American journal of industrial medicine
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Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are at risk for occupational illnesses from pesticide exposure, and the effectiveness of pesticide safety regulations has not been evaluated. It is important to learn from farmworker safety experiences to develop effective measures to improve agricultural workplace safety. ⋯ Several points of intervention are available to improve pesticide safety and sanitation. Additional regulation by itself is not an advantageous starting point. The emphasis for intervention must include educating farmers as well as farmworkers.
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Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) is an organic derivative of manganese (Mn) used in Canadian gasoline since 1976 as an antiknock agent and to improve octane rating. Combustion products of MMT are mainly a mixture of Mn phosphate and Mn sulfate. In 1997, the Canadian federal government adopted a law (C-29) which banned both the interprovincial trade and the importation for commercial purposes of manganese-based substances, including MMT. However, the government reworded this law in July 1998 so that manganese-based fuel additives were not included in the restrictions. MMT is now approved for use in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, the United States, France, Russia, and conditionally in New Zealand. Nevertheless, these countries are not using MMT intensively and they are waiting for strong evidence of the absence of effects on human health. Even after several years of use of MMT in Canada, many uncertainties remain. ⋯ Obviously, there is still an important lack of adequate toxicological information and further studies are needed to provide successful implementation of evidence-based risk assessment approaches.
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Medico-legal models of disability determination for low back pain lack empirical support. Besides diagnostic and functional parameters, social and situational factors may influence impairment/disability ratings and costs. ⋯ Social and situational parameters influence disability management among employer-retained physicians, while functional variables have little impact. For musculoskeletal low back pain, increased disability and cost may result from variation in treatment duration.
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To lay groundwork for identifying patterns of injury etiology, we sought to describe injury experience associated with types of work performed at construction sites by examining workers' compensation (WC) claims for the 32,081 construction workers who built Denver International Airport (DIA). ⋯ Analysis of injury data by type of work allows targeting of safety resources to high risk construction work and would be useful in prospective surveillance at large construction sites with centrally administered workers' compensation plans.