Agricultural work is hazardous and is common among rural youth, especially those living on farms or ranches. Previous work has shown differences in farm work and injury patterns between boys and girls, but little data exist addressing ethnic differences. This study examined ethnic and gender differences in farm tasks, safety attitudes, and use of protective measures among rural California youth working on farms or ranches. The University of California, Davis Youth Agricultural Injury Study is a longitudinal study focusing on agricultural work experience among youth enrolled in an agricultural sciences curriculum in 10 public high schools in California's Central Valley during the 2001-2005 school years. Using cross-sectional data from the initial entrance survey, we studied 946 participants who reported farm work in the previous year. Median annual hours of farm work varied significantly between boys and girls (p < 0.001) and between ethnic groups (p < 0.05) (Hispanic boys: 624 hr; Hispanic girls: 189 hr; White/Other boys: 832 hr; White/Other girls: 468 hr). Girls and Hispanic students were less likely than boys and White/Other students, respectively, to perform hazardous tasks involving tractors, machinery, and chemicals. Median age for initiating work on selected hazardous tasks was up to 3 years later for Hispanic students. Use of task-appropriate safety measures was low in all groups for most hazardous tasks. Boys were more likely than girls to use task-appropriate safety measures, with the exception of seatbelt use when in a car or truck. Hispanic students were more likely than White/Other students to employ safety measures. Girls and Hispanic youth worked fewer farm hours and had reduced exposure to selected hazardous tasks. Use of task-appropriate safety measures was low for all groups but increased for Hispanic students. Further study should explore reasons for low use of safety measures and develop educational efforts to bring about social norm changes promoting their use.
Source : McCurdy SA, Kwan JA. J. Occup. Env. Hyg. 2012; 9(6): 362-370.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15459624.2012.679584
Background : A prior study indicated that the effect of OSHA inspections on lost workday injuries had declined from 1979 through 1998. This study provides an updated estimate for 1998–2005.
Methods : Injury data from the Pennsylvania workers' compensation program were linked with employment data from unemployment compensation records to calculate lost-time rates for single-establishment manufacturing firms with more than 10 employees. These rates were linked to OSHA inspection findings. The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee determined that this study was exempt from review
Results : Inspections with penalties reduced injuries by an average of 19–24% annually in the 2 years following the inspection. These effects were not found for workplaces with fewer than 20 or more than 250 employees or for inspections without penalties.
Conclusions : These findings should be generalizable to the 29 states where federal OSHA directly enforces standards. They suggest that the impact of inspections has increased from the 1990s.
Source : Haviland AM, Burns RM, Gray WB, Ruder T, Mendeloff J. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22062
A repeated crosssectional study
BACKGROUND: Violence at work is one of the major concerns in health care activities. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of physical and non-physical violence in a general health care facility in Italy and to assess the relationship between violence and psychosocial factors, thereby providing a basis for appropriate intervention. METHODS: All health care workers from a public health care facility were invited to complete a questionnaire containing questions on workplace violence. Three questionnaire-based crosssectional surveys were conducted. The response rate was 75 % in 2005, 71 % in 2007, and 94 % in 2009. The 2009 questionnaire contained the VIF (Violent Incident Form) for reporting violent incidents, the DCS (demand/control/support) model for job strain, the Colquitt 20 item questionnaire for perceived organizational justice, and the GHQ12 General Health Questionnaire for the assessment of mental health. RESULTS: One out of ten workers reported physical assault, and one out of three exposure to nonphysical violence in the workplace in the previous year. Nurses and physicians were the most exposed occupational categories, whereas the psychiatric and emergency departments were the services at greatest risk of violence. Workers exposed to non-physical violence were subject to high job strain, low support, low perceived organizational justice, and high psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that health care workers in an Italian local health care facility are exposed to violence. Workplace violence was associated with high demand and psychological disorders, while job control, social support and organizational justice were protective factors.
