Occupational diseases occurring in acceptable working conditions: Causes and features of development in the Russian Arctic

Abstract

Introduction: Acceptable working conditions are essential but they do not ensure complete prevention of occupational diseases. The purpose of the study was to establish possible causes and features of development of occupational diseases in blue-collar employees having acceptable working conditions. Materials and methods: Data on working conditions and occupational disease rates collected within public health monitoring and information from the Register of extracts from occupational disease records in the Russian Arctic for 2007–2021 were analyzed. The relative risk (RR) and 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI), the goodness-of-fit criterion (χ2) for the analysis of four-field tables, and the approximation criterion (R2) to determine the measure of correlation between values were calculated. Results: It has been established that 74 of 10,343 occupational disease cases (0.72 %) were registered at enterprises of the Russian Arctic with acceptable working conditions. They were more often related to chemical exposure (40.5 %) and increased labor severity (28.4 %) mainly attributed to equipment design defects (58.1 %) and imperfect technological processes (33.8 %). This group of workers was noted for a younger mean age (48.1 ± 1.3 years), shorter duration of employment (18.9 ± 1.5 years), and a larger proportion of women (28.6 %) compared to those exposed to harmful and hazardous working conditions. It included employees of such jobs as a lorry driver (27.0 %) and painter (10.8 %) from such types of economic activity as mining (56.8 %) and construction (14.9 %). Poisoning (n = 17), radiculopathy (n = 12), mono(poly)neuropathy (n = 11), and bronchial asthma (n = 8) were found to be the most prevalent occupational disorders in them. Conclusion: Some circumstances of registration of health disorders in workers with low exposure to occupational risk factors (usually below occupational safety standards) remain unclear. It is critical to establish validity of such a diagnosis, specifics of drawing up a report on a case of occupational disease, and reporting forms of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) describing occupational hazards.