Water and sewage treatment workers differences in psychosocial and ergonomics assessment

Sewage treatment, water treatment and maintenance workers from a utility company, totaling 32 male subjects, participated in a cross-sectional psychosocial and ergonomics assessment. The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries field work ergonomic checklist and the short version Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (CoPsoQ) were used. The analysis tested the hypothesis that sewage treatment workers, subjected to foul odors, show higher severity of psychosocial factors than water treatment workers. Odds ratios for the sewage treatment condition were computed for all psychosocial sub-scales, suggesting rejection of the hypothesis. Association was found between ergonomic risk factors and some of the psychosocial subscales.