PRODUCTION VIBRATION AND VIBRATION-RELATED PATHOLOGY AT ENTERPRISES IN THE ARTIC
Introduction. Industrial vibration belongs to the most common harmful effects, taking third place among physical factors after noise and adverse lighting conditions. The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature of industrial vibration and its influence on the formation of occupational pathology among workers at enterprises in the Arctic. Materials and methods. The data of socio-hygienic monitoring "Working conditions and occupational morbidity” of the population in the Russian Arctic zone in 2007-2017 were studied.The results of the study. It was found that in the structure of harmful production factors, vibration occupies 7.13%, and the development of 29.9% of occupational diseases is associated with its influence. Compared to hand-arm vibration, the whole-body vibration more frequently causes the development of vibration disease (87.8% and 61.9%, p <0.001) and radiculopathy (4.7% and 0.9%, P <0.01), and less often - mono-polyneuropathy (6.0% and 22.0%, P<0.001) and vegetative-sensory polyneuropathy (0.4% and 14.4%, P<0.001). In 2007-2017, an increase in the incidence rate (from 2.55 to 3.80 per 10,000 workers) and the risk of development (RR = 1.49; CI 1.21-1.84) of vibration pathology was noted at the enterprises of the Arctic, while in Russia as a whole their decline took place. In 99.3% of cases, exposure to vibration was the result of imperfection of technological processes and workplaces, design flaws of machines and equipment. Conclusion. To minimize the risk of developing vibration pathology at the enterprises of the Arctic, it is necessary to reduce the level of vibration, first of all, due to the improvement of technological processes and structural improvements of vibration-hazardous equipment.