American Journal of Industrial MedicineThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

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338 records returned

Asbestos-related cancers among 28,300 military servicemen in the Royal Norwegian NavyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study focus on the incidence of asbestos-related cancers among 28,300 officers and enlisted servicemen in the Royal Norwegian Navy. Until 1987, asbestos aboard the vessels potentially caused exposure to 11,500 crew members.Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were calculated for malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer, and laryngeal, pharyngeal, stomach, and colorectal cancers according to service aboard between 1950 and 1987 and in other Navy personnel.Increased risk of mesothelioma was seen among engine room crews, with SIRs of 6.23 (95% CI = 2.51-12.8) and 6.49 (95% CI = 2.11-15.1) for personnel who served less than 2 y...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - November 18, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Leif Aage Strand, Jan Ivar Martinsen, Vilhelm F. Koefoed, Jan Sommerfelt-Pettersen, Tom Kristian Grimsrud Source Type: journals

Occupational health crossing borders part 2: Comparison of 18 occupational health systems across the globeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This article compares OHS systems of 18 countries at different stages of development.In an international summer school, structure of the national OHS system, definition of occupational accidents and diseases, procedures for compensation claims, outcome (expressed as incidence of occupational accidents) and training opportunities were presented.National OHS systems ranged from non-existent to systems implemented almost 200 years ago. Priorities, incidence of occupational accidents and training opportunities varied. Common problems included the lack of OHS service for small enterprises and in rural areas.International traini...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - November 17, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Katja Radon, Vera Ehrenstein, Dennis Nowak, Janine Bigaignon-Cantineau, Maria Gonzalez, Arun Dev Vellore, Veronica Enzina Zamora, Neeraj Gupta, Lirong Huang, Salamat Kandkers, Ana María Menchú Lanza, Leila Posenato Garcia, Keti Stylianos Patsis, Ana Mar Source Type: journals

Safety knowledge, safety behaviors, depression, and injuries in Colorado farm residentsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study describes the relationships between safety knowledge, safety behavior, depression, and injuries using 3 years of self-reported data from a cohort of farm residents in Colorado.Farm operators and their spouses (n = 652) were recruited in 1993 from a farm truck registration list using stratified probability sampling. Respondents answered ten safety knowledge and ten safety behavior questions. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale was used to evaluate depression. The most severe farm work-related injury over a 3-year period was the outcome variable. Factor analysis was used to produce a sing...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - November 17, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Cheryl L. Beseler, Lorann Stallones Source Type: journals

Occupational injuries among emergency respondersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Emergency responders frequently incur injuries while providing medical, fire, and law enforcement services. National surveillance systems provide fragmented perspectives on responder injuries because they omit specific classes of workers (e.g., government or volunteers); they report only selected injuries; and employment information is incomplete.We characterized injuries among emergency medical services (EMS), firefighting, and police occupations by using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System - Occupational Supplement (NEISS-Work) for injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments in 2000-2...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - November 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Audrey A. Reichard, Larry L. Jackson Source Type: journals

Agricultural tractor overturn deaths: Assessment of trends and risk factorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Tractor overturn deaths have been recognized as a public health concern for decades. Studies have reported on the hazards associated with tractor overturns, but none have reported on trends in tractor overturn fatality rates in the United States (US).Tractor overturn fatality data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries were used in Poisson regression models to: identify risk factors associated with overturn fatalities; examine trends in tractor overturn fatality rates between 1992 and 2007; and assess trends in overturn fatality rates for specific risk factors.Characteristics found to be ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - November 5, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: John R. Myers, Kitty J. Hendricks Source Type: journals

Effectiveness of the training program for workers at construction sites of the high-speed railway line between Torino and Novara: Impact on injury ratesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There are very few published studies evaluating the impact of safety and health training on injury outcomes in the construction industry. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the training program on injury rates at a major railway construction project.The population consisted of 2,795 workers involved in a safety training program at the construction sites of the high-speed railway line Torino-Novara. Two types of analyses were carried out in order to assess the effectiveness of the training program in reducing the number of injuries: (i) a pre-post analysis, which took into account the fact that workers were e...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 29, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: A. Bena, P. Berchialla, M.E. Coffano, M.L. Debernardi, L.G. Icardi Source Type: journals

