Department of Environmental Health, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
Occupational Health Division, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 1;19(3):1690. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031690.
Operations in general industry, including manufacturing, expose employees to a myriad of occupational health hazards. To prevent exposure, occupational health and safety regulations were enacted, with both employers and workers instituting various risk reduction measures. The analysis of available occupational disease and injury statistics (indicators of worker physical health) can be used to infer the effectiveness of risk reduction measures and regulations in preventing exposure. Thus, using the READ approach, analyses of occupational disease and injury statistics from South African industry, derived from annual reports of the Compensation Fund, were conducted. The publicly available database of occupational disease and injury statistics from the South African general industry is unstructured, and the data are inconsistently reported. This data scarcity, symptomatic of an absence of a functional occupational disease surveillance system, complicates judgement making regarding the effectiveness of implemented risk reduction measures, enacted occupational health and safety regulations and the status of worker physical health from exposure to workplace hazards. The statistics, where available, indicate that workers continue to be exposed to occupational health impacts within general industry, notwithstanding risk reduction measures and enacted regulations. In particular, worker physical health continues to be impacted by occupational injuries and noise-induced hearing loss. This is suggestive of shortcomings and inefficiencies in industry-implemented preventive measures and the regulatory state. A robust national occupational disease surveillance system is a regulatory tool that should detect and direct policy responses to identified occupational health hazards.
一般行业（包括制造业）的作业会使员工接触到各种职业健康危害。为了防止接触，制定了职业健康和安全法规，雇主和工人都采取了各种降低风险的措施。对现有职业病和伤害统计数据（工人身体健康指标）的分析可用于推断降低风险措施和法规在防止接触方面的有效性。因此，采用 READ 方法，对来自南非工业的职业病和伤害统计数据进行了分析，这些数据来自赔偿基金的年度报告。南非一般工业中职业病和伤害统计数据的公开数据库是非结构化的，数据报告不一致。这种数据稀缺性表明缺乏功能齐全的职业病监测系统，这使得判断实施的降低风险措施、颁布的职业健康和安全法规以及工人因接触工作场所危害而导致的身体健康状况的有效性变得复杂。有统计数据表明，尽管采取了降低风险的措施和颁布了法规，但工人在一般行业中仍继续受到职业健康的影响。特别是，工人的身体健康仍受到职业伤害和噪声性听力损失的影响。这表明行业实施的预防措施和监管状况存在缺陷和效率低下。一个强大的国家职业病监测系统是一种监管工具，应能发现和引导对已确定的职业健康危害作出政策反应。
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