Occupational and Environmental Medicine

OBJECTIVES: Characterise inhalational exposures during deployment to Afghanistan and Southwest Asia and associations with postdeployment respiratory symptoms. METHODS: Participants (n=1960) in this cross-sectional study of US Veterans (Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study 'Service and Health Among Deployed Veterans') completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire regarding 32 deployment exposures, grouped a priori into six categories: burn pit smoke; other combustion sources; engine exhaust; mechanical and desert dusts; toxicants; and military job-related vapours gas, dusts or fumes (VGDF)...

OBJECTIVES: To provide insights into exposure of Dutch dairy farmers to formaldehyde derived from formalin footbaths used for cows. Dutch safety norms are set at a limit of 0.122 ppm during an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) and 0.407 ppm for a 15-min TWA. METHODS: At 20 farms formaldehyde air concentrations were determined using stationary active air sampling with impingers next to the footbath and in the milking parlour during footbath usage. Formalin footbath concentrations were tested and meteorological conditions were collected using a climate monitor to assess associations with formaldehyde concentrations...

OBJECTIVES: After declining for several decades, fatal occupational injury rates have stagnated in the USA since 2009. To revive advancements in workplace safety, interventions targeting at-risk worker groups must be implemented. Our study aims to identify these at-risk populations by evaluating disparities in unintentional occupational fatalities occurring in North Carolina (NC) from 1992 to 2017. METHODS: Our retrospective cohort study drew on both the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner system and the NC death certificate data system to identify unintentional fatal occupational injuries occurring from 1992 to 2017...

OBJECTIVE: To identify and characterise COVID-19 workers' compensation claims in healthcare and other industries during the pandemic in Victoria, Australia. METHODS: We used workers' compensation claims identified as COVID-19 infection related from 1 January 2020 to 31 July 2022 to compare COVID-19 infection claims and rates of claims by industry and occupation, and in relation to Victorian COVID-19 epidemiology. A Cox proportional hazards model assessed risk factors for extended claim duration...

OBJECTIVES: To describe recent investigations of potential workplace cancer clusters. METHODS: We identified Health Hazard Evaluations (HHEs) of cancer concerns during 2001-2020. We described information about industry, requestors, cancer characteristics, investigative procedures, and determinations about the presence of a cluster (ie, presence of excess cases, unusual case distribution or exposure). RESULTS: Of 5754 HHEs, 174 included cancer concerns, comprising 1%-5% of HHEs per year...

BACKGROUND: The dose-response relationship between cancers and protracted low-dose rate exposure to ionising radiation is still uncertain. This study aims to estimate quantified relationships between low-dose radiation exposures and site-specific solid cancers among Chinese medical X-ray workers. METHODS: This cohort study included 27 011 individuals who were employed at major hospitals in 24 provinces in China from 1950 to 1980 and had been exposed to X-ray equipment, and a control group of 25 782 physicians who were not exposed to X-ray equipment...

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BACKGROUND: Cold weather increases respiratory symptoms and provokes exacerbations of asthma, but there are no previous studies on its role in the aetiology of asthma. OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that a cold winter increases the risk of developing asthma during the following 1 to 2 years. METHODS: We conducted a case-crossover study of 315 newly diagnosed cases of asthma from the population-based Espoo Cohort Study from birth to the age of 27 years...

OBJECTIVES: Increased risks of bladder cancer and mesothelioma were the strongest evidence for the recent reclassification of firefighting as carcinogenic (Group 1) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Our study aim was to develop indicators for specific firefighting exposures and examine associations with urinary tract cancer (UTC), including bladder cancer. METHODS: We developed indicators for exposure from employment at a fire department or in firefighting jobs, to fire and smoke, and to diesel exhaust for men in the Norwegian Fire Departments Cohort (n=4250)...

Ionising radiation is a human carcinogen, but the evidence is less clear that exposure to low-dose ionising radiation (LDIR) increases the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. We synthesised the literature of chronic occupational exposure to LDIR and cardiovascular disease, particularly for ischaemic heart disease (IHD).The literature search was conducted using three databases including studies published between 1990 and 2022. A quality assessment of the studies was completed using the Office of Health and Assessment and Translation Risk of Bias Rating Tool...