Source : Magnavita N, Heponiemi T. BMC Health Serv. Res. 2012; 12(1): 108.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-108
A billion people are on the move today – a seventh of humanity. More than 214 million people are living in a country other than their own as international migrants, half of whom are women. Current trends indicate that international mobility will be a key feature of the 21st Century. Globalization, ease of travel, and the spread of viral information has brought a new reality to the concept of a “small world”, with both a positive and negative impact on countries and communities across the world. As a result, there is an urgent need to manage the various developmental and humanitarian aspects of increasing human mobility migration, including migrants' health. When migrants leave their homes to work abroad, they are often healthy and strong, however, over time good health gives way to misfortune for those who lack access to health services, are exposed to unsafe working conditions, or engaged in risky behaviour such as unsafe sex and substance abuse. This is particularly true among irregular or undocumented migrants who are often forced to take on dirty, dangerous and difficult work to make a living. Migrants working in less regulated labour sectors, such as domestic service and agriculture, are also at risk. But the risk is greater than just that of physical health. Long-term family separation, as well as exploitative and abusive working conditions, can also take its toll on many migrants' mental well-being.
Source : Asian-Pacific Newsletter on occupational health and safety. Volume 19, number 1, May 2012
http://www.ttl.fi/en/publications/electronic_journals/asian_pacific_newsletter/Documents/AsianPacific_Newsletter1_%202012.pdf
Dossier spécial dans Travail & changement, No 343, Mai / Juin 2012
Poser le périmètre. Questionner les acteurs. Expérimenter les règles sociale. L'Anact propose un angle peu exploré, quid des conditions de travail dans la sous-traitance ?
Source : http://www.anact.fr/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/10770379.PDF
BACKGROUND: Latino residential construction workers experience high rates of occupational fatality and injury. Work safety climate is an especially important consideration for improving the safety of these immigrant workers. This analysis describes work safety climate among Latino residential construction workers, delineates differences in work safety climate by personal and employment characteristics, and determines associations of work safety climate with specific work safety behaviors. METHODS: Data are from a cross-sectional survey of 119 Latino residential framers, roofers, and general construction workers in western North Carolina; 90 of these participants also provided longitudinal daily diary data for up to 21 days using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. Measures included the Perceived Safety Climate Scale, and daily reports of five individual and five collective safety practices. RESULTS: Work safety climate was mixed among workers, with roofers (19.9) having lower levels than framers (24.3) or general construction workers (24.3). Days reported for several individual (glove-related risks, not doing something known to be unsafe) and collective safety practices (attended daily safety meeting, not needing to use damaged equipment, not seeing coworker create an unsafe situation) were positively associated with work safety climate. CONCLUSIONS: Work safety climate predicts subsequent safety behaviors among Latino residential construction workers, with differences by trade being particularly important. Interventions are needed to improve safety training for employers as well as workers. Further research should expand the number of workers and trades involved in analyses of work safety climate.
Source : Arcury TA, Mills T, Marín AJ, Summers P, Quandt SA, Rushing J, Lang W, Grzywacz JG. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22058
BACKGROUND: The number of workers who died due to occupational injury in Korea as of 2007 was 1,383. The aim of this study was to identify whether there were any differences in the risk of occupational injury between nonstandard workers (temporary workers and/or subcontract workers) and regular workers. METHODS: 1,576 injured workers, selected from National Health Insurance and National Workers' Compensation Insurance, were interviewed via telephone survey using standardized questionnaires in 2007. The control group was 1,500 workers matched for age, gender, and severity of injury. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between the type of nonstandard work and occupational injury. RESULTS: Nonstandard temporary workers were more likely to be injured than regular workers even if other related factors of occupational injury were statistically adjusted (adjusted odds ratio, OR 2.87, 95% confidence interval 2.37-3.49). CONCLUSIONS: The reason why the risks of nonstandard workers are higher than those of regular workers is that nonstandard workers are placed in poor working conditions.
Source : Im HJ, Oh DG, Ju YS, Kwon YJ, Jang TW, Yim J. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22055
Objective : It has been hypothesized that the underlying mechanism of elevated breast cancer risk among long-term, night-working women involves circadian genes expression alteration caused by exposure to light at night and/or irregular work hours. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of rotating night shift work on expression of selected core circadian genes.
Methods : The cross-sectional study was conducted on 184 matched nurses and midwives, who currently work either day or rotating night shifts, to determine the effect of irregular work at night on circadian gene expression in peripheral blood leukocytes. Transcript levels of BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY1, CRY2, PER1, PER2, and PER3 were determined by means of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Results : After adjusting for hour of blood collection, there were no statistically significant changes of investigated circadian genes among nurses and midwives currently working rotating night shifts compared to nurses working day shifts. The highest expression of PER1 messanger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was observed for women currently working shifts who had worked >15 years in rotating night shift work. PER1 gene expression was associated with the lifetime duration of rotating night shift work among women currently working night shifts (P=0.04). PER1 and PER3 transcript levels in blood leukocytes were significantly down-regulated in the later versus early hours of the morning between 06.00–10.00 hours (β-coefficient -0.226, P=0.001 and β-coefficient -0.181, P<0.0001, respectively).
