• Title/Summary/Keyword: Safety Health work

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Diabetes Management and Hyperglycemia in Safety Sensitive Jobs

  • Lee, See-Muah;Koh, David;Fun, Sharon Nne;Sum, Chee-Fang
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.2 no.4
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    • pp.380-384
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    • 2011
  • The chronic and acute effects of hyperglycemia affecting cognition and work are as important as those of hypoglycemia. Its impact, considering that majority of diabetic patients fail to reach therapeutic targets, would be potentially significant. Self monitoring of blood glucose, recognition of body cues and management interventions should be geared not only towards avoidance of disabling hypoglycemia, but also towards unwanted hyperglycemia. Over the long term, chronic hyperglycemia is a risk for cognitive decline. Acute episodes of hyperglycemia, above 15 mmol/L have also been shown to affect cognitive motor tasks. Maintaining blood sugar to avoid hyperglycemia in diabetic workers will help promote safety at work.

Antimicrobial-resistant Bacteria: An Unrecognized Work-related Risk in Food Animal Production

  • Neyra, Ricardo Castillo;Vegosen, Leora;Davis, Meghan F.;Price, Lance;Silbergeld, Ellen K.
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.85-91
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    • 2012
  • The occupations involved in food animal production have long been recognized to carry significant health risks for workers, with special attention to injuries. However, risk of pathogen exposure in these occupations has been less extensively considered. Pathogens are a food safety issue and are known to be present throughout the food animal production chain. Workers employed at farms and slaughterhouses are at risk of pathogen exposure and bacterial infections. The industrialization of animal farming and the use of antimicrobials in animal feed to promote growth have increased the development of antimicrobial resistance. The changed nature of these pathogens exposes workers in this industry to new strains, thus modifying the risks and health consequences for these workers. These risks are not yet recognized by any work-related health and safety agency in the world.

Agricultural Safety Clothing: Implications for Making and Selecting Clothes

  • Chun, Jong-Suk;Jee, Jung-Woo;Hwang, Kyoung-Sook
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.509-515
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    • 2011
  • Objective: The study was performed to suggest factors to consider when making or selecting protective clothing to enhance farmers' health. The purpose of this study was to review and summarize the agricultural safety technology on clothing including hat, gloves, and shoes. Background: The farmers' work clothing has to meet a multitude of requirement. Risk factors in farm-work were identified by previous researches. Agricultural safety clothing needs to be introduced. Method: We reviewed previous papers regarding the agricultural workers' health, safety clothing to protect body from excessive heat and humid environment, ultraviolet(UV) protection, and hazardous body working postures. Also the UV cut effect, pesticideproof clothing, and preventable farm work related musculoskeletal disorders were discussed. Results: The agricultural safety clothing needs to be developed to provide comfort and to be resistant against heat. The UV protection function on skin and eyes has not been fully researched in safety clothing studies yet. Conclusions and Application: The farmers' work-related body posture needs to be studied in order to make and design agricultural safety clothing. The safety issues on agricultural work shoes are also needed to be included in future studies.

Allergic to Pool Water

  • Stenveld, Harma
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.101-103
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    • 2012
  • To identify the allergy problem of a 36-year old swimming instructor, who experiences heavy itching and rashes whenever she comes in contact with pool water. Patch tests were performed with European standard series and materials from the work floor. A positive patch test to aluminum chloride and flocculant was observed. Occupational dermatitis is, based on a contact allergy to aluminum chloride in the flocculant.

