한국 정유공장 남성 근로자의 만성질환 관련 지표를 이용한 유소견자 실태 확인 및 관리방안

Abstract

The petroleum refinery industry handles a variety of complex chemical substances and employs a large number of people around the world. According to previous research, diseases caused by exposure to chemicals were quite common among workers in refineries until the 1980s. More recently, it is unusual for oil refinery workers to suffer from these serious diseases. The objective of this study was to identify the occurrence level of general diseases and any differences in lifestyle habits of workers in refineries in Korea compared with the general population. In this study, we used the results of health examinations from 2014 for workers at a large oil refinery in South Korea. In addition, based on the results of KNHANES from 2014 as representative of the population, hypertension, diabetes, anemia, hyperlipidemia, liver function abnormality, and kidney function abnormality were calculated using the standardized incidence rate. Hypertension showed a low result with an SIR of less than 1, but a high result in the case of abnormal liver function. The workers’ occurrence rates of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, kidney dysfunction, and anemia were lower than those of ordinary salaried employees. however, their occurrence rate for abnormal liver function was markedly higher. In lifestyle habits, the smoking rate of workers was low while the alcohol consumption rate was quite high. This study has improved the understanding of the health status of workers in a large oil refinery in Korea, and has shown the impact of lifestyle habits related to the work environment on chronic diseases.