Work-related carpal tunnel syndrome in Washington State workers' compensation: Utilization of surgery and the duration of lost workEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Work-related carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a leading cause of lengthy disability.This population-based retrospective cohort study used Washington State workers' compensation claims for CTS to characterize associations between utilization of CTS surgery and duration of lost work. The sample included all claims (n = 8,224) filed during 1990-1994 (followed through 2000) and receiving lost-work compensation.Sixty-four percent of studied workers had CTS surgery. Among workers with >1 month of lost work, the total duration was much shorter when workers had surgery, versus those who did not (median 4.3 and 6.2 months, respectiv...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 28, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: William E. Daniell, Deborah Fulton-Kehoe, Gary M. Franklin Source Type: journals

Farmer exposure to organic solvents during the maintenance and repair of farm machinery: A pilot studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The maintenance/repair of farm machinery is a common farming activity. Dermal exposure to organic solvents has not been well documented. A pilot study was conducted to characterize exposure to organic solvents.A survey questionnaire was administered to 31 Kentucky farmers in 2008. Dermal exposure assessment was conducted in 10 farmers while farmers performed farm machinery maintenance/repair tasks using a solvent sampling patch. Benzene, toluene, xylene, and n-hexane were analyzed.All four organic solvents were identified from the samples with toluene ( (Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 28, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Terry L. Bunn, Youcheng Liu, Kiyoung Lee, Medearis Robertson, Lei Yu Source Type: journals

Effectiveness of an occupational health intervention program to reduce whole body vibration exposure: An evaluation study with a controlled pretest-post-test designEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An effective intervention program aiming to reduce whole body vibration (WBV) exposure at work will reduce the number of low back complaints in the near future.An evaluation study with a controlled pretest-post-test design. Nine companies and 126 drivers were included in the study. Cluster randomization on company level divided the drivers and their employers in an intervention group and a "care-as-usual" group. At baseline (T0) and intervention program was implemented and evaluated after 7 months (T1). The main outcome measure was WBV exposure. Process measures included knowledge, attitude, and (intended) behavior towards...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 28, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Ivo J.H. Tiemessen, Carel T.J. Hulshof, Monique H.W. Frings-Dresen Source Type: journals

Incidence of tuberculosis and HIV and progression of silicosis and lung function impairment among former basotho gold minersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Pulmonary tuberculosis and HIV incidence, mortality, and the progression of silicosis and lung function impairment are described over a 1-year period in migrant ex-gold miners from Lesotho.Seven hundred seventy-nine Basotho miners were followed for 1 year starting 18 months after lay-off from a South African gold mine in 1998. At baseline and follow-up, they underwent a respiratory symptom interview, physical examination, HIV test, chest radiograph, and spirometry.Five hundred thirteen of 779 (65.9%) participants attended both baseline and follow-up visits. HIV incidence was 5.4/100 person-years (95% CI: 3.4-8.2). Prevalen...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 28, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Harriet H. Park, Brendan V. Girdler-Brown, Gavin J. Churchyard, Neil W. White, Rodney I. Ehrlich Source Type: journals

Occupational injuries among aides and nurses in acute careEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Occupational injuries are common among nursing personnel. Most epidemiologic research on nursing aides comes from long-term care settings. Reports from acute care settings often combine data on nurses and aides even though their job requirements and personal characteristics are quite different. Our objective was to assess risk of work-related injuries in an acute care setting while contrasting injuries of aides and nurses.A retrospective cohort of aides (n = 1,689) and nurses (n = 5,082) working in acute care at a large healthcare system between 1997 and 2004 were identified via personnel records. Workers' compensation fil...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 22, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: R.L. Rodríguez-Acosta, D.B. Richardson, H.J. Lipscomb, J.C. Chen, J.M. Dement, D.J. Myers, D.P. Loomis Source Type: journals

Occupational obstructive airway diseases caused by the natural gas odorant tetrahydrothiophene - two case reportsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Tetrahydrothiophene (THT) is frequently used to odorize natural (city) gas. Only sparse data on adverse health effects of THT on humans are available.We performed a literature search and clinical investigations including case history and cardiopulmonary diagnostic tests in two symptomatic THT-exposed outpatients.The two THT-exposed city workers developed transient neurologic symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headaches, as well as skin and mucosa irritation, chronic rhinitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arterial hypertension, and cardiac arrhythmia. The neurological symptoms and respiratory disorders were found ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 21, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: X. Baur, C. Bittner Source Type: journals

