Relationship between safety climate and workplace indices and accidents: a case study in a petrochemical industry

Abstract

<strong>Introduction: </strong>Safety climate is one of the most important indicators for evaluating the performance of safety management and occupational health in the workplace. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influencing indicators of workplace on safety climate and the incidence of accidents in a petrochemical industry.<br /> <strong>Methods: </strong>This cross-sectional study was conducted in one of the petrochemical industries in Khuzestan Province, Iran in 2017. All operational staff of the petrochemical industry (N=354) were included in the study based on census sampling. Safety climate was evaluated using the Petroleum Safety Authorities (PSA) 2006.<br /> <strong>Results: </strong>All participants were male. Work experience was 2-5 years in 27.4% of the participants. No significant relationship was observed between safety climate and accidents in workplace (P > 0.05). There was a significant relationship between disease symptom, physical workplace, psychological factors, safety climate and accidents and occupation group (P < 0.001), education and work experience (P < 0.01). No significant relationship was found between age and safety climate (P > 0.05).<br /> <strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings of this study showed that “workers' negative attitude toward management commitment", “workplace physical factors" and “occupational disease" influenced the incidence of work related accidents. These factors indicate that industrial management commitment to provide a safe climate is necessary to prevent work related accidents and diseases in petrochemical industry.<br />