Working Conditions as a Risk Factor for the Health of Employees of a Metallurgical Enterprise

Abstract

and Preventive Medicine of the ZSMPU "Modern risk factors and their prevention in the public health system", state registration number 0123U100215.Introduction.The metallurgical industry is one of the most developed production sectors in Ukraine, with the largest number of enterprises located mainly in four regions: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Dnipro [1]. Workplaces (WP) of metallurgical industry workers are exposed to harmful occupational factors of various nature that can contribute to the development of occupational and work-related pathology [2,3]. Every year in Ukraine, about 5-8 thousand occupational diseases are registered, and the total morbidity of workers employed in harmful and hazardous working conditions increases by 32-50% due to occupational diseases. An analysis of occupational morbidity by industry shows that the most significant number of cases is registered in the coal (70-79%), metallurgical (2.2-2.8%) and machine-building (2.7-3.8%) industries [4,5].The working conditions (WC) of employees of metallurgical enterprises are actively studied and analysed, but due to the modernisation of production, introduction of mechanisation and automation of various technological processes in production, there are changes in the working conditions of employees in the main and auxiliary workshops, which necessitates additional study of them, research of the impact of harmful and dangerous factors of the production environment on workers. Therefore, the issue of studying occupational health and safety in hazardous industries remains relevant and requires attention to develop and implement effective prevention measures [6]. ГІГІЄНА, ЕКОЛОГІЯ ТА ЕПІДЕМІОЛОГІЯ / HYGIENE, ECOLOGY AND EPIDEMIOLOGYthe Ministry of Health of Ukraine № 284 of 08.04.2014) (after this referred to as HCofW № 248-2014).Research results and their discussion.The professional duties of a sinter operator in a sinter shop during sintering include monitoring the serviceability of sintering and roasting machines during their operation, equipment maintenance (cleaning aspiration ducts, placer hoppers of gas suction vacuum chambers, collectors, multicyclones, exhauster bins, prepits, exhaust pipes during sintering or roasting machine shutdowns). During the sintering of the sinter, the employee breaks large pieces of hot sinter on the grates of the hearths, unloads the sinter from the sintering grate bowls, beats the sinter from the grates and hearths, takes samples of the charge, sinter, pellets, sorts the sinter and pellets, and supplies coke. He/ she is directly involved in the repair of sinter shop equipment. The sinter operator performs physical work of moderate severity (category II b), which includes work performed while standing, involving walking, moving small (up to 10 kg) loads and is accompanied by moderate physical exertion.When studying the parameters of the production microclimate, it was found that the median air temperature at the sinter WP in the warm season was 35.2 0 C, and the temperature ranged from 20.4 to 43°C (TLL 20...