TY - JOUR

T1 - The impact of major transformations of a production process on age-related accident risks

T2 - a study of an iron-ore mine

AU - Blank, V L

AU - Laflamme, L

AU - Diderichsen, Finn

PY - 1996

Y1 - 1996

N2 - This paper describes a study of whether accident risks were equally distributed across age categories among a population of mining workers whose work activities were suspected to be age-impaired. The impairment factors in focus are the transformation of production technology during the 80s and consequent changes in job content. It was hypothesized that the combined effect of these factors might lead accident risks, both non-specific (aggregated) and specific (by kind), to increase with age. Accident risk ratios (ARRs), however, proved to be higher for younger workers than older ones, in both the non-specific and the specific cases. However, two accident patterns (specific risks) also show relatively high ARRs among workers in their 40s (and even 30s), results that might be explained by particular exposures and/or age-related performance problems. The findings suggest that technological changes designed to increase productivity and reduce staffing levels more rapidly affect efficiency and productivity than they do accident occurrence, and that they penalize young workers in the first instance.

AB - This paper describes a study of whether accident risks were equally distributed across age categories among a population of mining workers whose work activities were suspected to be age-impaired. The impairment factors in focus are the transformation of production technology during the 80s and consequent changes in job content. It was hypothesized that the combined effect of these factors might lead accident risks, both non-specific (aggregated) and specific (by kind), to increase with age. Accident risk ratios (ARRs), however, proved to be higher for younger workers than older ones, in both the non-specific and the specific cases. However, two accident patterns (specific risks) also show relatively high ARRs among workers in their 40s (and even 30s), results that might be explained by particular exposures and/or age-related performance problems. The findings suggest that technological changes designed to increase productivity and reduce staffing levels more rapidly affect efficiency and productivity than they do accident occurrence, and that they penalize young workers in the first instance.

KW - Accidents, Occupational

KW - Adult

KW - Age Factors

KW - Confidence Intervals

KW - Efficiency

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Mining

KW - Poisson Distribution

KW - Risk

KW - Sweden

KW - Technology

KW - Wounds and Injuries

U2 - 10.1016/0001-4575(96)00035-8

DO - 10.1016/0001-4575(96)00035-8

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 8899044

VL - 28

SP - 627

EP - 636

JO - Accident Analysis & Prevention

JF - Accident Analysis & Prevention

SN - 0001-4575

IS - 5

ER -