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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Trust in training: the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union Worker-to-Worker Training Program.

The OCAW's Worker-to-Worker Training Program was established with one of the first grants awarded under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. The union intended the program to serve as a model to industry and to raise the standard of safety and health training throughout the industry. The program, which requires trainees to actively participate in learning activities, has garnered praise from its participants.

Chemical Industry↗
PubMed1995

Reports of work related musculoskeletal injury among home care service workers compared with nursery school workers and the general population of employed women in Sweden.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the nationwide occurrence of work related musculoskeletal injuries among all home care service workers in Sweden, and to identify relative risks and risk factors of the injuries. METHODS: The study was based on work related injuries reported to the Swedish occupational injury information system in 1990-1. The work related musculoskeletal injuries were divided into overexertion accidents and musculoskeletal diseases. The incidence of the injuries in female home care service workers was compared with those in nursery school workers and all other employed women in Sweden. RESULTS: In home care service workers, the annual incidence of injury from overexertion accidents and musculoskeletal diseases were 19.2 and 15.1 per 1000 workers, respectively, which was higher than those in nursery school workers and all employed women in Sweden. For five injury locations including the back, all the age standardised relative risks (SRR) of overexertion accidents exceeded 4.0, and most of those for musculoskeletal diseases were 1.5 or more in home care service workers compared with all other employed women in Sweden. Total duration of sick leave due to overexertion accidents was 7.7 times, and musculoskeletal diseases 3.5 times, longer than in nursery school workers. National loss due to sick leave resulting from only musculoskeletal injuries in home care service workers was about 8.2% of the total work related sick leave in all employed women in Sweden, although the number of home care service workers represented only some 5% of this population. Lifting other people was most frequently reported as the main risk cause of overexertion accidents in both kinds of workers. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the hypothesis that home care service workers have higher annual injury incidence of musculoskeletal injuries than nursery school workers due to physically stressful tasks that are far less common in nursery school workers.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1984

Symptoms, pulmonary function, and bronchial hyperreactivity in western red cedar workers compared with those in office workers.

An epidemiologic health study was carried out on 652 cedar mill workers and a control group of 440 male office workers not exposed to air contaminants. Participants completed a medical-occupational questionnaire with trained interviewers, had allergy skin tests, performed spirometry, and had bronchial reactivity assessed by methacholine inhalation testing. After adjusting for differences in age, race, and smoking, cedar workers were found to have significantly higher prevalences of cough, phlegm, and dyspnea than did office workers. Symptoms of asthma and work-related asthma, but not persistent wheeze or doctor-diagnosed asthma, were reported in a significantly higher proportion of cedar workers than of office workers. Cedar workers also had significantly lower lung function test results than did office workers after controlling for height, age, race, and smoking. Bronchial hyperreactivity, defined by a methacholine PC20 less than 8 mg/ml, was more prevalent among cedar workers than among office workers, with the increase being limited to the nonatopic subgroup of workers. The prevalence of bronchial hyperreactivity increased with duration of employment among cedar workers but not among office workers. We conclude that exposure to western red cedar dust is harmful to the respiratory health of the workers, causing asthma and other respiratory symptoms, bronchial hyperreactivity, and lower levels of lung function.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Carpal tunnel surgery outcomes in workers: effect of workers' compensation status.

One hundred thirteen workers' compensation and 53 non-workers' compensation patients who had undergone open carpal tunnel release were queried about job status and the presence or absence of residual symptoms of numbness, pain, or nocturnal awakening an average of 42 months postoperatively. Thirty-nine non-workers' compensation subjects were at their original jobs as compared to only 53 workers' compensation subjects. Seventeen of the workers' compensation subjects were unemployed versus two non-workers' compensation subjects. These differences were significant. Of patients changing jobs, 39 workers' compensation subjects and 2 non-workers' compensation subjects attributed their job change to symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Residual symptoms were significantly more common in workers' compensation compared to non-workers' compensation subjects, with 92 of the former and 26 of the latter subjects reporting some residual symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Mortality among rubber workers: X. Reclaim workers.

This study evaluated the mortality experience of 1,352 white and 438 nonwhite men who worked in the rubber-reclaiming division of a large rubber manufacturing company. In comparisons of mortality of white reclaim workers with that of nonreclaim workers rate ratios were 2.7 for esophageal cancer (six observed deaths among reclaim workers), 2.1 for bladder cancer (seven observed deaths), and 4.5 for multiple myeloma (six observed deaths). The excess of bladder cancer among white reclaim workers may be associated with their employment in other high-risk areas of the plant, whereas no such explanation was found for the excesses of esophageal cancer and multiple myeloma. Overall, the lung cancer mortality rate of white reclaim workers was similar to the rate of US white males and other white rubber workers. There was a 50% excess of lung cancer deaths among nonwhite reclaim workers compared with other nonwhite rubber workers. However, this observation is based on small numbers, and no firm conclusions can be reached about the risk of lung cancer associated with reclaim operations in this group of rubber workers.

