[Causes and rates of absenteeism in selected branches of industry during the years 1970-1987].

Since 1970 the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lódź has systematically carried out the analysis of sickness absenteeism of workers taken care of by the industrial health service. Monthly reports concerning temporal working disability prepared for plants by the institutions of industrial health service constitute the source material for the analysis. The analysis of the rate and structure of sickness absenteeism for the whole industry and its particular branches made it possible to point to industries which are most hazardous to health. The values of lost time rates due to diseases proves that only some branches of industry do exceed the mean lost time rate in industry. These are as follows: ferrous metallurgy (5.21), metals producing industry (4.88), textile industry (4.83), chemical industry (4.63) and rubber processing industry (4.73). Moreover, the rate analysis rendered it possible to observe changes in sickness absenteeism in these industries over years. There are five main causes for diagnosing working disability in industry: 1) respiratory system diseases (1.12), 2) nervous system and sense organs diseases (0.70), 3) circulatory system diseases (0.61), 4) osteomuscular system diseases (0.58) and 5) digestive system diseases (0.48).