OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH RISKS IN OIL AND GAS WORKERS IN THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC.

To study the occupational health risks in oil and gas industry in the Russian Arctic in order to plan and guide further occupational disease prevention programs. We studied and analyzed the data of "Working conditions and occupational morbidity" dataset with regard to the population of the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs in 2007-2021. Noise (38.9%), cooling microclimate (12.3%), non-ionizing electromagnetic fields and radiation (10.7%) were the most prevalent hazards in the oil and gas industry in the Russian Arctic. Combined effect of two hazards was observed in 19.0% of workers. During 15 years of follow-up, 54 new cases of occupational disease were identified in 50 employees, including sensorineural deafness (46.3%), radiculopathy (18.5%) and vibration disease (13.0%). Occupational diseases were mainly found in harmful classes 3.1 and 3.2 (85.1%) due to outdated technological processes and equipment design flaws (75.9%). In 2007-2021, occupational disease cases in the oil and gas industry made 14.8% of their overall count in the region. The mean rate of occupational morbidity was 0.426 cases / 10,000 employees, five times less than elsewhere in the industry (1,939 cases / 10,000 employees). The risk to obtain an occupational disease otherwise was higher compared to the oil and gas enterprises (RR=4.55; 95% CI 3.40-197.2; p<0.001). The risk to gain an occupational disease in oil and gas production in the Russian Arctic was lower compared to other industries. This may be due to better working conditions, but can also result from incomplete existing diseases verification or still from some other yet unknown reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]