Evaluation of occupational injuries among welders in Northwest Iran

Introduction: Welding technology is one of the most commonly used industries by mankind. Welders have an essential role in production. Injuries affecting welders directly contributes to posing healthcare costs on the individual and society, decreased productivity, wasted time and more. Oobjectives: This study was designed to investigate occupational hazards related to welders. Patients and Methods: In this study, 50 employed welders in city workshops were selected and their data was collected by interview and questionnaire. Analytical and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed 92% of welders suffer eye problems while 86% of them actually used  their  protective  glasses.  Forty-four  percent  suffered  from  hearing  loss,  and  88%  had musculoskeletal problems particularly in the knees, neck and back. Around 36% did not use respiratory  masks  for  preventing  inhalation  of  the  fumes. Conclusion: The extents of occupational hazards in this profession are high. The last level of safety  is  the  use  of  safety  devices.  Nevertheless,  most  of  these  devices  are  not  used  by  the welders. Excessive working hours, long employment history, unsafe working environment for the presence of high background radiation and gases cause several problems in welders. The most commons are eye injuries and musculoskeletal pains. Core tip The  extents  of  occupational  hazards  in this  profession  are  high.  In  a  study  on  50 employed  welders,  we  found  the  most common  occupational  hazards  are  eye injuries  and  musculoskeletal  pains. Citation: Amani F, Bahadoram M, Hazrati S. Evaluation of occupational injuries among welders in Northwest Iran. J Prev Epidemiol. 2017;2(2):e08. DOI: 10.15171/jpe.2017.08.