Resumen en español

This article aims to show the characterization research and evaluation of occupational risk factors to which workers are exposed in small and medium Cartagena metalworking industry. The methodology used in the study included a descriptive analysis of the data, through the application of the techniques and tools of descriptive and inferential statistics and application of in situ structured instrument for collecting information. To develop this study took the total number of companies (16) metalworking affiliates Colombian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ACOPI). As important results highlighted in Cartagena the metalworking industry group with 25% highlights being the International Standard Industrial Classification (CIUU)289, related to the manufacture of other fabricated metal products and service activities related to metalworking. It also has that 7 of 16 employers say that the main agent to which workers are exposed is the ergonomic following chemical with 33.7% and security agents 32.95%, which result in occupational diseases, and these, in turn, decreased production efficiency in the engineering sector.