive working hours, suffer time pressure and demand for productivity. They work outdoors and are exposed to high and low temperatures, winds and environmental pollution [4][5][6] . In addition, long working hours and poor working conditions can result in physical illness and discomfort, occupational stress, accidents, decreased work capacity and total or permanent withdrawal from activities 4 .…”