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Air pollution and occupational accidents in the Community of Madrid, Spain

  • Special issue: Indoor Biometeorology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Spain is the EU member country with the third highest total number of accidents in work and has the third highest incidence rate. We have performed a descriptive analysis of occupational accidents in the Community of Madrid (Spain) between 2005 and 2013 to study the impact of air quality on the prevalence of occupational accidents, clarifying how vulnerable to air pollution outdoor workers are. In order to evaluate the association between each air pollutant and work accidents, a quasi-Poisson generalized additive model was fitted. The accident rate followed a downward and statistically significant trend (p = 0.001). The year with the highest accident rate was 2006, with 4981 occupational accidents per 100,000. Occupational accidents follow a temporary pattern (there are differences in the number of accidents according to the month of the year and to the day of the week). Exposure to PM10 and NO2 increases the risk of having an accident at work, especially for outdoor workers. An increase of 10 μg/m3 in daily concentration resulted in increases in accidents for outdoor workers of 2.5% for PM10 and 6.4% for NO2.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Francisco José López Alcantarilla, Head of the Labor Accident Statistics Department of the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security in Spain, and Jesús Hernández Manso, Specialist MD in Occupational Medicine and medical inspector, for their help with collecting work accidents data and for their comments and input.

Funding

P. Fdez-Arroyabe would like to thank the support from the Spanish National Research Agency - Project CSO2016-75154-R and the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER). R. Almendra received support from the Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT), funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the reference UIDB/04084/2020.

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Author notes

  1. Luis Vega-Calderón and Ricardo Almendra have equally contributed and shared the first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Legal Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Cantabria, C/Cardenal Herrera Oria s/n, 39011, Santander, Spain

    Luis Vega-Calderón, María T. Zarrabeitia & Ana Santurtún

  2. Centre of Studies on Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT), Coimbra, Portugal

    Ricardo Almendra

  3. Department of Geography and Tourism, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Colégio de São Jerónimo, University of Coimbra, 3004-530, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ricardo Almendra

  4. Department of Geography, Urban Planning and Territorial Planning, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain

    Pablo Fdez-Arroyabe

Authors
  1. Luis Vega-Calderón
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  2. Ricardo Almendra
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  3. Pablo Fdez-Arroyabe
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  4. María T. Zarrabeitia
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  5. Ana Santurtún
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Correspondence to Ana Santurtún.

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Vega-Calderón, L., Almendra, R., Fdez-Arroyabe, P. et al. Air pollution and occupational accidents in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Int J Biometeorol 65, 429–436 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02027-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02027-3

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