Work accidents and occupational diseases encounteredinmedical laboratoriesand prevention activities

Although the need to work in a healthy and safe environment and the measures taken for this purpose are based on the history of mankind, it is accepted that the concept of occupational health and safety in the present sense emerges in the post-industrial revolution period. With the development of the factory type production and the increase in the number of workers in these work places, work accidents and occupational diseases have increased and many workers have moved away from working life due to death or injury and the losses they have caused have reached to a great extent economically. Especially from the middle of the 19th century, workers have entered in an organized struggle against unhealthy and insecure working conditions in the workplaces and the state intervened in this field by producing social policies. International organization such as International Labor Organization and World Health Organization and supranational organizations such as the European Union have accelerated the establishment of national legislation in the field of occupational health and safety. Medical laboratories,which have an important role in diagnosing diseases, are one of the most critical units of the hospitals. In terms of ensuring occupational health and safety in medical laboratories it is an important obligation for workers to be well-disciplined and careful and to work in accordance with laboratory working conditions. The main aim of this study is to raise awareness on the subject by showing the importance of occupational health and safety in medical laboratories. For this purpose, it is tried to present current situation of the workers and it is tried to measure their knowledge level about the importance of occupational health and safety in medical laboratories. For this reason a questionnaire was applied to the workers who work in the medical laboratory unit of a hospital. SPSS Software Package was used for statistical analyses done in the study.