The naval shipyard industry in Tuscany and, in particular, in the province of Livorno, is sufficiently representative of the Italian situation.

There is a naval shipyard industry which, building ships with exclusively steel hulls, represents a mature productive sector, where the risks for workers health were identified some time ago, likewise the safety systems, which nevertheless can be further improved.

The fibreglass shipbuilding industry is already quite developed, building boats of different dimensions with more or less innovative techniques.  It is foreseeable that, in this productive sector, new technologies and new products will be introduced with the objectives of improving the boats’ performances and of decreasing the risks derived from the use of the products.  It is a sector that should be carefully followed in order to promptly identify new risks connected to technological innovation.

Analogous considerations can be made when completely new materials and techniques are used.  The example of boats made out of compound material was examined in this study.  The risks present in those productions, although insidious due to the use of harmful substances, are not major because of the simplicity of the building technique and the reduced dimensions of the struts.

In conclusion, in order to protect the health of workers in the shipbuilding industry, resources must be dedicated to:

-         Carefully and accurately applying existing naval engineering knowledge

-         Promoting the use of new machines or technologies and of new products capable of decreasing the risk in the constructions that use fibres and resins

-         Examining the building technologies and the harmfulness of the substances used when they are new and sufficient experience has not yet been accumulated.