Assessing the contribution of working conditions to socioeconomic disparities in health: A commentaryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Occupational health researchers can play a pivotal role in increasing our understanding of the role of physical and psychosocial working conditions in producing socioeconomic health disparities and trends of increasing socioeconomic health disparities, contributing to interventions to reduce such disparities, and helping to improve public education materials on this subject. However, a number of methodological challenges in this field need to be considered.Commentary, including a review of selected studies.Research needs to be guided by models of the associations between social (socioeconomic position (SEP), race/ethnicity...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 21, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Paul A. Landsbergis Source Type: journals

Excessive longitudinal FEV1 decline and risks to future health: A case-control studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Accelerated loss of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) in an individual is considered an indicator of developing lung disease.We investigated longitudinal FEV1 slopes, calculated by simple linear regression, and adverse health outcomes after 10-30 years, among 1,428 chemical plant workers. Cases were defined by FEV1 slopes below 5th percentile values for the cohort. Cases were matched with controls (107 pairs) for race, gender, smoking status, year of birth, age, height, and calendar year at first test. Matched pair statistics were used for comparisons.Cases had a higher proportion, compared to controls, of diagnosis o...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 21, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Mei Lin Wang, Bipin H. Avashia, John Wood, Edward L. Petsonk Source Type: journals

Workers are people too: Societal aspects of occupational health disparities - an ecosocial perspectiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Workers are people too. What else is new? This seemingly self-evident proposition, however, takes on new meaning when considering the challenging and deeply important issue of occupational health disparities - the topic that is the focus of 12 articles in this special issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. In this commentary, I highlight some of the myriad ways that societal determinants of health intertwine with each and every aspect of occupation-related health inequities, as analyzed from an ecosocial perspective. The engagement extends from basic surveillance to etiologic research, from conceptualization...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - October 8, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Nancy Krieger Source Type: journals

Pleural plaques in dentists from occupational asbestos exposure: A report of three casesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
White asbestos (chrysotile) has been used in dentistry since 1930 when it was introduced as a lining material for casting rings.All three patients presented with pleural plaques on chest X-rays as well as on CT-scans. They were working as dentists for 35-45 years. Under the instructions of the first dentist we represented precisely the whole process of manipulating a kind of paper that contained asbestos. In order to measure asbestos fibers concentration we used the membrane filter method and phase contrast optical microscopy. Dry asbestos sheets were scanned with x-ray diffraction and electron microscope.Analysis of the f...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 23, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: L. Sichletidis, D. Spyratos, D. Chloros, K. Michailidis, I. Fourkiotou Source Type: journals

Stressors, resources, and well-being among Latino and White warehouse workers in the United StatesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examines the psychosocial stressors and resources experienced by Latino and White workers in manual material handling jobs in the US and the effects of these stressors and resources on worker well-being.Fifty-nine Latino warehouse workers were matched with White workers by job title, job tenure, and warehouse facility. Matched sample t tests and linear regression analyses models were conducted.Results reveal similar psychosocial stressors and resources for both groups. However, Latino workers reported better well-being. For Latino workers, social resources at work such as management fairness and supervisor suppo...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 22, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Annekatrin Hoppe, Catherine A. Heaney, Kaori Fujishiro Source Type: journals

Characteristics of teens with and without work permitsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Factors associated with the issuance of mandated work permits for teens, and their enforcement are currently unknown.A cross-sectional survey was administered to 1945 teens at 16 randomly selected North Carolina high schools. Predictor variables examined included teens' socio-demographic characteristics, employment patterns, and labor law knowledge.One thousand and ninety-four non-working and 844 working teens participated. Seventy-seven percent of working teens worked during the school year and 39% started working younger than 16. The majority (80%) worked in retail and services. Forty-four percent worked without work per...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 21, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Janet Abboud Dal Santo, J. Michael Bowling Source Type: journals

