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PubMed2003

Psychological hardiness, workplace stress and related stress reduction strategies.

Contending with stressful situations in the workplace is a common occurrence for all health care providers. Stress has numerous devastating effects on the workplace environment, as well as upon individuals who become victims of stress. However, enhancing psychological hardiness may facilitate an individual's ability to deal with workplace stress. Psychological hardiness, a personality style consisting of commitment, control and challenge, encourages human survival and the enrichment of life through development. This article provides an overview of psychological hardiness and workplace stress, and proposes strategies that one can use to enhance commitment, control and challenge in an effort to reduce the impact of stress.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

Employees' perceptions of workplace change.

Change is endemic, but it creates fear in the workplace. In this study, five people from a health care organisation were interviewed to gain a better understanding of their concerns in the workplace. Each person regarded the effects of workplace change somewhat differently in variety and intensity but in general terms they all identified two major spheres of influence. Each sphere represents a complex dynamic relationship of several effects. The first, which is at an individual level, includes feelings and attitudes, and behavioural, psychological and social effects. The second, which is at an organisational level, includes culture, leadership, decision making and strategy implementation. Communication and education were viewed as key elements that facilitated the change process. In the surveyed organisation, service closure was viewed as the overriding concern that dominated most participants' perceptions of change. Additional research is required to ascertain if this model can be generalised to other workplace environments.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2006

Association of medication adherence with workplace productivity and health-related quality of life in patients with asthma.

OBJECTIVE: Examine the association of medication adherence with workplace productivity and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in asthma patients. METHODS: Adult patients with asthma in a state health insurance program identified from medical claims (July 2001-June 2003) were mailed a three-part survey to measure HRQL (St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire), workplace productivity (Workplace Productivity Short Inventory), and self-reported medication adherence (Morisky Scale). RESULTS: The symptoms domain had the worst HRQL scores, followed by the activity and impacts domains; 39% of the participants reported themselves as "high" adherent, whereas 19% were "medium," and 42% were "low" adherent. Asthma resulted in productivity losses of 597 +/- 1,024 US dollars (absenteeism) and 658 +/- 1,808 US dollars (presenteeism) per enrollee per year. CONCLUSIONS: Asthma was associated with HRQL detriments and workplace productivity losses.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed1992

Review of respirator performance testing in the workplace: issues and concerns.

Performance capability of respirators has traditionally been evaluated by testing components of the respirator (e.g., filter efficiency), facepiece fit, total inward leakage, or some other measure of performance evaluated under laboratory conditions. In recent years, increased emphasis has been placed on development of test methods suitable for evaluating respirator performance in the workplace. The goal of such testing is to evaluate the level of protection provided by respirators in the work environment. The AIHA Respiratory Protection Committee believes that workplace testing of respirators has the potential to be an excellent tool for increasing knowledge about the effectiveness of respiratory protection. However, a number of technical issues remain to be addressed before optimal test protocols and data analysis methods can be defined. The progress made to date in workplace testing will be reviewed, and broader discussion about key elements that must be considered when developing guidelines for testing respirators in the workplace will be initiated.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗

PubMed2004

The workplace impact of acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (AECB); A literature review.

Acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (AECB) are known to have a substantial economic burden in terms of medical care costs. The objective of this study was to assess workplace-based costs associated with AECB, including absenteeism and decreased productivity, based on a review of published literature. A secondary goal was to identify factors related to workplace-based costs in AECB. A literature search was conducted to identify relevant articles assessing one or more aspects of work loss or workplace costs among patients with chronic bronchitis. A review of the identified literature indicates that patients with chronic bronchitis had more days off work; patients whose exacerbations were treated were less likely to have additional exacerbations and had comparatively less work loss. Findings suggest that clinical outcomes and workplace costs are related. While this relationship is clearer in terms of work loss, further exploration is needed to assess decreased productivity and to evaluate this relationship using objective indicators of absenteeism and productivity rather than recall.

Bronchitis, Chronic↗

PubMed2006

Collection, validation and generation of bitumen fumes for inhalation studies in rats Part 1: Workplace samples and validation criteria.

