[Exposure to occupational biomechanical risk factors: The impact of the 2017 reform]

We aimed to assess the number, the prevalence and the socio-occupational characteristics of the employees who were allowed to benefit from prevention measures due to their exposure to occupational biomechanical factors before and after the modification, by the reform (order n° 2017-1389), of the law dealing with occupational health and safety preventive measures.

This study was based on the French national survey on occupational exposures (Sumer 2010). Almost 48,000 employees, representative of the French population, were included. Exposure to the four biomechanical factors, initially included in the law and associated with a minimum exposure threshold, were assessed during the employee's interview by the occupational physician.

Before the reform, 31.2% of men and 23.6% of women were likely to benefit from measures of prevention due to their exposure to occupational biomechanical factors. Following the reform, 11,6% of men and 13,7% of women employees are still able to benefit from these occupational preventive measures, leading to an overall decrease of 3.3 million of beneficiaries.

Although musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) remain the first cause of recognition as an occupational disease, the exclusion, by the reform, of three biomechanical occupational risk factors of MSDs from the preventives measures in occupational health and safety risk assessment will substantially decrease the number of employees exposed to biomechanical factors that could benefit from these preventive and compensatory occupational measures.