Occupational cancer in Italy: Evaluating the extent of compensated cases in the period 1994-2006Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The aim of this study is to analyze occupational cancer claims compensated in the industrial sector in Italy between 1994 and 2006.A descriptive analysis of compensated occupational cancers based on the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL) data was performed. Summary statistics were compiled by sex and age of worker, cancer type, workplace agent and economic sector. The temporal trend in the period 1994-2006 was investigated for the most frequently compensated cancers (mesothelioma and lung cancer from asbestos; nasal cavities cancer from wood and leather dust).Between 1994 and 2006, 6,243 cancer claims were com...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 17, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Alberto Scarselli, Patrizia Scano, Alessandro Marinaccio, Sergio Iavicoli Source Type: journals

Developments in asbestos cancer risk assessmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Efforts have been made for 25 years to develop asbestos risk assessments that provide valid information about workplace and community cancer risks. Mathematical models have been applied to a group of workplace epidemiology studies to describe the relationships between exposure and risk. EPA's most recent proposed method was presented at a public meeting in July 2008.Risk assessments prepared by USEPA, OSHA, and NIOSH since 1972 were reviewed, along with related literature.None of the efforts to use statistical models to characterize relative cancer potencies for asbestos fiber types and sizes have been able to overcome lim...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 15, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Michael A. Silverstein, Laura S. Welch, Richard Lemen Source Type: journals

Traumatic occupational injuries in Hispanic and foreign born workersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Hispanic and foreign-born workers suffer high rates of occupational fatality. Reasons for this are not well understood. Our aim was to gather information about the details related to severe, non-fatal occupational injuries in this vulnerable population.Eight years of data were obtained from an urban trauma center. In addition, medical consultations of individuals admitted for an occupational injury during an 8-month period are reported.Hispanics were more highly represented than expected; their number of injuries steadily rose. Hispanics were more likely to be injured by machinery and hand tools. Workers reported hazardous...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 14, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Linda Forst, Susan Avila, Stella Anozie, Rachel Rubin Source Type: journals

Utilizing hospital discharge data (HD) to compare fatal and non-fatal work-related injuries among Hispanic workers in New JerseyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study explores the utilization of Hospital Discharge (HD) data to obtain estimates of work-related non-fatal injuries rates in NJ to determine if Hispanics workers have an increased risk of specific work-related injuries. In addition, HD data are used to compare the rate ratios between fatal and non-fatal injuries in this population to demonstrate the effectiveness of using HD as a surveillance tool for monitoring injury trends and performing evaluations.Several types of fatal and non-fatal injuries were modeled using Poisson regression with the following predictor variables: gender, ethnicity, and year. The estimated...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: K. McGreevy, D. Lefkowitz, D. Valiante, S. Lipsitz Source Type: journals

A pilot respiratory health assessment of nail technicians: Symptoms, lung function, and airway inflammationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined lung function (n = 62) and a marker of airway inflammation, i.e., exhaled nitric oxide (ENO) (n = 43), in a subset of nail technician and control participants in a pilot health assessment.Bivariate analysis of technicians demonstrated that job latency was inversely correlated with FEV1 percent predicted (FEV1PP) (r = -0.34, P = 0.03) and FVCPP (r = -0.32, P = 0.05). Acrylic gel contact hours were inversely correlated with FEV1PP (r = -0.38, P = 0.02) and FVCPP (r = -0.47, P = 0.003). Current smoking was inversely and significantly (P [le] 0.05) associated with ENO in bivariate analysis. Log 10 ENO levels were d...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Susan R. Reutman, Amy M. Rohs, John C. Clark, Belinda C. Johnson, Deborah L. Sammons, Christine A. Toennis, Shirley A. Robertson, Barbara A. MacKenzie, James E. Lockey Source Type: journals

Carbon black and lung cancer - testing a novel exposure metric by multi-model inferenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a recent analysis of a UK cohort Sorahan and Harrington [2007: Am J Ind Med 50: 555-564] assessed the most recent 15 years of exposure ("lugging") to support their hypothesis that carbon black acts as a late stage lung carcinogen. We tested this metric in a German cohort of 1,528 carbon black workers.We used a multi-model Cox regression approach (720 models) to explore the impact of duration and cumulative exposure to carbon black "lugged" by 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. This approach covered four sub-cohorts, including an inception cohort, different exposure scenarios and varying combinations of confounders.Seven hundre...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Peter Morfeld, Robert J. McCunney Source Type: journals

