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PHYSIOLOGO-HYGIENIC PECULIARITIES OF SEAMEN'S OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITY ON THE SPECIALIZED FLEET

PHYSIOLOGO-HYGIENIC PECULIARITIES OF SEAMEN'S OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITY ON THE SPECIALIZED FLEET

https://doi.org/10.33573/ujoh2014.03.029

Shafran L. M.1, Golikova V. V.1,2

PHYSIOLOGO-HYGIENIC PECULIARITIES OF SEAMEN'S OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITY ON THE SPECIALIZED FLEET

1SI «Ukrainian institute of transport medicine of Ministry of Health of Ukraine», Odessa
2Odessa National Marine Academy of MES of Ukraine

Full article (PDF), RUS


Introduction. Modem marine transport fleet numbers near 74 thousand ships, in total, which transport about 7.1 billion tons of cargo (near 80 % of the global goods turnover) every year. The international maritime labor market has been formed, which successfully compete with Ukrainian seamen (about 100 thousand citizens of Ukraine). Since the fleet is growing mainly due to construction of specialized ships, the proportion of tonnage of which exceeds 75 %, working conditions and the content of the labor process are characterized by a number of specific features, in which an actual task of transport medicine is hygienic and psychophysiological assessment for development of recommendations on safety and preservation of health of seafarers, being the purpose of this study.

Materials and methods. The study involved 362 seamen, working on the specialized fleet (bulk carriers, gas carriers, container ships, oil and chemical tankers) and universal dry cargo ships (control). The analysis of the ship documentation, hygienic and professiografic studies by daily self-photography at various stages of trip, questionnaires, physiological, physiological and biochemical studies of saliva before and after a voyage has been made. The obtained data on more than 30 key indicators were compared with the results of studies, conducted in the 90s of the twentieth century. In the analysis of the materials there were used methods of variation and correlation analysis.

Results. The analysis of daily seaman professiograms at main stages of trip (loading and unloading operations in the port and sea and ocean crossings) showed that due to the reduction of the crew up to 15—18 people, growing the tonnage, speed of ships, automatization processes of modern transport vessel’s operation and intensification of navigation, the work of seamen begins to acquires an operators’ character, which in combination with changes in places of jobs and shift regime of work, resulted in a significant increase of its intensity, the total number of working hours, occupational stress, underlying significant changes of psychophysiological functions and development of fatigue of a cumulative character and increasing the risk of psychosomatic diseases.

Conclusion. As seamen turned to be a «seasonal» working population on ships of foreign owners, their health problems can be solved very individually. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out not only qualified medical and psychophysiological professional selections of such contingent, but give a psychophysiological support and medical and psychological rehabilitation to crew members as well. The author of the paper continues to work in this direction.


Key words: specialized ships, seamen, working conditions, psychophysiological status, socio-psychological factors

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