SOME LINKS BETWEEN ACCIDENTS, POSTURAL LOAD AND ACCESSIBILITY IN CHEMICAL-PLANT MAINTENANCE

The maintenance tasks of two chemical plants were investigated in this pilot study, special attention being given to occupational accidents, postural load and the link between postures and the occurrence of acc idents. It was found that the accident rate was higher in maintenance work than in operational tasks. The proportion of strenuous postures, classified by the observational OWAS method, was generally high in dai ly maintenance (40%), and was even higher in accident situations (55%) , according to the victims interviewed. The employees also reported a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in the neck , shoulders and low back. When the work postures of the daily maintena nce and accident situations were compared, statistically significant d ifferences were found in the position of the back and in the use of fo rce. The low location of the maintenance points and the excessive use of force were found to be among the problems often giving rise to acci dent situations. Since accessibility factors are one of the important predictors behind the postural load, the prevention of both strenuous postures and occupational accidents in maintenance requires attention to be paid, among other things, to design improvements for providing b etter accessibility to maintenance points in both machinery and plant lay-out.