Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health最新文献

The way workers perceive noise exposure can play an important role in the adoption of safety behaviors. Therefore, the determination of the relationship among risk awareness, behavior, and exposure can be an extremely important issue in controlling noise exposure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between risk perception and practice of workers. Workers from 16 printing houses in Tehran province participated in present study. A questionnaire was used for determining the level of risk perception and practice about hearing conservation. The results revealed a significant relationship between risk perception and safety behavior adoption (P < 0.001). A positive and significant correlation was found between these two variables (P < 0.001; r_s = 0.912). Also, the results showed that workers with hearing impairment had a better practice. In addition, attention should be paid to preventive principles and encouragement of hearing protection devices usage among employees.

The aim is to assess the prevalence and knowledge on acute occupational exposure to phosphine in the shipping industry. We followed PRISMA guidelines for scoping review. We searched in 4 databases without language and date restrictions for scientific articles in peer-reviewed and gray literature. We found 13 peer-reviewed articles and 63 articles in gray literature. These covered 56 incidents from 1963 to 2019 for a total of 254 victims and 22 fatalities. There is an increase in the number of reported cases over the last 20 years. Neurologic and gastrointestinal symptoms are predominant, and hospitalization is needed in 80% of cases. Our review underlined the principal risk as gas exposure through leaks between holds and the ventilation system. Further studies on the knowledge and the prevention in order to improve good practices onboard, prevent the risk of fire explosion, and a global reporting system of new cases are recommended.

Asbestos ore was sampled from a historical anthophyllite mine in Staten Island, New York. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was used to image the structure of nineteen fibers of the anthophyllite asbestos. The anthophyllite was characterized by a high level of chain width disorder, involving wide chain multiplicity faults (CMFs) that were frequent in fibers, randomly spaced, and ranged from one to eight chains in width. This chain width disorder was manifest by streaking of electron diffraction rows of chain width. The anthophyllite asbestos fibers were found to be produced by longitudinal splitting rather than crystal growth. Such splitting is a function of cleavage along CMFs rather than crystal boundaries. The morphology of the fibers is consistent with anthophyllite asbestos mined in Finland associated with lung cancer and mesothelioma. These findings may have regulatory implications.

We examined the relationships between blood heavy metals [cadmium (B-Cd), mercury (B-Hg), and lead (B-Pb)] and heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTc), JT interval (JTc), and QRS complex duration (QRSc), electrocardiogram markers of ventricular repolarization and depolarization among 60 traffic enforcers in the MMDA traffic enforcers' health study. We fitted regression models to estimate the mean change effect on QTc, JTc, and QRSc, of B-Cd, B-Hg, and B-Pb concentrations, adjusted for potential confounding factors. We looked at effect modification by sex and smoking status. An interquartile range increase in B-Cd (0.9 μg/L) was related to a 6.6% increase in mean QRSc [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.5, 10.8], and a 1.7% increase in mean QTc (95% CI: 0.2, 3.3). We also found that the associations between B-Cd and QRSc and QTc were higher among participants who were never smokers than ever smokers. Moreover, the association between B-Cd and QRSc was also higher among males than females.

Among health care professionals, dentists are more prone to infection due to their direct contact with blood and saliva. This study highlights the level of compliance with infection control measures among dental students; and linked this to their knowledge and attitudes regarding infection control measures and proper vaccinations. The study is a multi-centre analytical cross-sectional survey. The sample size was 969 clinical years' students from governmental and private dental colleges in Sudan and Saudi Arabia. A pre-coded, pre-tested, and anonymous questionnaire consisted of seven categories of knowledge, attitude, awareness, and practices, including 40 questions, was answered. The study has linked knowledge, attitude, and practice in dental clinics with possible COVID-19 transmission in dental clinics. The results showed that the use of some Personal Protective Equipment was low in Sudan and moderate in Saudi Arabia (statistically significant, p < 0.001). Moderate percentage of Hepatitis B vaccination status, with low percentage of Post HBV serology, was reported (p < 0.001). The percentages of major causes of percutaneous and/or eye exposure/injury, for examples, were as follows: anesthesia (33.3-62.7%, p 0.006) and suture needle (17.5-39.4%, p 0.037). In conclusion, dental students in the present study had good knowledge and positive attitudes regarding infection control in general, but showed moderate compliance with the recommended infection control guidelines.

This study explores patients' experiences of how antidepressant medication transition events (ceasing, changing or reducing) affect employment and workplace functioning. An anonymous online survey was conducted with adults who had experienced antidepressant medication transition events (AMTEs). Data were analyzed using a hybrid inductive and deductive thematic analysis approach. While a majority of participants perceived many positive impacts of antidepressant medication on their workplace functioning, considerable negative effects during AMTEs were reported. Participants provided practical solutions to assist employers, policy and clinicians. Significant and detrimental impact of antidepressant medication changes occurred in the workplace. There is an urgent need to raise awareness of the vulnerability of people during AMTEs and to develop educational and supportive resources to assist clinicians and practitioners to support people during this vulnerable time.

