A study was performed in the "Belgrade Wool Co." as a retrospective epidemiological investigation, for a three-year period (1985-1987), on a sample of 134 blue-collar female workers. The following statistically significant facts were established: in favourable working conditions (sewing department) the older workers (above the age of 35 years) were absent from work because of illness longer than the younger workers; the number of the younger workers (age 35 years or under) with sick absences increased as working conditions worsened (wool-mills compared to sewing departments). Respiratory diseases made the most frequent cause of absence from work. Harder working conditions influenced the morbidity structure as cause of absenteeism resulting in the rise of prevalence of mental disorders among the younger workers, and of locomotor and circulatory diseases among the older ones. The younger workers showed a rising trend in the severity and frequency of injuries as causes of absence from work, which correlated with the degree of deterioration of working conditions. Finally, under extremely hard working conditions (wool-mills) the rate of occupationally induced injuries among the younger workers was as much as three times higher than among the older ones, and the duration of sick absences was longer.