[Storytelling in prevention: the case-study of accidents at work. How the narrative method can enhance the prevention of occupational injuries.].

Objective: This article aims to analyze the elements of the narrative which, applied to investigations of accidents at work, transform them into stories, making the dynamics of accidents clearer, more complete and emotionally engaging and also capable of being transferred to a non-experts audience.

Method: The theoretical reference identified for the analysis of the accident histories is the work of the Lithuanian semiologist Algirdas Julien Greimas. The title, the dimensions of space and time, the characters (according to the actantial model), the point of view, the structure of the story (following the canonical narrative scheme), and the moral of the tale are the elements of the narration analyzed in this article.

[A system for collecting historical professional exposures in the workplace in Piedmont (ESP ALP).].

Background. ARPA Piemonte carries out occupational exposure measurements of chemical agents in workplace environment to support the Occupatonal Health and Safety Units of Local Health Boards for the assessment of the exposure level of dangerous chemical. Data are reported in internal documents, but are not available for other purposes.

The Community of Practice: A Method for Cooperative Learning of Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors.

Background: Workplace injuries in Italy still occur despite laws and safety norms. We need to understand the causes rooted in the context and social conditions, and need to improve the practice of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors of the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) of the Italian regional health boards. The aims of this study were to describe the setting up of a Community of Practice (CoP) for the production of best practices for injury prevention and to evaluate the motivation of OSH inspectors for participating in the CoP and the effects of CoP participation on their professional practice.

Injury narratives in occupational safety and health prevention in Italy.

Background: Storytelling is an effective information source when coupled with technical-scientific evidence. It can promote a structured relationship between evidence-based knowledge and field experience of workplace safety and prevention services (WSPS) inspectors. This is key to identifying the causes of workplace injuries and to set priorities for prevention strategies.

Finding causation in occupational fatalities: A latent class analysis.

Background: The method "Learning by mistakes" was developed in Italy to conduct occupational injury investigations and to collect information on the genesis of injuries. The aim is to analyze data classified with this method in order to identify patterns among the factors contributing to injury dynamics.

Methods: Data regarding 673 factors, corresponding to 354 occupational fatalities that occurred in the Piedmont region (north-west of Italy) during 2005-2014 were considered.

[The community of practice as a place of prevention: the value of collective knowledge in occupational safety].

Background: Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) inspectors of the Health Units of Piedmont Region wrote 47 case histories based on data gathered from injury investigations as part of the project "From the injury investigation reports to case histories: creation of a collection of case histories on occupational injuries". Afterwards a Community of Practice (CoP) was initiated with the aim of sharing recommendations for prevention of occupational injuries.

Objective: The aims of the article are: 1) to describe the implementation process of the CoP; 2) to evaluate the benefits of CoP regarding the improvement of professional practice of OSH inspectors.

[Effectiveness of inspections in the construction sites on reducing innjuries: a pilot study in a Health Unit of Piedmont Region (Northern Italy)].

Objectives: to describe a pilot study to evaluate the impact on injury rates of Occupational health and safety (OHS) inspections conducted in the construction sites of the Novara Health Unit territory during 2005-2007.

Design: study design is "treated/non treated" where: "treated" are construction companies inspected during 2005-2007 and not inspected in the periods before and after; "non treated" are construction companies never inspected during 2002-2010.

Setting And Participants: two information sources have been used: Italian Workers' Compensation Authority databases and Novara Health Unit inspection database.

[Not Available].

Background: Many authors consider narrative descriptions of injuries gathered by OSH inspectors extremely important in identifying causes, setting priorities and drawing up intervention strategies. Narratives provide additional insight regarding complex behaviour, attitudes and interactions, which help to understand the decision patterns and the context of the injury. Storytelling is an effective way of sharing and remembering information.

Are regulations effective in reducing construction injuries? An analysis of the Italian context.

Objectives: At the end of the 1990s, as required by European Directive 92/57/EEC, two laws were enacted in Italy which laid down safety and health requirements for construction sites: Decree 494/96 and Decree 528/99. The aim is to evaluate the impact on injury rates due to actions performed by a group of eight regions that planned formalised programmes to enforce the laws around the year 2000.

Methods: Using the Work History Italian Panel-Salute integrated database, which extends from 1994 to 2005, total and serious injury rates were calculated for the construction sector.

[«All of a sudden…» preventability and priorities of construction fatalities: an experience in Piedmont].