Data linkage to estimate the extent and distribution of occupational disease: new onset adult asthma in Alberta, CanadaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although occupational asthma is a well recognized and preventable disease, the numbers of cases presenting for compensation may be far lower than the true incidence.Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) claims for any reason 1995-2004 were linked to physician billing data. New onset adult asthma (NOAA) was defined as a billing for asthma (ICD-9 code of 493) in the 12 months prior to a WCB claim without asthma in the previous 3 years. Incidence was calculated by occupation, industry and, in a case-referent analysis, exposures estimated from an asthma specific job exposure matrix.There were 782,908 WCB eligible claims, with an i...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Nicola Cherry, Jeremy Beach, Igor Burstyn, Xiangning Fan, Na Guo, Nitin Kapur Source Type: journals

Risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review of recent longitudinal studiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This systematic review was designed and conducted in an effort to evaluate the evidence currently available for the many suggested risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.To identify pertinent literature we searched four electronic databases (Cinahl, Embase, Medline, and The Cochrane Library). The search strategies combined terms for musculoskeletal disorders, work, and risk factors. Only case-control or cohort studies were included.A total of 1,761 non-duplicated articles were identified and screened, and 63 studies were reviewed and integrated in this article. The risk factors identified for the developme...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Bruno R. da Costa, Edgar Ramos Vieira Source Type: journals

Predictors of delayed return to work after back injury: A case-control analysis of union carpenters in Washington StateEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Union administrative records identified 20,642 union carpenters who worked in Washington State from 1989 to 2003. The Department of Labor and Industries provided records of workers' compensation claims and associated medical care. Work-related back claims (n = 4,241) were identified by ANSI codes (back, trunk, or neck/back) or ICD-9 codes relevant to medical care consistent with a back injury. Cases (n = 738) were defined as back injury claims with >90 days of paid lost time; controls (n = 699) resulted in return to work within 30 days. Logistic regression models estimated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (OR, 95% ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 3, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Kristen L. Kucera, Hester J. Lipscomb, Barbara Silverstein, Wilfred Cameron Source Type: journals

Health, medication use, and agricultural injury: A reviewEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Agricultural work in the United States and Canada continues to be one of the most dangerous vocations. Surveillance evidence suggests that older farmers (>60 years of age) are at greater risk of serious injury than their younger counterparts. The purpose of this article was to outline illnesses and medications that may contribute to older farmers' increased risk of agricultural injury and to determine a minimum set of health-related covariates that could be used in farm injury studies.A review of English language literature in Medline, CINAHL, and NIOSH databases was conducted examining disease and medication factors relat...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 2, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Donald C. Voaklander, Michelle L. Umbarger-Mackey, Michael L. Wilson Source Type: journals

Asbestos fiber concentration in the area surrounding a former asbestos cement plant and excess mesothelioma deaths in residentsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many persons who had lived near a former asbestos cement plant (AC plant) died from mesothelioma in Amagasaki city, Japan.Asbestos fiber concentration in the area surrounding the AC plant was estimated so that the female mesothelioma death number predicted by a mathematical model was the same as the observed excess death number. We used the estimated asbestos fiber concentration to predict the excess mesothelioma deaths from 1970 to 2049.In a grid just south of the AC plant, the fiber concentration was estimated to be more than 3 f/ml for KM (asbestos potency factor for mesothelioma) of 7.75 × 10-9. An uncertainty factor ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - September 2, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Shinji Kumagai, Norio Kurumatani Source Type: journals

Erratum: Validation of self-reported occupational exposures in meatpacking workersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
"When this article was originally published in Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:707-715, 2009, it contained an error on page no. 708, line no. 3 under the heading Study Population. The corrected line appears on the next page. The author deeply regrets the error." (Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 31, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Lina Lander, Gary Sorock, Terry L. Stentz, Ellen A. Eisen, Murray Mittleman, Russ Hauser, Melissa J. Perry Source Type: journals

Development of historical exposure estimates of cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption for cohort studies of Pan Am flight attendantsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is conducting cohort studies of flight crew employed by the former Pan American World Airways company (Pan Am) as part of an effort to examine flight crew workplace exposures and health effects. Flight crew are exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation and to disruption of circadian rhythm when flying across multiple time zones. Methods exist to calculate cosmic radiation effective doses on individual flights; however, only work histories which provided an employee's domicile (home base) history rather than a record of every flight flown were available.We devel...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Martha A. Waters, Barbara Grajewski, Lynne E. Pinkerton, Misty J. Hein, Zachary Zivkovich Source Type: journals

