Impact on safety of a preventive intervention in metalworking micro-enterprises

Background: In Italy small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for 99.9% of businesses and are constituted more than elsewhere by micro-enterprises. In 2008 an injury prevention project designed for metalworking micro-enterprises was initiated near Turin (Italy). Aims: The aim of this paper is to describe the project and assess its effectiveness in improving the safety of machinery and quality of workplace environments. Methods: The multi-component intervention included; baseline assessment visits by technicians without juridical power; free training sessions for company owners; post-intervention inspection of a sample of companies. Indices relating to the machinery and the environment were calculated and pre- post intervention differences were measured. Comparisons between specific groups of participant firms were made. Results: 86.5% of the selected firms took part in at least some components of the intervention. There was a significant overall average improvement of more than 20% in the environment index, while for the machinery there were not statistically significant results. The group of firms which attended the sessions had greater improvements than the group which did not. The proportion of machinery complying with legislation increased, but only for some specific types of machines. Conclusions: This is a good example of an intervention focusing on a target group of firms that are not usually involved in prevention projects. It is concluded that an intervention, based on visits to the companies and free information meetings, was effective in improving workplace environment safety in metalworking micro-enterprises. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.