Relación entre las condiciones de higiene y seguridad y la exposición ambiental a solventes orgánicos en pintores de automóviles de la localidad de barrios unidos, Bogotá 2015
Thesis
Introduction: Repair Shop workers are daily exposed to organic solvents, which can put their health into risk. Generally, in a short-term, this risk can cause lack of concentration, memory and how long time it takes to respond to a stimulus, but in a long-term, this can bring about serious clinical problems, such as mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Objective: To characterize the hygiene and safety conditions of the workers occupationally exposed to organic solvents and determine the levels of BTX in body shops in the city of Bogota. Materials and methods: A study has been performed on transversal cut with 60 workers that were exposed to organic solvents in repair shops in Bogota. A survey with socio-demographic variables and work was carried out and the levels of benzene, toluene and xylene were determined in the air. For environmental sampling, pumps were placed in a fixed position in order to know the distribution of solvents in the work area. A descriptive analysis by frequency counts, measures of central tendency and dispersion was performed. Goodness of fit test for normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov or Shapiro Wilk), t Student test to compare means, or failing Mann Whitney U test for comparison of medium was used. To identify the relationship between socio-demographic and occupational characteristics with exposure to BTX, Chi-square tests of association or correlation analysis were used according to the nature of the variables. The significance level for each test was 0. 05. Results: The average age of workers was 43 years and a total time of exposure to solvents in 20 years. Regarding the use of body armor, 45 (75%) of workers reported using uniform, while 14 (23. 3%) wore street clothes during working hours. 46. 7% reported using respiratory protection. Benzene concentration in air was between 0. 1 and 0. 45 mg/l (median 0. 31 mg/l 0. 13 mg/l); the toluene was between 8. 25 and 27. 22 mg/l (median of 14. 5 mg/l 6. 99 mg/l) and xylene between 19. 34 and 150. 15 mg/l (median 70, 12 mg/l of 40. 82 mg/l). Conclusion: Car painters are exposed to high levels of solvents in the workplace and do not have adequate hygiene and industrial safety. A large number of painters are informal preventing them access to the benefits of Comprehensive Social Security System.