Language preference and non-traumatic low back disorders in washington state workers' compensationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Workers in the United States with limited English proficiency likely perform more hazardous work, experience higher rates of work-related injury and illness, and have worse disability outcomes.We conducted a descriptive study of employment characteristics, timeliness and utilization of workers' compensation (WC) insurance benefits, cost and occupational health outcomes for Washington State WC state fund, non-traumatic low back disorders (LBD) claimants by language preference.A greater proportion of Spanish language preferring (SLP) LBD claims filed were accepted and resulted in lost work time than English language preferri...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: David K. Bonauto, Caroline K. Smith, Darrin A. Adams, Z. Joyce Fan, Barbara A. Silverstein, Michael P. Foley Source Type: journals

Kathryn R. MahaffeyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
No Abstract. (Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Henry Anderson Source Type: journals

Are employment shifts into non-manufacturing industries partially responsible for the decline in occupational injury rates?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures have shown declines in injury and illness rates over the past 25 years. It is unclear what factors are contributing to that decline.Connecticut injury and illness data was industry-adjusted to account for the shifts in employment by industry sector for the 25-year period from 1976 to 2000. Additional adjustment was made for manufacturing sub-sectors, since declines in manufacturing employment accounted for the largest proportion of the shift in injuries over that period.Approximately 18% of the decline in injury and illness rates was associated with a shift in employment from more hazardo...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tim F. Morse, Albert Deloreto, Thomas St. Louis, John D. Meyer Source Type: journals

Possibilities and challenges in occupational injury surveillance of day laborersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study explores chart abstraction of hospital-based trauma registry records as a potential injury surveillance method for contingent workers and day laborers. We sought to determine the degree of completeness of work information in the medical records, and to identify day laborers and contingent workers to the extent possible.Work-related injury cases from a hospital-based trauma registry (2001-2006) were divided by ethnicity (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic origin) and presence of social security number (SSN: yes, no), resulting in four groups of cases. Medical records were abstracted for 40 cases from each group; each case...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Sarah J. Lowry, Hillary Blecker, Janice Camp, Butch De Castro, Steven Hecker, Saman Arbabi, Neal Traven, Noah S. Seixas Source Type: journals

Beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test surveillance identifies clinically significant beryllium diseaseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined physiology and treatment in 229 beryllium sensitization (BeS) and 171 CBD surveillance-identified cases diagnosed from 1982 to 2002. Never smoking CBD cases (81) were compared to never smoking BeS patients (83) to assess disease progression. We compared CBD machinists to non-machinists to examine effects of exposure.At baseline, CBD and BeS cases did not differ significantly in exposure time or physiology. CBD patients were more likely to have machined beryllium. Of CBD cases, 19.3% went on to require oral immunosuppressive therapy. At 30 years from first exposure, measures of gas exchange were significantly wo...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Margaret M. Mroz, Lisa A. Maier, Matthew Strand, Lori Silviera, Lee S. Newman Source Type: journals

Interpreting longitudinal spirometry: Weight gain and other factors affecting the recognition of excessive FEV1 declineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Excessive FEV1 loss in an individual or a group can reflect hazardous exposures and development of lung disease. However, multiple factors may affect FEV1 measurements.Using medical screening data collected in 1884 chemical plant workers between 1973 and 2003, the influence of multiple factors on repeated measurements of FEV1 was examined.The FEV1 level was associated with age, height, race, sex, cigarette smoking, changes in body weight, and spirometer model. After controlling for these factors, longitudinal FEV1 decline averaged 23.8 ml/year for white males; an additional loss of 8.3 ml was associated with one pack-year ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 7, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Mei Lin Wang, Bipin H. Avashia, Edward L. Petsonk Source Type: journals

Some alternatives in the statistical analysis of sickness absenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The objective of this article is to examine the application of marginal models, comparing them to count-based models, when the outcome of interest is SA.By re-sampling the data of a reference study, 1,000 samples of 1,200 individuals were generated. In each of these samples, the coefficients of two factors were estimated by fitting various models: Poisson, Negative Binomial, standard Cox model for a first occurrence, Andersen-Gill and Prentice-Williams-Peterson.In general, differences among the models are observed in the estimates of variances and coefficients, as well as in their distribution. Specifically, the Poisson mo...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Albert Navarro, Ricardo J. Reis, Miguel Martin Source Type: journals

