The Importance of Maintenance in Occupational Health and Safety

The number of work accidents is estimated to affect 270 million people every year, causing 2.2 million deaths and 160 million work-related diseases, representing enormous social and economic costs. The European Community's Strategy on Occupational Health and Safety aims at a quantitative reduction of 25% of work accidents by 2012. Statistics show that in the EU-27, 10 to 15% of fatal accidents at work can be attributed to maintenance operations and about 20% of the total number of accidents in the workplace are related to poor maintenance. In many sectors, more than half of these accidents can be attributed to maintenance problems. The European Commission considers that the workers engaged on this activity are at an increased risk. Maintenance should therefore be strongly associated with prevention of accidents. During the working life of a piece of equipment or infrastructure, maintenance ensures actions that minimize failures, assure the specifications of the projects, and the quality of the product / service, as well as the health and safety of its users and the preservation of the environment. Consequently, its importance as a strategic factor in the development of organizations and the improvement of the quality of life of populations is clear. The main objective of this paper is to disclose some indicators of safety performance and occupational health with the aim of discussing and disseminating knowledge about the impact represented by maintenance activities. The aim is also to make the management of organizations aware of this issue, in their quality of interested parties who should be proactive in the prevention of occupational risks and, through behavioral changes, reduce accidents in the workplace and occupational diseases, by way of maintenance activities. The methodology was a review of studies in the context of occupational accidents and maintenance.