Esophageal Neoplasms↗
PubMed1992

Mutagens in urine sampled repetitively from municipal refuse incinerator workers and water treatment workers.

Municipal refuse incinerator workers may be exposed to mutagenic compounds from combustion gases and particulates during plant operation, maintenance, and ash removal procedures. The frequency of mutagens was measured by the Ames assay in 3 urine samples collected from each of 37 workers in 4 refuse incinerators and 35 (control) workers from 8 water treatment plants during June-August 1990. When comparing the first urine samples contributed by workers in each cohort, incinerator workers had a significantly (p < .05) increased risk of both direct-acting mutagens and promutagens (8/37 or 22% for each mutagen type) compared with water treatment workers (2/35 or 6% for each mutagen type). Smoking within 24 h before urine sampling was not a confounder of these results. Interestingly, there was no significant (p > .05) difference for risk of urinary mutagens or promutagens between the two cohorts when comparing, respectively, the second and third urine samples from each cohort. The repeatability of demonstrating urinary mutagens in individual incinerator workers was poor, suggesting that their exposure was highly variable and/or that these workers modified their exposure (e.g., wore masks) as a consequence of being studied. Factors that influence production of mutagenic compounds during refuse incineration and subsequent worker exposure are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Studies on the low back pain among electric construction workers. Report 2. Workers' attitude to the prevention and the treatment of their low back pain.

In the previous report, the author demonstrated that the electric construction workers were exposed to the high risk of low back pain, and discussed on the ways to prevent and to treat their occupational disorders. He concluded that the improvement of their working conditions, especially lessening of the working load, was necessary to prevent occupational low back pain, and that it was the most helpful effect on their low back pain to take a rest on an after the attack of the disorder, while most of the medical treatment without a rest were almost helpless. In this report, the author studied and discussed on the workers' opinions on the ways to prevent and to treat their low back pain, by means of questionnaire-method. The workers examined were classified by whether they had the disorder or not and also by the grades of their working load. The results are as follow: 1. As for preventive measures, it is the most popular opinion that they should take care not to hurt their low back; nevertheless, as a matter of fact, their low back pain has been mainly resulted from overwork. 2. As for necessary means on the attack of low back pain, many workers believe that medical treatment is the most helpful to the disorder. Fewer workers recognize the low back pain as an occupational disorder and have opinion that they should take a rest on the attack of the disorder. 3. There is much discrepancy between the workers' opinions mentioned above and the occupational health doctors' recommendations that it is most desirable to improve the working conditions and to let the workers take a rest. 4. The more seriously they suffer from the disorder, the more practical and reasonable are the contents of their opinions. 5. In order to let these workers take a rest from labour more easily, the employers should recognize their low back pain as an occupational disorder, including offjob-payment.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Follow-up study on pulmonary function of dust workers: an epidemiological evaluation of discontinued workers of dust operations.

An epidemiologic study on 176 dust workers from various facilities was initiated in 1978. Their mean age was 48.3 years and mean duration of employment was 21.6 years. No workers complained of chronic cough and phlegm. Their chest X-rays were found to belong to Category I of the diagnostic criteria for pneumoconiosis in Japan. Pulmonary function test was performed on these workers, however, 54 workers discontinued taking part in the study by the end of 1979, and 49 workers had discontinued by 1981. A total of 73 workers had a five-year follow-up survey of pulmonary function. Forced expiratory volume in one second divided by forced vital capacity (FEV1.0/FVC) and forced expiratory flow rate at 25% of FVC divided by height (V25/H) were mainly compared by smoking habit, work years, type of job, size of company, and the time when they discontinued their jobs. Predicted percentage values of lung function were used for the adjustment of the influence of workers' ages. Decrement of FEV1.0/FVC and V25/H in the five-year follow-up group were larger than the screening level. The mean values of those functional parameters in the early discontinued group were lower than late discontinued and active working groups. The active working group was considered to be a physically healthy workers' population.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Mortality among rubber workers: IX. Curing workers.