Latino worker perceptions of construction risksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study recruited 30 Latino construction workers from three Southern Nevada trade unions to participate in four focus groups conducted in Spanish to determine their perceived risks for injury. Audiotapes were transcribed into English transcripts, which were analyzed for themes.Themes included language/communication difficulties, traditional Latino values, construction trade skill level differences, and health literacy. Participants were unfamiliar with the workers' compensation system.Small contractors in particular should provide more effective safety training in Spanish and appropriate safety equipment. Unions should ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Nancy Nivison Menzel, Antonio P. Gutierrez Source Type: journals

Occupational health crossing borders - Part 1: Concept, teaching methods, and user evaluation of the first international summer school in Munich, GermanyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Occupational health and safety (OHS) is relevant for occupational health professionals (OHP) throughout the world. However, training opportunities are often limited and exchange between OHP from industrialized and developing countries is sparse. We aimed to contribute to the international exchange of OHP through a 2-week summer school program.Twenty-three OHP from 11 countries participated. Teaching methods included interactive lectures, participants' presentations, case-based e-learning, enterprise visits, and hands-on sessions. After completion, participants evaluated the course.OHS systems of 18 different countries were...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - August 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Katja Radon, Vera Ehrenstein, Janine Bigaignon-Cantineau, Arun Dev Vellore, Marilyn Fingerhut, Dennis Nowak, and the Occupational Health Crossing Borders Summer School Team Source Type: journals

Translating questionnaire items for a multi-lingual worker population: The iterative process of translation and cognitive interviews with English-, Spanish-, and Chinese-speaking workersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The increasing ethnic diversity of the US workforce has created a need for research tools that can be used with multi-lingual worker populations. Developing multi-language questionnaire items is a complex process; however, very little has been documented in the literature.Commonly used English items from the Job Content Questionnaire and Quality of Work Life Questionnaire were translated by two interdisciplinary bilingual teams and cognitively tested in interviews with English-, Spanish-, and Chinese-speaking workers.Common problems across languages mainly concerned response format. Language-specific problems required more...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 31, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Kaori Fujishiro, Fang Gong, Sherry Baron, C. Jeffery Jacobson Jr., Sheli DeLaney, Michael Flynn, Donald E. Eggerth Source Type: journals

Effort-reward imbalance at work and self-rated health of Las Vegas hotel room cleanersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study investigates the relationship between effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) at work and self-rated health (SF-36) among 941 Las Vegas hotel room cleaners (99% female, 84% immigrant).Logistic regression models adjust for age, health behaviors, physical workload and other potential confounders.50% reported ERI and 60% poor or fair general health. Significant associations were found between ERI and all SF-36 health measures. Workers in the upper quartile of the efforts/rewards ratio were 2-5 times more likely to experience poor or fair general health, low physical function, high levels of pain, fatigue, and role limitation...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 30, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Niklas Krause, Reiner Rugulies, Christina Maslach Source Type: journals

Temporary workers in Washington StateEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Evidence regarding the unequal burden of occupational injuries between workers employed by temporary agencies and those in standard employment arrangements is unclear. Studies range from no significant differences in risk to substantial increased risk for temporary workers. The purpose of this study is to compare the workers' compensation experience of a large cohort of temporary agency employed workers with those in standard forms of employment.Washington State Fund workers' compensation data were obtained for claims with injury dates from January 1, 2003 to June 30, 2006, resulting in 342,540 accepted claims. General des...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 18, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Caroline K. Smith, Barbara A. Silverstein, David K. Bonauto, Darrin Adams, Z. Joyce Fan Source Type: journals

Nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries treated in emergency departments in the United States, 1998-2002Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study seeks to bridge the present data gap by providing a national profile of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries across all industries and occupations.Study subjects were people who suffered nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries and were treated in a hospital emergency department in the United States. Subjects were identified from a stratified probability sample of emergency departments. National estimates and rates were computed.From 1998 to 2002, the average annual rate of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries was 7 injuries per 10,000 full-time equivalents. The rate was three times higher in...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 16, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Guang X. Chen Source Type: journals

