Journal of the Royal Society of Health最新文献

Assessment of the risks associated with technological development in Nigeria called for an evaluation of the counter measures. The Government, affected organisations, and insurance companies are the three main bodies concerned with risk management. Legislative control by Government is hardly enforced due to a limited number of enforcement agents and resources. The laws do not keep pace with increasing technological risks and are reactive rather than proactive. The industries tend to insure all identified risks mainly due to the lack of competent safety personnel and the low level of corporate awareness of the importance of risk management. Risk reduction is marginally practised and the legal requirements are hardly attained. Risk transfer of a non-insurance nature from lesser to lessee is quite common. There are hardly any advisory or supervisory services by the insurance companies. The insurance industry hardly creates awareness or promotes risk reduction practices. The paper prescribes the roles of various groups in improving risk management in Nigeria including the establishment of a commission which among other functions will promote co-operation and co-ordinate the risk management efforts of the various organisations.

The essential requirements of a scientific paper are described although each journal publishes its own specific 'Guidelines for Contributors' which may differ to some extent from those required by other journals. It is essential to follow such guidelines and to check and recheck your paper.

In order to assess the adequacy of equipment in the run-up to the full implementation of the Display Screen Equipment Regulations, several local authorities agreed to take part in a pilot survey of their own video display terminals. The instrument was a self-reporting questionnaire based on the new regulations. A number of the questionnaires were also completed in parallel by EHOs in order to assess the objectivity with which questionnaires were completed. The surveys found many deficiencies but discovered that respondents with better levels of training were less critical of their work station. The reasons for this are discussed. The parallel inspection validated the instrument and suggests that self-inspection by users is a good indicator of some conditions at the work station but not of temperature, light, or relative humidity. Occupational stress was also measured. The levels were above UK average and levels of depression were found to be associated with respondents' aches and pains.

In most western populations, cancer causes about a fifth of all deaths, and in developing populations, 5-15%, with the likelihood of further rises. Diet is considered responsible for about a third of cases of cancer and smoking another third. Dietarily, for cancer avoidance, recommendations made include eat less, eat much less fat especially saturated fat, and eat more plant foods, i.e. cereals, but very particularly vegetables and fruit. However, only high consumptions of the latter are consistently associated with a lower risk of cancers, notably of the digestive and respiratory tracts. For each change urged, meaningful compliance will be very difficult, due largely to conservativeness as well as to the higher cost of a 'prudent' diet. Notwithstanding, urges to make dietary changes, particularly relating to plant foods, must be continued, especially with regard to persons familially susceptible and, additionally, with the recognition that the measures recommended also serve to lessen susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases. Compliance, even by a small proportion, could result in large numbers benefiting due to the universality of the burden from cancer.

Scientific evidence identifying smoking as the major cause of poor health and premature death in both industrialised and increasingly in developing countries is now overwhelming. Despite this, for a variety of reasons, there has been reluctance amongst many Governments including that of Britain, to take all logical action necessary to restrict and reduce smoking, especially amongst the young. The States of Guernsey in the Channel Islands has recently agreed to introduce an integrated package of measures designed specifically to make smoking less attractive and less accessible and less affordable to young people in an attempt to reduce the number of addicted adult smokers. These measures include a total ban of all public advertising of tobacco, apart from at point of sale, a substantial price rise followed by further price rises for a minimum period of five years, a raising of the minimum age for the purchase of tobacco from 16 to 18 years, an increase in the size and content of pack health warnings, and increased funding for specific nonsmoking health promotion activities. The various barriers to achieving these reforms are described.

This paper attempts to assess the magnitude of the risks associated with industrial and transportation technologies in Nigeria using data from various governmental agencies and private organisations. The minimum annual averages of injured persons and data from accidents associated with technological risks in Nigeria were as follows: factories-402.4 injured persons and 5.8 deaths; petroleum industry - 106.5 injured and 45.3 deaths; road traffic accidents - 25,262 injured persons and 9,117 deaths; and railways 170.5 injured persons and 43.2 deaths. Of the eleven plane crashes reported between 1978 and 1991 the nine crashes for which information was disclosed claimed 352 lives. The highest technological risk is from road traffic accidents. The annual average death from road traffic accidents (9,117) was 1.05 times the annual average death (8,662) from communicable diseases and 1.2 times the number of deaths (7,711) from cholera epidemics in 1991. Between 1988 and 1991 there were 855 reported cases of occupational diseases with an annual average of 214 cases. Conjunctivitis, dermatitis, chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma accounted for 91% of the 855 reported cases. The observations reflect the technological risk situation in Nigeria, and the need for improvements in both reducing risks and increasing the recording of risk statistics.