Conclusions : These results suggest that current rotating night shift work does not affect circadian gene expression in human circulating leukocytes. In analysis of the peripheral clock in human studies, the hour of blood collection should be precisely specified.
Source : Reszka E, Peplonska B, Wieczorek E, Sobala W, Bukowska A, Gromadzinska J, Lie J-A, Kjuus H, Wasowicz W. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3303
A longitudinal examination with naturally occurring groups in hospital settings
BACKGROUND: Workplace violence towards nurses is prevalent and consequential, contributing to nurses' reduced health and safety, worsened job attitudes, and compromised productivity. OBJECTIVES: To examine if organizational violence prevention climate as perceived by nurses predicts nurses' physical violence exposure and if physical violence exposure predicts nurses' somatic symptoms and musculoskeletal disorder symptoms. DESIGN: A two-wave longitudinal design with naturally occurring groups, with a 6-month interval. METHODS: Analysis of covariance and logistic regression were applied to test the proposed hypotheses among 176 nurses from two hospitals in the U.S. who participated in both surveys required by this study. All nurses from the two hospitals were recruited to participate voluntarily. The response rate was 30% for the first survey and 36% for the follow-up survey. Among the subjects, only 8 were male. On average, the subjects were about 45 years old, had a job tenure of about 17 years, and worked approximately 37h per week. RESULTS: Violence prevention climate, specifically the dimension of perceived pressure against violence prevention, predicted nurses' chance of being exposed to physical violence over six months (odds ratio 1.69), with no evidence found that violence exposure affected change in climate reports. In addition, results supported that nurses' physical violence exposure had effects on somatic symptoms, and upper body, lower extremity, and low back pain over six months. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of this study suggest that reducing organizational pressure against violence prevention will help decrease the chance of nurses' physical violence exposure and benefit their health and safety.
Source : Yang LQ, Spector PE, Chang CH, Gallant-Roman M, Powell J. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.03.006
Objectives. We assessed the impact of changes in dimensions of the psychosocial work environment on risk of depression in a longitudinal cohort of Canadian workers who were free of depression when work conditions were initially reported.
Methods. Using a sample (n = 3735) from the Canadian National Population Health Survey, we examined the effects of changes in job control, psychological demands, and social support over a 2-year period on subsequent depression. We adjusted models for a number of covariates, including personal history of depression.
Results. Respondents with increased psychological demands were more likely to have depression over the following 2 years (odds ratio = 2.36; 95% confidence interval = 1.14, 4.88). This risk remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, presence of children, level of education, chronic health conditions, subclinical depression when work conditions were initially assessed, family history of depression, and personal history of depression.
Conclusions. These results demonstrate that changes in psychological demands have a stronger influence than changes in job control on the onset of depression, highlighting the importance of not assuming an interaction between these 2 components of job strain when assessing health outcomes.
Source : Peter M. Smith and Amber Bielecky. The Impact of Changes in Job Strain and Its Components on the Risk of Depression. American Journal of Public Health: February 2012, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 352-358.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300376
This study aimed to assess the associations between mental health conditions, individual and job characteristics and sleep disturbances among firefighters. Of 303 participants, 51.2% reported sleep disturbances. Psychological distress and psychosomatic disturbances were significantly associated with sleep disturbances. Suicidal ideation, unhealthy alcohol use and time as a firefighter were also associated with sleep disturbances but at a borderline level of significance (0.05 < p < .085). These findings may be related to the psychological and physical hazards of firefighting and indicate the importance of research on associated professions.
Source : Barros VV, Martins L, Saitz R, Bastos RR, Ronzani TM. J. Health Psychol. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1359105312443402
Actes du séminaire Ages et travail, mai 2009
Les recherches sur les relations entre âges et travail qui pointent les enjeux de santé et d'expérience au fil du parcours professionnel ignorent encore largement la dimension du genre.
