Identification and assessment of hazards posed by dangerous and harmful agents at workstations in the processes in the furniture industry, and the development of prevention recommendations

Identification measurements of occupational risk factors at workstations in selected furniture enterprises were conducted. They were conducted at representative workstations involved in forming wood elements, woodworking, cleaning elements of furniture with a solvent and at workstations of the operators of drilling machines, moulding machines, saws and edge banding machine. The following substances were identified: 1-butanone, n-heptane, toluene, butyl acetate, ethylbenzene, o-, m-, p-xylenes. Measurements of noise in furniture enterprises showed that audible noise is a hazard at practically all the workstations that were selected for the study. There were mechanical hazards, too.Environmental studies - assessment of exposure to chemical substances, wood dust, audible noise, mechanical vibrations, physical work load, parameters of a hot microclimate, and hazard of mechanical factors - were conducted in 7 selected furniture industry enterprises.Occupational risk assessment done on the basis of the results of the environmental studies and measurements at representative workstations in the processes of manufacturing furniture showed that work-related high risk was present at 52 out of the 54 studied workstations.