title: [The role of the occupational physician in the assessment of accident risk].
abstract: The prevention of accidents at work in Italy is a target still to be reached for the safety of workers in workplaces, despite the innovative provisions introduced by the Legislative Decree 81/08 and the decrease of the number of total and fatal accidents occurred in the period 2001-2008, as reported in the statistics of the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL). The occupational physician performs a very important role in the accident risk assessment, based on his biomedical and ergonomic knowledge. His role is carried out during the phase of safety risk assessment, contributing to assess plants, machines, tools, personal protective equipments, to be used by the workers. His knowledge of the health status of workers, acquired by medical surveillance and aimed to prevent accidents by providing the fitness for work evaluation in relation to the presence of diabetes mellitus, musculoskeletal diseases, sleep disorders, or to the assumption of hypnotic drugs, when the employee works at height or as driver such as in the transport or construction industry, is not less important. Unfortunately, this latter role of the occupational physician is limited because the Italian Safety Legislation does not provide for the sanitary surveillance of all the workers employed in factories.
authors: Università di Bari Aldo Moro, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Medicina Pubblica, Sezione di Medicina del Lavoro E.C. Vigliani, Bari, Italy.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Basso
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Lovreglio
authors: M N
authors: MN
authors: D'Errico
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Panuzzo
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Ferrara
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Lepera
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Serra
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Milano
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Nesta
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Soleo
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D010819:Physician's Role; D018570:Risk Assessment