This research examined mortality among 1,152 white male production workers employed in the tire-curing department of a large rubber manufacturing plant. To determine whether these men had any cause-specific mortality excesses, their experience was compared with that of both the U.S. white male general population and a group of production workers at the same plant who had not worked in the curing division. Both types of comparisons indicated that the curing workers experienced excess mortality from lung cancer. There were 45 deaths from lung cancer among curing workers compared to 24.6 expected based on the age- and calendar period-specific rates of other rubber workers. In addition, the mortality rate ratio for pneumonia was 2.2 for curing relative to noncuring workers. These findings are consistent with the results of other studies and suggest that occupational exposures may have contributed to the development of pulmonary disease among curing workers.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1982

[Occupational health studies on airport transport workers. III. Musculoskeletal complaints and orthopedic disorders of airport transport workers (author's transl)].

In an epidemiologic cross-sectional study, 366 transport workers (age-range: 19-61 years) of a big German airport who are engaged in physical heavy work in unfavorable body positions in narrow freight spaces of airplanes, were investigated with regard to their subjective musculoskeletal complaints through a standardized anamnesis in an interview questionnaire. An additional clinical orthopedic examination was performed in 104 of the transport workers. Back pains were the most frequently reported complaints: at the time of examination 66% of the transport workers reported present back complaints. 57% had experienced previous back syndromes. Increasing age and stature were associated with a higher prevalence of these complaints. Years of exposure to transport work correlated positively with the prevalence of back complaints. After back complaints, knee complaints followed in the prevalence of locomotor complaints (41% of the interviewed workers). The prevalence increased with age and body weight significantly. Neck complaints were reported by 33% of the workers, arm complaints by 41%: again, age increased the prevalence of these complaints significantly. In the standardized clinical orthopedic examination, the prevalence of the functional findings were sometimes higher than in the interview. In contrast to the subjective complaints at the interview, individual factors (age, stature, weight, and work experience in the present occupation) had very little influence on the prevalence of objective findings. The clinical, epidemiologic screening methods employed have proved efficacious in detecting orthopedic disorders in an occupational collective. This study has shown that transport workers with wide discrepancies between body length and the space available in airplane cargo bellies, considerable overweight, or a history of former back syndromes should not be employed. Means to alter cargo belly dimensions in airplanes as well as the increased use of mechanical loading aids and additional training of the workers in proper lifting and carrying of cargo should be taken in to consideration.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Studies of respiratory morbidity in rubber workers. Part IV. Respiratory morbidity in talc workers.

Pulmonary function tests, chest x-rays, and respiratory questionnaires were administered to eighty talc workers and 189 non-exposed rubber workers from three rubber tire manufacturing plants. The talc workers, who were exposed to talc at levels below the current threshold limit value (TLV) of 20 mppcf for nonfibrous talc, had a statistically significantly greater prevalence of productive cough and of positive criteria for chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) than did the control workers. The talc workers with more than 10 years of exposure had significantly decreased residual FEV 1.0. Multiple regression analysis of FEV 1.0 in the talc workers estimated that each year of exposure to talc dust reduced the FEV 1.0 by 26 ml. Talc workers had a clear increase in respiratory morbidity, despite the absence of chest roentgenographic changes. Based on this study, a safe exposure level for talc appears to be 25 mg/m3 as a time-weighted average.

Bronchitis↗
PubMed1990

Urinary mutagens in municipal refuse incinerator workers and water treatment workers.

Municipal refuse incineration workers may be exposed to mutagenic compounds from gaseous and particulate emissions and during ash removal operations. The frequency of urinary mutagens was measured by the Ames test among a sample of 104 refuse incinerator workers in seven incinerator plants during March-May 1988. The frequency was compared to that observed in 61 water treatment employees in 11 municipal water treatment facilities during the same period. Incinerator workers had a significantly higher risk for urinary mutagens and promutagens as compared to water plant workers after controlling for age. Among incinerator workers, increased risk of having urinary mutagens was associated with workers who wore protective clothing (defined as clothing other than masks or gloves) or whose job classification was equipment repair. It also showed a weak positive association with increasing age. There was an increased risk of urinary promutagens associated with not wearing gloves. The presence or absence of mutagenicity in workers' urine varied with plant location. Incinerator operating conditions affecting the production of toxicants and mutagens are discussed and the results of other studies involving toxicant exposure of humans near incinerators are cited.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

[Health care of workers engaged in waste water treatment. 1) The exposure conditions to organic solvents in workers engaged in waste water treatment].

