Возраст и риски производственного травматизма у категорий личного состава Федеральной противопожарной службы МЧС России

Abstract

The objective of the article is to detect the interconnection between the age and professional experience of the personnel of the Federal Firefighting Service of the EMERCOM of Russia and the risks of industrial injuries. Reports on industrial injuries among the categories (operational, technical, maintenance, and administrative personnel) of personnel of the Federal Firefighting Service of the EMERCOM of Russia have been studied. The average weighted expected risk of injuries for 10 thousand people was calculated. The average age of the injured personnel of the Federal Firefighting Service of the EMERCOM of Russia is (36.2  0.3) years with working experience of (10.2  0.3) years. The average weighted expected risk of body area injuries among firefighters in 2012–2021 is (11.96  0.89)·10–4 injuries/(persons·year). The analysis has demonstrated the decrease in injury rate among the personnel of the Federal Firefighting Service of the EMERCOM of Russia at large. The interconnection between the injury rate, age, and professional experience among the personnel’s categories of the service have certain similarities and differences affected by a number of factors that sometimes can be multidirectional: the risk of injuries is higher for younger and unexperienced personnel who are, consequently, undertrained and lack expertise, knowledge, and competence; at the same time, they demonstrate high confidence in their possibilities, which often causes irresponsible attitude towards the labor protection requirements; along with the increase in professional experience, the practical experience and the command of safe working methods increase among the personnel, which reduces the risk of injuries; more experienced firefighters are more often involved in complex and important operations during fires, which increases the risk of injuries; senior and unexperienced employees of fire protection divisions experience particular difficulties when obtaining practical skills and learn safe working methods of firefighting, as compared to the younger employees; in addition, physical and psychical operability declines with age as the human body cannot respond promptly to changes in difficult situations and find solutions to overcome them, which increases the risk of injuries; along with the increase in professional experience, certain career growth is registered for many employees; hence, when performing higher-level posts, the personnel is less often exposed to hazardous factors of fire, which reduces the risk of injuries. At the same time, the phenomenon of the increasing risk of injuries among experienced firefighters of pre-retirement age must be marked specifically.