Each time a car's brakes are used, asbestos is dispersed in the air. Breathing the air in enclosed parking lots can expose people working in these places to asbestos. This study aimed to evaluate the airborne asbestos dispersion in enclosed parking lots. In this study, 35 air samples were collected from six enclosed parking lots in Tabriz City. The samples were analyzed quantitatively by phase contrast microscopy (PCM) and qualitatively by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray analyzer. The mean of fiber concentrations was found 0.155 ± 0.069 PCM f/cc. The SEM data demonstrated that the fibers consisted of synthetic fibers (69.57%) and asbestos (30.43%). Fiber concentrations in many enclosed parking lots in the city were higher than the threshold limit value-time weighted average of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists and Occupational Exposure Limits of Iran. However, further investigations are needed to clarify asbestos exposure in such places.

This work was undertaken to study the immunomodulatory effects of long-term exposure to varying levels of lead (Pb) in workers. A total of 49 people who underwent occupational health examinations from 2009 to 2018 were selected as study subjects. Differences between the two group populations regarding the levels of T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes, natural killer (NK) cells, and granulocytes, as well as the levels of T_H1/T_H2/T_H17 cytokines, were evaluated. The results indicated that the percentages of CD3⁺ cells in the high-Pb group were significantly higher than those in the low-Pb counterparts (p < .05). In contrast, the percentages of CD3^-CD16⁺CD56⁺ cells were significantly lower in the high-Pb workers. There were no significant differences in other immunommy cells and T_H1/T_H2/T_H17 cytokine between the groups. CD3⁺ cell levels in workers positively correlated with blood Pb levels (Rs = 0.378, p = .007), while the expression of CD3^-CD16⁺CD56⁺ cells was negatively correlated (Rs = -0.320, p = .025). There was no significant correlation between blood Pb concentration and the other immune endpoints evaluated here.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 3,291 maize farmers enrolled whose main roles were herbicide applicators and assistant applicators. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) between herbicide applicators and assistant applicators, and determine factors associated with respiratory symptoms. Our results suggest that wheeze and dyspnea were associated with the task on the farm (adj. OR = 10.33 for wheeze and 24.13 for dyspnea), amount of herbicide use (adj. OR = 1.95 for wheeze and 1.41 for dyspnea), frequency of herbicide use (adj. OR = 2.87 for wheeze and 4.08 for dyspnea), not always wearing a mask (adj. OR = 1.49 for wheeze and 3.17 for dyspnea), not always wearing gloves (adj. OR = 2.63 for wheeze and 2.44 for dyspnea), and not always wearing goggles (adj.OR = 2.01 for dyspnea) after adjusting for confounding factors.

Background: Occupational injury is any personal injury, disease or death resulting from an occupational accident sustained on worker in connection with the performance of his or her work. Studies conducted in Ethiopia indicated variable findings ranging from 30% to 84.7% prevalence of occupational injury among construction workers. Therefore, the main aim of this systematic and meta-analysis was to pool the estimates and find the reasons for variability of the findings.

Methods: The review has been registered at PROSPERO with registration identification number CRD42020222785. PubMed, Advanced Google search and Google Scholar databases were searched up to June 20, 2020 to identify relevant articles. Stata v14 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA) was used for meta-analysis. Publication bias was assessed by the funnel plot and more objectively by Egger's regression test. I-squared statistics was used to check the heterogeneity of the studies.

Result: This research searched a total of, 1241articles, from these articles 1189 from PubMed, 21 from advanced Google search and 31 from Google scholar databases. A total of 12 studies were included in the analysis and all of them were institutional based cross-sectional studies. All studies were conducted from 2004 to 2018 but published from 2007 to 2019. The prevalence of occupational injury among included studies ranges from 30% to 84.7% while the pooled prevalence of occupational injury among construction workers was 45.64% with 95%CI (33.54-57.74). The effect of each variables against occupational injury was pooled and PPE use [AOR = 1.75, 95%CI (1.46, 2.1)], occupational safety training [AOR = 1.63, 95%CI (1.13, 2.34)] and existence of regular supervision [AOR = 1.4, 95%CI (1.16, 1.68)] were significantly associated to occupational injury among construction workers at p-value ≤ 0.05 with 95% CI.

Conclusion: The prevalence of occupational injury among construction workers is still very high and variables such as PPE use, occupational safety training and existence of regular supervision were factors affecting occupational injury among construction workers. Supply and use of PPE, provision of occupational safety training and regular supervision of workers has to be in place in order to reduce or remove occupational injury among construction workers in Ethiopia.