The h igh incidence of accidents related to the port in thern(( w rojo of Assab, during 7986-87 led to a mare detailed observationrnand analysis of accidents in the part of Assab in 7987 .rnSame 6,500 workers are employed in the port of Assab, butrnof these 570 (8.8. %) are lis ted as " nan- indus trial", or are employedrnan work that is unlikely to bring them into contact with industrialrnhazards. The r emainder 5,930 (97. 2% ), were an the list of thernfour departments principally concerned with industrial work.rnTh is number was made up of 5725 (96.5%) males, and 205 (3.5%)rnfemales.rnTo describe the occurrence and determinants of accidentsrnamong workers in the port of Assab, a one con trol per case (247rnpairs) study, matched on the basis of their similarity with respectrnto the selected variables was designed . The study was conductedrnover a 55 days period, from October 76, 7987 to December 9,rn7987 .rnThe total number of accidents that occurred among workersrnexposed to the risk of accidents in the port of A ssab were 247rn(4.7 %) ,giving a rate of 8.2 accidents per 700,000 worked man-hours,rn40.6 accidents per 7, 000 exposed workers or 2. 03 accidents perrn7 00 employee - months .rnThe real highest department rate of accidents was producedrnby the departmet of Haleb boaty(uJ construction projec t withrnan accident rate of 75.5 per 7 00, 000 man-hours, 77.8 per 7, 000rnexposed workers or 3 . 9 per 700 employee - months.rnNo significant difference was noted in the rate of accidentsrnamong the worker's categories labeled as skilled, unskilled andrnapprentice.rnThe occident frequency was highest on Mondays and fellrnto its lowest level at mid-week, with an increase once more onrnSaturdays. The frequency rate of accidents was observed tornbe highest in the period of the second shift (8 p . m to 4 p. m)rnwith on accident rate of 10.6 per 100,000 worked man- hours,rn50.4 per 1,000 workers at risk, or 2. 52 per 100 employee-months .rnT his is probably due to the peak environmental temperature occurringrnin the second shift.rnAnalysis of man-days lost showed, 1,571 total man days tornbe los t due to the 241 accidents over a period of 55 days. Thernaverage man-days lost per accident works out to 6 . 5, the rangernbeing from a to 91 days. The rate of seriousness in Assabrnport study was 0.5, and the index of seriousness was found tornbe 0.3.rnAnalysis of the cost of accidents showed 31,606 birr, thernaverage being 131.2 birr per occident to be spent over the 55rndays. This cost is only for the medical and man-days lost expensesrnand does not include the insurance payments and other indirec trncos ts.rnAnalysis of accidents by category of causation showed bothrnthe environmental and human factors to be involved in 57% ofrnthe accidents . In 25 . 7% it was the environmental factor alone,rnand in 16.6% the human factor alone.rnAmong the causes by environmental factors, the most frequentrncauses were: defects in agencies (35. 2%) hazardous methodsrnor procedures (22. 5%), and placement hazards ( 22. q%).rnAmong the causes by the human factors, the most frequentrnwere = inatten tion to footing or surroundings (18. q%), improperrnuse of hands or body ports (18%), and failure to wear safe personalrnattire (12.3%) . The main determinants identified for the humanrnfactors ' from this study are; age of the worker, educational statusrnof the worker, job title of the worker, experience of the workerrnin the port of Assab, and work shift of the worker. Thus thernrisk groups identified for the epidemiology of accidents in thernport of Assab include: port workers between the ages of 18-2qrnyears, port workers with no formal education , Port workersrnclassified as fI electricians, welders, plumbers, and carpenters fl. ,rnand port workers who are employed to work in the second shift.rnFrom the findings of this study, the recommendations givenrnare:-rnI. A firm and well defined policy.rn2. Employment of a fUlltime safety Officer in the port.rn3. Formation and Organization of a safety committee in thernport.rnq. Introduction of on effective investigation and recordingrnsystem of accidents in the Assab port.rn5. To adopt a systematic inspection and follow - up systemrnby various level of personnel, till all the environmentalrnfactors identified as a couse of accidents inrnthe Assab port are rectified, andrnJrn6. Strong efforts in the areas of safety training andrneducation, safety supervision and safety communicationrnto the risk groups identified are necessary to effectivelyrnreduce the accidents resulting from the human factors