Indicators of occupational traumatism and mortality in employees of Russian State Fire Service (1996–2015)

Abstract

Relevance.Profession of firefighters is considered to refer to extreme activities, which have high risks of health disorders, injuries and even death.Intention– to analyze occupational traumatism and deaths from injuries in Russian State Fire Service (SFS) (1996–2004) and the Federal Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia (2005–2015) employees for 20 years and to compare these data with the indicators of Russian workers.Methods.Information on occupational traumas and deaths of employees and response personnel of Russian SFS was gathered. The annual number of examined firefighters of special military ranks (officer, warrant officer, sergeant, common soldier) was (108.8 ± 6.2) thousand people, which was not less than 80 % of personnel of Russian SFS. The levels of occupational injuries, deaths from occupational injuries of Russian workers, mortality in the XIX Chapter of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Problems, 10th edition (ICD-10) of men of working age in Russia were received from the official website of the Federal Agency for Statistics. Database «FDB «Fires» was used for the distribution of fires in Russia over time periods. The dynamics of indicators of health disorders of firefighters and of fire distribution was evaluated by the method of time series analysis, which used a polynomial trend of the 2nd order.Results and Discussion.The average annual level of occupational traumatism in 20 years (1996–2015) in Russian SFS staff amounted to (3.795 ± 0.390)‰, in response staff for 1999–2015 – (5.295 ± 0.644)‰. The level of occupational traumatism among Russian workers during these periods was (3.410 ± 0.351) and (3.000 ± 0.318)‰ respectively, which is significantly less than that of the response personnel (p < 0.05). A positive statistically significant relationship between the number of injuries and combat performances (r = 0.51; p < 0.05), the number of injuries and accident rate in the staff of Russian SFS with the complexity of fire-fighting tasks and number of use of personal respiratory protection (r = 0.53 and r = 0.46, respectively, p < 0.05). The cyclical nature of risks of traumatism in response staff of Russian SFS, depending on hours of the day, days of the week and months of the year, due to the nature of combat performance and other professional factors was found. This phenomenon requires additional research. The mortality rate of SFS staff from occupational injuries in 1996–2015 was (0.125 ± 0.011)‰, response personnel – (0.149 ± 0.014)‰. The mortality rate of Russian workers was statistically significantly less (0.116 ± 0.007)‰ compared to the response personnel (p < 0.05). There are decreases in occupational traumatism and deaths from occupational injuries in SFS staff and Russian workers.Conclusion.In general, level of occupational traumatism and mortality from occupational injuries in employees and response personnel of the Russian SFS can be comparable with level revealed among the Russian workers. It indicates, on the one hand, the effective organizational and technological measures for the prevention of occupational injuries and the death of firefighters, and, on the other hand, high level of occupational traumatism of the Russian workers.