The work of street sweepers is to sweep waste materials thrown at public streets. It is considered insalubrious due to the close contact that exposes workers to agents present in the urban waste. As street orderlies perform their duties in an open environment, they are submitted to different types of problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the registered occupational accidents occurred among street orderlies in the city of Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, during 1993 and 1994. Authors aimed at verifying: the number of works that suffered accidents and the notified occupational accidents; data related to the identification of those accidents at the employer company and specific data regarding the occupational accidents.Therefore, authors analyzed the occupational health reports recorded at the National Institute of Social Security at the Regional Bureau of Health (RBH) and at the employer company. Results were shown to the employers and to the RBH. Authors organized meetings to discuss with them the occupational problems they found.
street orderlies; occupational accidents
