[Smoking in the workplace: role of occupational physicians]. / Abitudine al fume di tabacco nei luoghi di lavoro: ruolo del Medico del Lavoro Competente.

In many industrialized countries smokers have been observed in high prevalence among workers with poor educational status, who are usually exposed to major occupational risks. The smoking habit and passive smoking may by themselves, or through interactions with other occupational risk factors, cause the onset of serious diseases. Therefore health reasons and the legal obligation to observe the smoking ban in the workplace make it essential to prevent and combat smoking in the workplace and to promote smoking cessation in workers who smoke. This initiative should benefit not only workers' health and well-being but also company finances. The Occupational Physician should engage in diverse activities ranging from encouraging young people not to start smoking to providing programmes to encourage workers who smoke to abandon the habit. For example, he or she should i) inform managers, supervisors and workers about the high risks linked to smoking, passive smoking and obligations established by law ii) collect information about the smoking habit among workers and supply workers with the so-called minimal clinical intervention during routine health surveillance appointments and iii) collaborate with specific health promotion programmes in the workplace.

[Building of a method for the assessment of work related risks at the ULSS n.1 company of Belluno]. / Costruzione di un metodo per la valutazione dei rischi lavorativi nell'Azienda ULSS n. 1 di Belluno.

This paper describes an experimental method of risk assessment in a public hospital. A uniform method of danger checking out, valid for all hospital units was developed, and a objective and standardized system of occupational risk assessment was implemented. In fact, the quantification of risk is expressed in a numerical code that allows computerization of the collected data. The method is based on check list for the danger detection, on worker's data sheet, on criteria for risk factors encoding and for risk quantification. Vantage of this system is applicability into all the hospital units, even in presence of different occupational risks. Another vantage is the involvement of staff in the management of work safety.

[Smoking: results of an interventation for health education of young workers attending to the SPISAL Service for pre-employment medical examination]. / Fumo: risultati di un intervento di educazione alla salute rivolto al giovani lavoratori che si presentano al Servizio SPISAL per la visita di assunzione.

Young people who start smoking are constantly increasing and the age of initiation has decreased. This work presents the results of a specific health education programme on smoking that was carried out for a group of 804 young apprentices who came to the Occupational Health Units in Belluno for a check on work fitness. The objective is to induce young non-smoking apprentices to continue as such and smokers to give up smoking. After two years, a telephone follow-up was carried out to see if the smoking habit has changed. The average age of the group was 19 years and the percentage of smokers was 34%; after two years the percentage of smokers was 29.5%. Then, the percentage of smokers has fallen and the percentage of ex smokers has increased, because smokers became non-smokers during the period of observation. This results show the effectiveness of health programme on smoking directed to young apprentices already demonstrated by a previous study and confirm the withdraw rates obtained by counselling methods. Moreover, this study stressed the role of Occupational Health Units in prevention programmes addressed to the young apprentices during work fitness check.