Occupational and environmental medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Participatory ergonomics to reduce exposure to psychosocial and physical risk factors for low back pain and neck pain: results of a cluster randomised controlled trial.
This study investigated the effectiveness of the Stay@Work participatory ergonomics programme to reduce workers' exposure to psychosocial and physical risk factors. ⋯ Participatory ergonomics was not effective in reducing exposure to psychosocial and physical risk factors for low back pain and neck pain among a large group of workers.
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Multicenter Study
Medication use in relation to noise from aircraft and road traffic in six European countries: results of the HYENA study.
Studies on the health effects of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure suggest excess risks of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and the use of sedatives and hypnotics. Our aim was to assess the use of medication in relation to noise from aircraft and road traffic. ⋯ Our results suggest an effect of aircraft noise on the use of antihypertensive medication, but this effect did not hold for all countries. Results were more consistent across countries for the increased use of anxiolytics in relation to aircraft noise.
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Occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is prevalent, yet evidence on the effectiveness of preventive interventions is lacking. The effectiveness of a new technology allowing workers to monitor daily at-ear noise exposure was analysed. ⋯ Monitoring daily occupational noise exposure inside hearing protection with ongoing administrative feedback apparently reduces the risk of occupational NIHL in industrial workers. Longer follow-up of these workers will help determine the significance of the intervention effect. Intervention studies for the prevention of NIHL need to include appropriate control groups.
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Beryllium has been identified as a human carcinogen on the basis of animal and epidemiological studies. The authors recently reported updated associations between lung cancer and beryllium exposure in a large, pooled occupational cohort. The authors conducted the present study to evaluate the shape of exposure-response associations between different exposure metrics and lung cancer in this cohort, considering potential confounders (race, plant, professional and short-term work status, and exposure to other lung carcinogens). ⋯ This study provides evidence that lung cancer risk is elevated at levels near the current US Occupational Safety and Health Administration beryllium exposure limit of 2.0 μg/m(3) DWA for workers.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Traffic-related air pollution and incident asthma in a high-risk birth cohort.
The risk of incident asthma and bronchial hyper-reactivity associated with early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution has not been fully elucidated. We aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that the risk of new onset asthma is positively associated with early exposure to traffic-related air pollution in a well-characterised high-risk birth cohort. ⋯ Modest elevations in exposure to some traffic-related air pollutants during the year of birth are associated with new onset asthma assessed at age 7. That significant associations were revealed in spite of a limited sample size emphasises the strengths of a high-risk birth cohort model, along with individual air pollution exposure estimates and well-characterised data on covariates and outcomes.