Occupational hazards variation in welding workshop of an automobile manufacturing enterprise in seven years

Objective To understand the occupational hazards in the welding process and the change trend of workers' health status in an automobile manufacturing enterprises. Methods The occupational hazards and corresponding control measures were surveyed. The monitoring data of these occupational hazards at various work-sites and occupational health surveillance on exposed workers from 2006 to 2012 were collected and analyzed. Results The control measures against the occupational hazards didn't run as expected well in the welding process. The monitoring data showed the level or intensity of ozone, carbon monoxide and noise at few worksites were still not compliant with OELs, though there was a trend that the number of these non-compliant worksites decreased gradually in recent years(χ²=5.858,26.476,4.155; P=0.016,0.000,0.042). The surveillance data showed that there was high incidence of low hemoglobin level and the abnormality by audiometry examination,but a decreased trend was observed year by year(χ²=6.755,14.698; P=0.009,0.000). Conclusion Although occupational hazards were controlled effectively,the improvement,such as good maintenance and operation of these facilities, should be done continuously.