Den fysiska arbetsmiljöns inverkan på hälsan, Riskerna med att jobba i en utsatt miljö

Sammanfattning: In the year 2013 one fourth of the Swedish population felt some kind of health problems caused by their work environment. Approximately 300 000 people that same year hade to report in sick in at least one day, which is 6 % of the employed population of Sweden. This study shows that the work environment has several ways to cause the workers’ health problems. Noise might cause hearing loss, poor lighting might cause headaches, the indoor air quality might cause sick building syndrome and cancer, the work temperature might cause concentration difficulties and the cleanliness of the workplace might cause the workers to feel different kind of uncomfortableness. A survey made at the company Saint Gobain in Eslöv showed results that the majority of the workforce had the opinion that their workplace environment needed improvements. Some of the workers have had different kinds of discomfort caused by their workplace environment. When employees were asked to rank the workplace environment factors that they felt were the most important to them, the indoor air quality and noise ended up on top. The result shows that future studies in the field of the physical work environment are needed because the most of the research has been conducted on the psychosocial work environment. The knowledge of the relationship between working conditions and accidents are inadequate as well.