The survey study on working conditions and industrial safety & health of foreign workers (외국인근로자의 근로환경 및 안전보건실태 조사 연구)

  • Yi, Kwan-Hyung;Cho, Hm-Hak
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.53-63
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    • 2012
  • The purpose of this study is to grasp foreign worker's industrial safety and health state, which find out the improvement to secure the basic safety net for foreign workers. We have investigated 2,050 workers through direct interviews during the period from April 12, 2010 to May 31, 2010. And the result of analysis, foreign worker's daily average working time is 10.6 hours(40.8% workers in total work 10~12 hours), the extent of exposure to harmful and dangerous working environment is 'the position which cause pain in neck, waist, hands, shoulders, legs'(69.3%), 'repetitive hands and arms movement'(66.1%). It showed 'experience of accident damage or disease related work'(27.3%), 'never apply for industrial accident compensation' is revealed high at 73%. As a result of completing a safety health education for a year, it showed 'never educated'(40.2%), 'the institute that foreign workers have used for help and advice is the foreign worker's support center'(61.9%) Thus, hiring foreign workers in the company are small in site, the environment is too harmful and dangerous. In addition, no safety and health managers, legally blind spot located in the health and safety, because it is an urgent meet for these measures to improve.

Shift Work and Health: Current Problems and Preventive Actions

  • Costa, Giovanni
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.112-123
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    • 2010
  • The paper gives an overview of the problems to be tackled nowadays by occupational health with regards to shift work as well as the main guidelines at organizational and medical levels on how to protect workers' health and well-being. Working time organization is becoming a key factor on account of new technologies, market globalization, economic competition, and extension of social services to general populations, all of which involve more and more people in continuous assistance and control of work processes over the 24 hours in a day. The large increase of epidemiological and clinical studies on this issue document the severity of this risk factor on human health and well being, at both social and psychophysical levels, starting from a disruption of biological circadian rhythms and sleep/wake cycle and ending in several psychosomatic troubles and disorders, likely also including cancer, and extending to impairment of performance efficiency as well as family and social life. Appropriate interventions on the organization of shift schedules according to ergonomic criteria and careful health surveillance and social support for shift workers are important preventive and corrective measures that allow people to keep working without significant health impairment.

When Work is Related to Disease, What Establishes Evidence for a Causal Relation?

  • Verbeek, Jos
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.110-116
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    • 2012
  • Establishing a causal relationship between factors at work and disease is difficult for occupational physicians and researchers. This paper seeks to provide arguments for the judgement of evidence of causality in observational studies that relate work factors to disease. I derived criteria for the judgement of evidence of causality from the following sources: the criteria list of Hill, the approach by Rothman, the methods used by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and methods used by epidemiologists. The criteria are applied to two cases of putative occupational diseases; breast cancer caused by shift work and aerotoxic syndrome. Only three of the Hill criteria can be applied to an actual study. Rothman stresses the importance of confounding and alternative explanations than the putative cause. IARC closely follows Hill, but they also incorporate other than epidemiological evidence. Applied to shift work and breast cancer, these results have found moderate evidence for a causal relationship, but applied to the aerotoxic syndrome, there is an absence of evidence of causality. There are no ready to use algorithms for judgement of evidence of causality. Criteria from different sources lead to similar results and can make a conclusion of causality more or less likely.

A Cross-sectional Study of Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Risk Factors in Cambodian Fruit Farm Workers in Eastern Region, Thailand

  • Thetkathuek, Anamai;Meepradit, Parvena;Sa-ngiamsak, Teerayut
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.192-202
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    • 2018
  • Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are accumulative disorders that are most frequently found in agricultural farmers. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that affect symptoms resulting from work-related musculoskeletal disorders among Cambodian farm workers working in fruit plantations in the eastern region of Thailand. Methods: The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment, and Hazard Zone Jobs Checklist techniques were used to interview 861 farmers who participated in the study. Results: The data showed that men who had been working for >10 years were more at risk of neck pain than those working for <1 year with adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.90, 14.5). Among women those who had been working for >10 years experienced lower back pain with aOR 8.13, 95% CI (1.04, 63.74), compared with those who had been working for <1 year. Men whose tasks required raising the arms above shoulder height had a risk factor contributing to neck pain of aOR 1.68, 95% CI (1.08, 2.61) when compared with those who did not work with this posture, and women had aOR 1.82, 95% CI (1.07, 3.12) when compared with those who did not work with this posture. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that work-related health conditions are monitored in migrant plantation workers to reduce the risks of musculoskeletal disorders.