Analysis of 541 cases of occupational acute chemical injuries in a large petrochemical company in China

Emergency department surveillance of occupational injuries in Shanghai's Putuo District, People's Republic of China

PURPOSE

Although the People's Republic of China has an enormous worker population, occupational injury data availability has been hindered by the lack of a national surveillance system. This study compared work with non-work-related injuries by diagnosis, cause, and demographic characteristics of cases treated in a moderate-sized emergency department (ED) in Shanghai.

METHODS

Data on all injury cases presenting to the ED were collected prospectively from November 1, 1998 through November 31, 1999 at the Putuo District Hospital.

RESULTS

A total of 5200 injuries were recorded; 3175 (61.1%) injuries occurred in individuals aged 18 to 60 years and of these, 38% occurred at work, 15.8% occurred going to or coming from work, and 46.2% were non-work-related. Top three causes of at-work-only injuries were cutting/piercing instruments, assault, and struck by/caught in objects. Injuries caused by machinery (prevalence ratio [PR]=2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2-2.6) and being struck by a falling object (PR=1.8; CI, 1.6-2.1) were among those more likely to have occurred at work.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings are an important first step in implementing injury surveillance in Shanghai hospitals to track injury patterns and to ultimately inform injury prevention efforts in this major international urban center.

Developing a safety and health training model for petrochemical workers

The production processes of the petrochemical industry expose workers to high potential hazards. Our previous study showed that hazard recognition was closely related to worker safety and health training activities. The purpose of this study was to establish and validate a safety and health training model. It is expected that the training model will help workers to recognize hazards, thereby lowering their operating risks. The training model, which included a complete training course and follow-up scoring using a questionnaire, was applied to three groups of subjects for comparison. Group A had joined our study previously and took the training course again at this time. Group B had also joined our previous study but did not take this training course. Group C was new to our study and took this training course for the first time. Groups A and C (who took the training course) had higher cognition and attitude scores than group B (who did not take the training course). The training course was a significant factor that positively influenced both cognition and attitude scores among managers and workers. The training course was more significant for managers while the duration of education was more significant for workers.