Pourtant, les études statistiques ou épidémiologiques constatent et parfois analysent les disparités et ressemblances entre les résultats concernant les femmes et les hommes.
Pourtant, des travaux de démographes, d'économistes, de sociologues démontrent qu'une analyse sexuée des itinéraires est indispensable.
Pourtant, les travaux des ergonomes se veulent attentifs à la « diversité des opérateurs », et le socle des connaissances ergonomiques sur l'âge, la santé et le travail s'est largement élaboré à partir de recherches menées dans des secteurs d'emploi féminin (dans la confection, l'électronique, les renseignements
téléphoniques, les services administratifs, les hôpitaux, etc.).
Prendre en compte le genre et les femmes, ce n'est pas développer un domaine de connaissances spécifiques. C'est viser un approfondissement des questions et des savoirs. Par exemple, il est possible ainsi de connaître de façon plus complète et plus diversifiée la continuité ou la discontinuité des carrières, la progression ou la stagnation professionnelle, l'accès aux formations et aux apprentissages, les formes d'émancipation ou d'assujettissement dans l'activité, l'usage des horaires et l'articulation des sphères de la vie.
Source : http://www.cee-recherche.fr/fr/rapports/71-parcours-professionnels-sante-femmes-hommes.pdf
Nearly everyone experiences fatigue, but some professions--such as aviation, medicine and the military--demand alert, precise, rapid, and well-informed decision making and communication with little margin for error. The potential for fatigue to negatively affect human performance is well established. Concern about this potential in the aviation context extends back decades, with both airlines and pilots agreeing that fatigue is a safety concern. A more recent consideration is whether and how pilot commuting, conducted in a pilot's off-duty time, may affect fatigue during flight duty.
Source : http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13201#description
Objective People living in industrialized societies have developed specific working schedules during the day and at night, including permanent night shifts and rotating night shifts. The aim of this study was to examine the association between circadian polymorphisms and rotating night shift work.
Methods This cross-sectional study comprised 709 nurses and midwives (348 current rotating and 361 current day workers). Genetic polymorphism of selected clock genes BMAL1 (rs2279287), CLOCK (rs1801260), PER1 (rs2735611), PER2 (rs2304672), PER3 (rs10462020), CRY1 (rs8192440), CRY2 (rs10838527, rs10838527) was determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays.
Results There were no differences in BMAL1, CLOCK, CRY2, PER1, PER2, and PER3 genotypes among nurses and midwives working rotating night and day shifts. The frequency of women with rare CRY1 TT genotype was higher in the group of rotating night shift than day workers (17.0% versus 13.9%, P=0.06). Moreover, CRY1 TT genotype was associated with the total rotating shift-work duration, compared to women rarely working night shifts.
Conclusions These results suggest that CRY1 (rs8192440) polymorphism may influence the adaptation to the rotating night shift work among nurses and midwives.
Source : Reszka E, Peplonska B, Wieczorek E, Sobala W, Bukowska A, Gromadzinska J, Lie J-A, Kjuus H, Wasowicz W. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2012.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3299
Lorsqu'on les interroge sur leur passé professionnel, les générations les plus récentes retracent des parcours moins stables que les plus anciennes. En 2006, l'expérience du chômage concernait près d'un individu sur deux pour les générations nées après 1960, alors qu'elle était beaucoup moins fréquente pour les générations antérieures dont les carrières professionnelles étaient pourtant plus longues.
Les nouvelles générations sont plus diplômées et exercent moins souvent des métiers industriels. Pour autant, le ressenti de pénibilités physiques dans le travail reste stable au sein des générations nées après 1940. Les générations les plus récentes signalent davantage que leurs aînées des difficultés liées à l'organisation du travail : leurs compétences leur semblent moins pleinement utilisées, leur travail moins reconnu et davantage exercé sous pression. Ces évolutions peuvent renvoyer aux mutations importantes de l'organisation du travail, mais aussi à une évolution du regard des salariés sur leur travail.
Les salariés ayant un parcours marqué par l'instabilité et le chômage estiment davantage que les autres travailler « sous pression » ou que leur travail est insuffisamment reconnu. Pour les hommes, précarité de l'emploi et pénibilité physique tendent à être associées.
Source : http://www.anact.fr/portal/page/portal/web/publications/NOTINMENU_affichage_document?p_thingIdToShow=25833607
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