Occupational health risk for women employed in industries with harmful working conditions

Abstract

The preservation and strengthening of the health of the able-bodied population is the most important indicator of the socio-economic potential of the country. A modern working woman experiences the complex impact of adverse factors of the production environment and the labor process, which are potentially dangerous to health, contribute to the formation of production-related and occupational diseases. The study aims to analyze the occupational health risk of women employed in jobs with harmful working conditions at the processing plant of the mining and processing plant and the petrochemical complex of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Materials and methods. The authors studied the state of health by analyzing the occupational risk of female workers in contact with harmful production factors of a processing enterprise (407 people) and a petrochemical complex (473 people). The experts used clinical, functional, clinical and statistical research methods in their work and analyzed the levels and structure of chronic non-communicable diseases to determine the degree of industrial conditionality. The calculations were performed using the Microsoft Excel program. The combined effect of a complex of harmful production factors of the mining and processing plant (dust of polymetallic ores, chemicals, noise and severity of labor — class of working conditions 3.1) contributes to the development of chronic non-communicable diseases in female workers in 80.3±2.0% of cases, versus 54.6±4.4% of cases in the control group. A number of identified diseases have the character of production-related, while a very high degree of its conditionality is characteristic of diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (RR — relative risk = 4.3, EF — etiological proportion = 75%), a high degree was inherent in respiratory diseases (RR=3.1; EF=67.7%). Diseases of the circulatory system (RR=1.6, EF=37.5%) and diseases of the nervous system (RR=1.58, EF=36.7%) had an average degree of occupational conditionality. In the workers of the main group of the petrochemical complex, chronic non–communicable diseases were diagnosed significantly more often than in the control, respectively — 84.0±1.7 and 67.0±3.5% of cases, p<0.01. The combined effect on the workers of the complex of chemicals in combination with the intensity of the labor process associated with the 3-shift nature of work (class of working conditions 3.1), was the cause of the industrial conditionality of diseases of the nervous system, circulatory system, blood, digestive organs of moderate degree. Female employees of the enterprises of the concentrating plant of the mining and processing plant and the petrochemical complex, engaged in work with harmful working conditions, represent a "risk group" for the occurrence of changes from various organs and systems, depending on the current etiological production factors. Based on the indicators of the degree of occupational conditionality of a number of diseases in female workers, mining and petrochemical complexes belong to industries with a high and medium occupational risk of health disorders. Ethics. The survey of female employees was conducted with their informed consent, approved by the bioethical committee of the Institute. The fundamental documents are: "Ethical principles of conducting scientific medical research with human participation" (amendments 2008) of the Helsinki Declaration, as well as "Rules of Clinical Practice in the Russian Federation" (approved by Order of the Ministry of Health dated 06/19/2003 No. 266).