Occupational accidents and injuries: results of a safety preventive programme.

The purpose of this study was to establish and compare the number and the average annual rate of occupational accidents and traumatic injuries in two industrial plants (textile production, and manufacture of metal products) between 1993 and 2002 and to estimate the effects of a safety programme introduced in textile industry. Textile industry plant has been implementing a programme for the surveillance and prevention of occupational accidents and injuries since 1997. From 1998 to 2002, the average annual rates of accidents and injuries rates and the severity ratio of injuries in this plant dropped significantly, which was not the case with metal production plant. The safety training programme produced the best results with the youngest and the oldest workers with less than five years of job experience.