In the investigation of the exposure conditions to organic solvents of workers in 35 waste water treatment facilities, it was found that these workers treated various kinds of solvents. Almost all of the facilities treated chloroform, acetone, n-hexane, methanol and carbon tetrachloride. The average exposure concentration of the workers was, however, low. Exposure concentration to organic solvents (chloroform, xylene and carbon tetrachloride) was evaluated in one of the facilities. The average concentration of the respective solvents in the workers did not exceed the threshold limit value of Japan, but the concentration calculated on the basis of combined exposure exceeded the threshold limit value. On the other hand, high concentrations of organic solvents were detected in the room where the solvents were introduced but not in the working rooms, indicating that the workers engaged in waste water treatment were mainly exposed to organic solvents in the former room where they sorted and mixed the solvents and placed them in the incinerator. In conclusion, improvement in working conditions and health care for workers engaged in waste water treatment facilities should be made in order to prevent workers from becoming intoxicated by organic solvents.

Acetone↗
PubMed1984

[Analysis of mortality patterns in an area supplying tunnel workers away from home. Part 2. Mortality patterns among tunnel workers].

In order to clarify the long-term effect of tunnel work on the health of its workers, we examined its cause-specific mortality pattern. The subjects were 418 males who died after the age of 30 in 1977 in the southern part of Oita Prefecture, where many men come and work away from home as tunnel workers. Death certificates, 418 in number, presented to the health center were used to examine the causes of death. Occupational careers and life histories of the subjects were obtained by interviewing their families or relatives in 1980. The interviews were successfully carried out with 356 subjects (85.2%). The subjects were divided into two groups. One group was consisted of 73 males who had engaged in the tunnel work (tunnel workers) and the other was of 283 males without experience of tunnel work (others). Proportional mortality ratio (PMR) and proportional mortality classified by age were compared between the two groups. The mean ages at death were also compared among these two groups and all Japanese males over 30 years of age. The results were as follows. The proportion of the deaths of "tunnel workers" among the total deaths in the area surveyed was correlated to the regional rate of tunnel workers and the distribution of pneumoconiosis due to tunnel work. These results show that many tunnel workers suffering from pneumoconiosis had returned to their home area before they died. Excess deaths from the ICD category I; infective and parasitic diseases (000-136), tuberculosis (010-019) and silicotuberculosis (010) were found among the "tunnel workers."(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The effects of removing a statutory barrier to workers' compensation for farm workers.

In 1983 the Washington State Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a unique exemption that excluded farm workers from workers' compensation if they had not earned $150 in continuous work with the same employer. In order to examine the effect of removing this restriction, workers' compensation data were analyzed to examine the number of farm workers covered, the number of claims submitted, and claim acceptance rates before and after the ruling. Although the 1983 ruling appears to have had a significant impact on the treatment of claims, no increase in utilization of the workers' compensation system was observed. Further intervention is required if the objective of treating farm workers equitably is to be realized.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗
PubMed1984

Spontaneous abortions among dental assistants, factory workers, painters, and gardening workers: a follow up study.

This investigation was conducted to test the hypothesis that exposure of pregnant women to chemicals increases the risk of spontaneous abortion. The chemical risk factors under study to which dental assistants, factory workers, painters, and gardening workers were exposed were nitrous oxide, inorganic mercury, organic solvents, and pesticides. The study was carried out within the Danish county of Funen. It included all dental assistants employed in private or public dentistry. A comparable reference group was made up by employees less exposed to chemicals. Further study groups included all women painters within the county, women factory workers from selected factories, and about 50% of the women gardening workers within the county. Shop assistants and packers formed their control group. Information was obtained through a postal questionnaire study in May 1980 and from hospital records. Only among factory workers and painters was the odds ratio of spontaneous abortion found to be significantly increased. Neither among these women nor among dental assistants and gardening workers, however, was the reported exposure to any single chemical during pregnancy associated with a significantly increased odds ratio of spontaneous abortion.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗
PubMed1983

Worker injuries: the effects of Workers' Compensation and OSHA inspections.

Detailed analysis of work exposure and worker attributes failed to explain changes in injury claims in three plants, each in a separate state, during 1973-1980. When relative exposure to hazard and worker attributes are controlled, changes in injury rates are largely explained by increases in Workers' Compensation greater than inflation and by inspections made by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Rises in Workers' Compensation greatly increased the claims for injuries, while OSHA citations substantially decreased objectively verifiable injuries in the year following an inspection. Data on days lost due to injury in 167 industrial groupings in 20 states also indicate significant reductions of workdays lost in correlation with OSHA inspections, when increases due to Workers' Compensation are controlled. The results thus appear to be generalizable. Previous studies of OSHA failed to adequately control for Workers' Compensation effects, and thus underestimated the effects of OSHA.

Absenteeism↗