Contributions of occupational hazards and human factors in occupational injuries and their associations with job, age and type of injuries in railway workers.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the contributions of environmental hazards, technical dysfunctions, lack of work organization, know-how and job knowledge, and other human factors in occupational injuries and their relationships with job, age and type of accidents in railway workers.


METHODS
The sample included 1,604 male workers, having had at least one occupational injury with sick leave during a 2-year period in voluntary French railway services. A standardized questionnaire was filled in by the person-in-charge of prevention, with the injured worker. Data analysis was performed via the chi(2) independence test and adjusted odds ratios (OR) with Mantel-Haenszel test.


RESULTS
The environmental hazards were implicated in 24.7%, technical dysfunctions in 16.0%, lack of work organization in 13.7%, lack of know-how in 17.6%, lack of job knowledge in 5.2%, and the other human factors in 31.9% of occupational injuries. The injuries caused by lack of know-how or job knowledge were more represented in workers aged less than 30 (ORs adjusted for job 1.45, 95% CI 1.02-2.06 and 2.06, 1.22-3.49, respectively), those by environmental hazards in energy and electrical traction maintenance operators and train drivers (ORs adjusted for age 2.04, 1.16-3.58 and 1.80, 1.01-3.20, respectively), and those by lack of work organization in mechanical maintenance operators and in energy and electrical traction maintenance operators (ORs adjusted for age 2.24, 1.13-4.45 and 1.83, 1.30-2.57, respectively). The causes considered were strongly related with the type of injuries.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found that environmental hazards, technical dysfunctions, lack of work organization, lack of knowledge and other human factors had important contributions in injuries, and they were related to job, age and type of injuries. These findings are useful for prevention. Training is necessary for young workers. The occupational physician could help the workers to be more aware of the risks.
Chau
Nearkasen
N
Inserm, U669, PSIGIAM, Maison des Adolescents, Paris, France. Nearkasen.Chau@wanadoo.fr
Gauchard
Gerome C
GC
Dehaene
Dominique
D
Benamghar
Lahoucine
L
Touron
Christian
C
Perrin
Philippe P
PP
Mur
Jean-Marie
JM
D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D011890:Railroads; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*