Assessment of occupational health risk for workers employed at contemporary rubber production

The paper dwells on the results obtained in assessing occupational health risk for workers employed at rubber production; the assessment was based on examining both a priori and a posteriori parameters. It was shown that workers were exposed to a set of factors related to working environment and labor process including hazardous chemicals, in-plant noise, adverse microclimate, as well as physical overloads. Chemical factor played the leading role as there were various chemicals in working area air such as benzene in concentrations equal to 1.2-3.0 MPC (maximum single concentration amounted to 4 MPC); dichloromethane in concentrations equal to 0.2-1.5 MPC average monthly (maximum single ones equal to 2 MPC). Overall working conditions assessment for workers with different occupations employed at rubber production belonged to 3.2 hazard category. Workers who glued parts of articles together ran high risks of occupational diseases; risks were average for spreading machine operators and vulcanizers...