Citation

Ukkola K, Pekkarinen A. J. Occup. Accid. 1982; 4(2-4): 357-357.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The role of accident prevention in occupational health services was studied in 84 small enterprises in 1977-78. During the investigation of each enterprise, attention was focused on various types of hazards: hazards of construction; other environmental hazards; hazards of materials handling; hazards of burden handling; hazards of technical devices and machines.Hazards observed during the short visit to each enterprise were afterwards compared to officially reported accidents and the resulting injuries. The occurrence of accidents concentrated on those enterprises where the observed hazards were most significant. About 10 % of the accidents occurred in about 40 % of the enterprises where we found minor hazards.The high frequency of accidents and the lack of knowledge about occupational safety emphasize the role of accident prevention as well as other occupational health services to small enterprises. Accident prevention may be limited because of the background of occupational health personnel. However, it seems that focusing attention on obvious hazards promotes accident prevention.