RR171 - Human Factors in Decompression Sickness in Compressed Air Workers in the United Kingdom 1986-2000
Describes a case-control study of UK compressed air workers in which subjects with repetitive DCS during a single compressed air project were matched to two control groups. An analysis of the HSE Decompression Database was undertaken to examine the relative contribution of those workers with repetitive DCS to the overall number of DCS episodes in the UK during the study period. Results show 4% of the workforce in the Decompression Database suffered 50% of the episodes of DCS requiring therapeutic recompression. This study did not find any differences in the personal characteristics of compressed air workers with multiple, single or zero episodes of DCS when matched by contract, occupation and pressure exposure.
The Research Report Series are produced in Adobe Acrobat. The use of the latest version of the software is recommended which is available at the Adobe website via the link on this page.
Assistance in the use of Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our FAQs page.