Relationships between asthma and work exposures among non-domestic cleaners in OntarioEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this study, we compared work-related asthma symptoms among cleaners and other building workers and determined associations with tasks.School and racetrack workers in Ontario, Canada, completed a questionnaire to identify the prevalence of cleaning tasks, physician-diagnosed asthma, new-onset asthma, respiratory symptoms, and work-related asthma symptoms.Cleaners and controls had a similar prevalence of most asthma outcomes although female cleaners reported significantly more respiratory symptoms; odds ratio (OR), 2.59 confidence intervals (CI) 1.6-4.3, and work-related asthma symptoms, OR 3.90 (CI 2.1-7.4) compared with...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 15, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Maya Obadia, Gary M. Liss, Wendy Lou, James Purdham, Susan M. Tarlo Source Type: journals

Validation of self-reported occupational exposures in meatpacking workersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study assessed validity of occupational exposures reported by uninjured workers at a Midwestern meatpacking plant.One hundred thirty-six workers were observed for 60 min while working and then interviewed within 8 days (median 3 days) about exposures during the observation period. The level of agreement between self-reports and direct observations was assessed using kappas and intraclass correlation coefficients.Excellent agreement was found between observed and reported work location ([kappa] = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.92-1.0), task ([kappa] = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.76-0.91) and tools used ([kappa] = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.81-0.95). Person...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 13, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Lina Lander, Gary Sorock, Terry L. Stentz, Ellen A. Eisen, Murray Mittleman, Russ Hauser, Melissa J. Perry Source Type: journals

Occupational injury disparities in the US hotel industryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Hotel employees have higher rates of occupational injury and sustain more severe injuries than most other service workers.OSHA log incidents from 5 unionized hotel companies for a three-year period were analyzed to estimate injury rates by job, company, and demographic characteristics. Room cleaning work, known to be physically hazardous, was of particular concern.A total of 2,865 injuries were reported during 55,327 worker-years of observation. The overall injury rate was 5.2 injuries per 100 worker-years. The rate was highest for housekeepers (7.9), Hispanic housekeepers (10.6), and about double in 3 companies versus 2 o...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 10, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Susan Buchanan, Pamela Vossenas, Niklas Krause, Joan Moriarty, Eric Frumin, Jo Anna M. Shimek, Franklin Mirer, Peter Orris, Laura Punnett Source Type: journals

Immigration, employment relations, and health: Developing a research agendaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
International migration has emerged as a global issue that has transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of persons. Migrant workers contribute to the economic growth of high-income countries often serving as the labour force performing dangerous, dirty and degrading work that nationals are reluctant to perform.Critical examination of the scientific and "grey" literatures on immigration, employment relations and health.Both lay and scientific literatures indicate that public health researchers should be concerned about the health consequences of migration processes. Migrant workers are more represented in dangerous ind...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 7, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Joan Benach, Carles Muntaner, Haejoo Chung, Fernando G. Benavides Source Type: journals

Parents' safety beliefs and childhood agricultural injuryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examined potential associations between parental safety beliefs and children's chore assignments or risk of agricultural injury.Analyses were based on nested case-control data collected by the 1999 and 2001 Regional Rural Injury Study-II (RRIS-II) surveillance efforts. Cases (n = 425, reporting injuries) and controls (n = 1,886, no injuries; selected using incidence density sampling) were persons younger than 20 years of age from Midwestern agricultural households. A causal model served as the basis for multivariate data analysis.Decreased risks of injury (odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence intervals [CI]) were ...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Muree Larson-Bright, Susan G. Gerberich, Ann S. Masten, Bruce H. Alexander, James G. Gurney, Timothy R. Church, Andrew D. Ryan, Colleen M. Renier Source Type: journals

Neurological mortality among U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf War: 13-year follow-upEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study focuses on long-term mortality, specifically brain cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS) of 621,902 veterans who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War (GW), and 746,248 non-GW veterans.Follow-up began with the date the veteran left the GW theater or May 1, 1991 and ended with the date of death or December 31, 2004. Cox proportional hazard models were used for analyses.Adjusted mortality rate ratios (aRR) of GW veterans compared to non-GW veterans were not statistically significant for brain cancer (aRR = 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.73, 1.11), M...
Source: American Journal of Industrial Medicine - July 6, 2009 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Shannon K. Barth, Han K. Kang, Tim A. Bullman, Mitchell T. Wallin Source Type: journals