Objective: To examine the usefulness for prevention of the National Surveillance System on occupational fatalities, which is based on the narrative description of the work accident collected by OSH inspectors and on the subsequent classification of the injury dynamics by means of a standardized model of analysis.

Materials And Methods: The system ability of providing useful recommendations for prevention was evaluated on one hand by analyzing the effectiveness of inspections in preventing fatalities, on the other hand by identifying the most frequent accident mechanisms. Data analyzed consisted of investigation reports of construction fatalities occurred during 2002-2008 in the Piedmont Region, collected by surveillance system.

Impact of organization on occupational injury risk: evidence from high-speed railway construction.

Background: The construction industry is at the top of the list of priorities for surveillance and research, although it is often difficult to perform detailed analysis of the risk factors. In mid-2002, construction work started on the Torino to Novara high-speed railway line. A Regional Epidemiological Observatory developed a standardized data collection system that provided a rare opportunity for researchers in Italy to analyze risk factors for occupational injury in a large cohort of workers involved in a single major construction project.

[Integrated use of data bases to map manufacturing processes involving exposure to carcinogens in the Piedmont Region: the example of formaldehyde].

Background: Exposure to carcinogens is still widespread in working environments. For the purpose of defining priority of interventions, it is necessary to estimate the number and the geographic distribution of workers potentially exposed to carcinogens. It could therefore be useful to test the use of tools and information sources already available in order to map the distribution of exposure to carcinogens.

[Injury rates and severity during the construction of High Speed Train Track Torino-Novara: which are the expected risks?].

Background: Construction of the Torino-Novara High Speed Train Track (TAV) provided a unique opportunity to describe the magnitude of accidents on a major construction project for which complete data were available for 123 companies with over 10,000 employees.

Objectives: To describe the rate and severity of accidents during the construction of TAV and to compare this with national indexes. The limits and critical points of the national surveillance system are discussed and solutions for responding to public occupational safety and health service needs are proposed.

[About job classifications].

Background: In the various existing information systems, the work-related variables (occupation, job position, and economic sector) are not always classified in the same manner.

Objectives: To develop a classification of occupations and economic sectors that could be used for the majority of analyses of data on work-related morbidity and mortality.

Methods: The classification of occupations was created with the following criteria in mind: comparability with the currently used classification systems ISTAT (the National Institute of Statistics) 1971, 1981, 1991 and INAIL (the National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents & Diseases); a limited number of items, so as to ensure acceptable statistical power; maximum variance among groups and minimum variance within groups, in terms of the three dimensions of greatest interest for defining exhausting jobs.

[Risk of repeated injuries by economic activity in Italy in the 1990's].

Background: Repetitive work injuries are a phenomenon that has not been sufficiently studied. Using data gathered by INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Occupational Accidents and Diseases), it is possible to study the propensity of having a further injuries at the workplace after the first one.

Objectives: To identify the risk of experiencing multiple injuries according to occupation, with discussion of how useful the available information systems are.

[Severity of workplace injuries by occupation in Italy in the 1990's].

Background: The indicators of severity commonly used for studying workplace injuries are somewhat limited. It is possible to use RIDIT Analysis (Relative to an Identified Distribution) as an alternative method

Objectives: To order occupations in Italy by severity of workplace injuries and discuss the methodological problems and the outcomes from available administrative data.

Methods: The database included injuries defined by INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Occupational Accidents and Diseases) in Italy in the period 1995-99 in the industrial and artisan sectors (1,647,220 events).

[Risk of workplace injuries by occupation in Italy in the 1990's].

Background: In Italy it is not possible to assess the incidence of workplace injuries by occupation due to the absence of denominator data.

Objectives: To evaluate severe workplace injuries by occupation, age and gender, via discussion of the validity of the available methods and informative systems.

Methods: The database included injuries in the industrial and artisan sectors in Italy during the period 1995-1999, as classified by INAIL (National Institute for the Insurance against Occupational Accidents and Diseases).

[Occupational mortality in the population employed at 1991 Census].

Background: Despite limitations and problems connected to occupational surveillance systems based on mortality data, mortality from specific causes continues to be a crucial indicator for evaluating the differences in health among various occupations.

Objectives: To evaluate the potential of a surveillance system of occupational mortality based on census and mortality data obtained from ISTAT (Italian Central Statistics Institute).

Methods: By means of record-linkage between Census data and death records from ISTAT, occupational mortality was assessed during the twelve month period following the 1991 census, limited to subjects aged 18-64 years for whom occupational information was available.