Prevention of Occupational Diseases in Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises in QUEBEC (CANADA) – Study of Prevention Management Practices

Abstract

Prevention of accidents and occupational diseases plays a major role in the viability of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. However, occupational health and safety conditions in this setting are often precarious compared to large corporations, in which occupational diseases occur eight times less frequently. In a previous study [1], it has been identified, by reviewing the literature, the measures practiced by managers of businesses in this category in the province of Quebec in their efforts to decrease the incidence of occupational diseases. The initial research work reduced these measures to a catalog of elements of management. In the present article, the findings on the application of these elements will be presented, based on a survey of about 400 manufacturing businesses, of which 252 agreed to answer the questionnaire. The present article provides a descriptive statistic from the analysis of the responses. This work allowed to portray the strengths and deficiencies of occupational disease risk management practices in Quebec based on complete and valid responses from 32 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Overall, this portrayal reflects a serious effort to take up the cause of occupational health and safety in this type of business. It nevertheless reveals room for improvement of the implementation of health and safety risk management systems, and prevention of musculoskeletal diseases and hearing loss, which were found to occur in respectively 63% and 25% of these companies. This work therefore recommends that these diseases be treated as a priority by researchers and expert practitioners of occupational health and safety.

Prevention of Occupational Diseases in Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises in Quebec (CANADA)-Portrayal of Elements Influencing OHS Performance

“…This review of the literature allowed us to identify about a hundred elements of occupational ailment and disease prevention. These are examined more closely in the second part of this research, which focuses on the details of their actual application in the SME setting [1]. The project overall allowed us to identify the strengths and deficiencies of OHS risk management in these businesses.…”

“…The method by which we identified elements that could be integrated advantageously into the practice of preventing occupational diseases in SMEs in Quebec was essentially a review of the literature retrieved using appropriate keywords. The practical application of these elements is the subject of the second article [1]. The theoretical framework of the overall study thus consists of three steps: 1) identifying the means that are implemented to prevent occupational diseases; 2) gathering data on how implementation is supposed to occur in specific industrial settings, and 3) analyzing actual practice to identify deficiencies and obstacles to implementation in SMEs.…”

“…A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is defined generally as having annual sales limited to a regional market [1]. Definitions vary from one country to the next [2].…”

“…The present article focuses on the first two stages, namely reviewing the literature to catalog the elements of prevention and identifying the most relevant elements. Stages 3 and 4, in which gathered field data on the application of these elements and analyzed their relative effectiveness using descriptive statistics, are reported in Part 2 [1]. Despite the limitations of this research method, we portray in detail the elements that appear to have the most influence on occupational disease prevention in small to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, and thus identify the strengths and weaknesses of occupational health and safety performance in this setting.…”

Регіональні Тенденції І Пріоритети Розвитку Аграрного Бізнесу В Україні У Період Війни

“…Авторка акцентує увагу на важливіості поєднання «матеріальних стимулів за поліпшення умов та підвищення безпеки праці» і «впровадження економічних санкцій за порушення цих умов» (Цогла, 2016). Особливості проблеми охорони праці у малому бізнесі, зокрема, в частині професійних захворювань, досліджують канадські вчені у (Randrianarivelo et al, 2022). Дослідники звертають увагу на те, що внаслідок гірших умов і безпеки праці у малому та середньому бізнесі провінції Квебек частота професійних захворювань у цьому сегменті бізнесу у вісім разів вища порівняно з великими компаніями.…”