OBJECTIVES: Injury surveillance is imperative for injury prevention but difficult in military populations. Our objective was to accurately describe the pattern of musculoskeletal complaints among Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fast jet aircrew (FJA) using the validated University of Canberra Fast Jet Aircrew Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (UC-FJAMQ) over a 2-year period, and determine injury burden on the workforce and operational capability. METHODS: 306 RAAF FJA were monitored over a 2-year period (4×5 month reporting periods)...

OBJECTIVES: Limited knowledge exists about day-to-day changes in physical and mental symptoms in warehouse and construction workers. This study investigated the associations between consecutive workdays and days off with low back pain (LBP) intensity, bodily fatigue and mental stress. METHODS: Participants (n=224) received daily questions for 21 days about LBP, fatigue, stress (outcome, 0-10 scales), and workdays and days off (exposure). We tested associations between 1-3 workdays (n=148) and 1-2 days off (n=158) with LBP intensity, bodily fatigue and mental stress after work and the following morning using linear mixed models with repeated measures controlling for relevant confounders...

OBJECTIVE: Emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians operate in environments that predispose them to occupational hazards. Our objective was to evaluate the frequency of occupational hazards and associations with mitigation strategies in a national dataset. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of currently working, nationally certified civilian EMS clinicians aged 18-85 in the USA. After recertifying their National EMS Certification, respondents were invited to complete a survey with questions regarding demographics, work experience and occupational hazards...

INTRODUCTION: The epidemiological surveillance of mesothelioma incidence is a crucial key for investigating the occupational and environmental sources of asbestos exposure. The median age at diagnosis is generally high, according to the long latency of the disease. The purposes of this study are to analyse the incidence of mesothelioma in young people and to evaluate the modalities of asbestos exposure. METHODS: Incident malignant mesothelioma (MM) cases in the period 1993-2018 were retrieved from Italian national mesothelioma registry and analysed for gender, incidence period, morphology and exposure...

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate the association between night work during pregnancy and risk of having a small for gestational age (SGA) child. METHODS: This cohort study had payroll data with detailed information on working hours for employees in all Danish administrative regions (primarily hospital employees) between 2007 and 2015, retrieved from the Danish Working Hour Database. Pregnancies, covariates and outcome were identified from the national birth registry...

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of work-related electronic communication (WREC) during non-working hours in the work from home or office setting on health. METHODS: The study recruited 98 information technology workers in a 9-day observational study. They recorded work-life events (eg, work style (working mostly from home or the office) and duration of WREC during non-working hours) and subjective ratings (eg, current fatigue, sleepiness and depression) and wore a sleep actigraph to measure objective sleep variables before bedtime every day...

OBJECTIVES: Work schedule demands contribute to circadian disruption and may influence health via an inflammatory response. We examined the impact of shiftwork and long work hours on inflammation in a national US sample. METHODS: Participants included 12 487 employed black and white men and women aged ≥45 years enrolled in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study who completed an occupational questionnaire (2011-2013) and clinical examination (2013-2016)...

OBJECTIVES: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a leading cause of disability and sick leave among workers. Although MSDs are associated with physical exposures, there are gender differences in the prevalence and related disability. This study aimed to compare self-reported physical work exposures by gender for people within the same occupational group. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data from 65 281 asymptomatic workers aged 18-69 years from the CONSTANCES cohort study (France)...

OBJECTIVES: In a military context, people often have to deal with long commuting distance. The aim of the current study is to investigate to what extent commuting distances predict sickness absence among a military population. METHODS: The present study is based on a dynamic cohort of active-duty military personnel of the Belgian Defence. A proportional hazard Andersen-Gill model was used to determine the effect of commuting distance on the recurrence of sickness absence, considering relevant covariates...

OBJECTIVES: To establish whether prevalence and severity of long-COVID symptoms vary by industry and occupation. METHODS: We used Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) data (February 2021-April 2022) of working-age participants (16-65 years). Exposures were industry, occupation and major Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) group. Outcomes were self-reported: (1) long-COVID symptoms and (2) reduced function due to long-COVID. Binary (outcome 1) and ordered (outcome 2) logistic regression were used to estimate odds ratios (OR)and prevalence (marginal means)...