On the issue of occupational pathology in the eyes of workers of the modern petroleum industry of Azerbaijan

The constant increase of the capacity of facilities used in the petroleum industry, their modernization as a whole necessitates a detailed study of the possible adverse effects of certain production factors on the organism of workers, including their ophthalmological status. The purpose of this research was to study the frequency of occurrence and the nature of possible changes in eye among workers of the modern petroleum industry. In total, 1852 employees from 13 enterprises of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) were covered by a comprehensive ophthalmological examination in 2017-2019, taking into account age, work experience, severity of working conditions and exposure to harmful chemicals. A survey was conducted to identify the presence of complaints related to vision, chronic diseases, and contact during the work process with harmful chemicals. The degree of occupational causation of the identified diseases was determined based on the calculation of the absolute and relative risk, as well as the etiological fraction. It was found that 30% of workplaces belong to the high hazard class C (harmful working conditions), the most numerous were a group of people aged 50 to 59 years, the average age was 48±2.3 years; the average work experience of employees was 19.3±1.7 years. Of all respondents, 46.5% (861 people) had direct contact with harmful chemicals and petroleum in the process of work. The state of general ocular pathology was established in workers employed in the modern petroleum industry, 918 people (49.6% of all examined) had pathology in both eyes. In the structure of ophthalmopathology, the following nosologies were the most common: conjunctival and corneal diseases (AR=39%), various neoplasms of the eye and its adnexa (AR=26%) and refractive errors (AR=24%). The high level of etiological proportion and relative risk for conjunctival and corneal diseases (assuming 2<RR<3.2, EF=33-50%), as well as for various eye neoplasms (assuming 3.2<RR<5, EF=51-66%), make it possible to attribute these nosologies to work-related.