Mannocci Alice, Gabrijelcic Simona, Di Thiene Domitilla, Saulle Rosella, Boccia A, La Torre G
Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e Malattie Infettive, Sapienza Università di Roma.
Med Lav. 2012 Jul-Aug;103(4):268-75.
The road freight and passenger transport sector exposes the workers of this sector to a considerable health risk. Application of the relative legislation to safeguard worker's safety is an obligation for the employer.
The aim of the study was to assess the application of current legislation in the trucking sector and ascertain whether there are differences between large and small enterprises.
The study was conducted through direct interview with managers of road freight and passenger transport companies in the Lazio Region in 2009. Information was collected using a questionnaire composed of 77 items concerning risk assessment and organization aspects in the enterprises. The enterprisers were stratified by number of workers and drivers. To detect possible associations the Chi-squared and Fisher's Exact tests were used.
A total of 42 enterprisers participated in the study. Significant differences were found between larger enterprisers (10 workers) and smaller enterprises (< 10 workers), concerning risk assessment from vibrations (p = 0.006), night work (p = 0.026), microclimatic conditions (p = 0.047). Regarding risk prevention/management aspects, the enterprisers with a higher number of workers were more likely to have a workers' representative for safety compared to the smaller enterprises (respectively 88.9% versus 50.0%) and a road accidents Register (77.8% versus 16.7%), with p < 0.001 significance levels.
The risks most frequently assessed, in decreasing order, were: vibrations, manual handling of loads, stress, noise, awkward postures, night work, alcohol consumption, drug addiction and microclimatic conditions. Vibrations, night work and microclimatic conditions risks were assessed to a lower degree in the smaller enterprisers compared to the larger enterprises.