OBJECTIVES: Undertaking a chronic inhalation study on bitumen fume presents a challenge in terms of generating large amounts of representative fume. The objective of the study described in this and the following contributions was to collect sufficient fume and develop a laboratory-generated exposure atmosphere that resembles, as closely as possible, personal exposures seen in workers during road paving operations, for use in chronic inhalation toxicity studies in rats. METHODS: To achieve this goal, atmospheric workplace samples were collected at road paving work sites both by Shell Global Solutions, Int. (Shell) and by the 'Berufsgenossenschaftliches Institut für Arbeitssicherheit' (BIA, Germany) and compared with bitumen fume condensate samples collected from the head space of hot bitumen storage tanks. Part 1 describes the collection and analysis of personal and static workplace samples. Different sampling methods were also used to allow a comparison of the standard German sampling method with the most common industry method used. Samples were analyzed by Shell, BIA and by the Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (Fh-ITEM, Germany) using different methods. Parameters determined were: total particulate matter (TPM), benzene soluble matter (BSM), semi-volatiles (SV), total organic matter (TOM), boiling point distribution (BPD), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and UV fluorescence (UVF). RESULTS: The BPD of personal and static samples had almost identical start and end points, but static samples show a tendency towards an increase in amounts of higher boiling point compounds. Personal samples generally show higher PAH concentrations than comparable static samples. The results of the analysis of personal workplace samples were used to establish validation/acceptance criteria for the bitumen fume condensate sampled from storage tanks for the inhalation study, which is described in a further publication. CONCLUSIONS: The criteria involve a range of parameters that can be analyzed in both workplace samples and samples of tank fume condensate: BPD, UVF and content of individual PAHs were selected as parameters.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗

PubMed2002

Balancing breastfeeding and paid employment: a project targeting employers, women and workplaces.

Since breastfeeding is acknowledged as the best nutrition for young babies, it needs to be protected, supported and promoted. This includes enabling mothers to continue breastfeeding even when they return to work. This paper describes a project that promotes balancing breastfeeding and paid work through the development, distribution, promotion and evaluation of suitable materials to workplaces, employers and women in Australia. Information provided in a workplace kit was based on previous successful strategies from published works in refereed journals and in consultation with employers, employees and other key people. Information for employees was further summarized and translated into Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish and Vietnamese. Over 50,000 information kits were distributed Australia-wide using a database that comprised contact details of medium to large workplaces plus employee and employer organizations, with preference given to workplaces that employed women of childbearing age and women from diverse cultural backgrounds. The translated material was also distributed to migrant resource centres and working women's centres around Australia. Promotion of the project was extensive, resulting in 20 newspaper articles, 17 radio interviews or news items, and articles in 18 newsletters and professional journals and three magazines. The project was also promoted at three conferences and one seminar. Evaluation (directed at employers) focused primarily on the distribution and content of the information kit, since the evaluation was conducted soon after distribution. The evaluation survey was sent to 1571 valid contacts (808 e-mail addresses, 1360 fax numbers). The response rate was 12.8% (n = 202). Seventy per cent of responding businesses rated the information kit as excellent. Over half anticipated the kit would be useful in their organization, while over two-thirds agreed that the kit provided sufficient information and suitable solutions to support balancing breastfeeding and work in their organization. While this project has achieved its objectives, further work is required to assist organizations to develop and implement policies and procedures for balancing breastfeeding and work, so that breastfeeding mothers who are returning to work can continue to breastfeed as long as they and their baby require it.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed2005

Multiple aspects of hair analysis for opiates: methodology, clinical and workplace populations, codeine, and poppy seed ingestion.

Levels of morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine (MAM) and codeine in hair in both clinical and workplace subjects are presented. Aggressive wash procedures, consisting of 1 isopropanol wash, three 30-min, and two 1-h buffer washes, followed by digestion, extraction and confirmation of digested samples, resulted in values from the cutoff of 2 ng morphine/10 mg hair to greater than 200 ng/10 mg hair. Both morphine and MAM were present above the cutoff in all hair samples from 69 clinical subjects. Only 39 of the 69 heroin-using subjects had urine tests positive for 6-MAM. In a study of morphine in hair following poppy seed consumption, ten subjects ingested 150 g of poppy seed over 3 weeks. Urine samples were collected on the days of poppy seed ingestion and hair samples were taken in the 5th week of the study. The range among the 10 subjects of the highest urine value for each subject was 2929 to 13,827 ng morphine/mL. Hair morphine levels were 0.05-0.48 ng/10 mg hair (average 0.17 ng/10 mg hair). Hair opiate levels of workplace subjects ranged somewhat lower than those of clinical subjects. While all clinical hair samples contained MAM, many workplace samples did not. From workplace samples, a maximum amount of morphine likely to be present from codeine use was 0-3.7% of the codeine in the hair.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Workplace health and safety concerns in service organizations in the inner city.

There is little known about occupational health and safety concerns or programs in workplaces in the inner city. This work was part of a needs assessment for development of occupational health and safety programs for workplaces in the inner city. Its key objective was to identify inner-city worker concerns regarding specific hazards. The work involved two phases. The first sampled workers in an inner-city hospital and church, and the second involved both paid and volunteer workers in inner-city community outreach programs. The key concerns raised by inner-city workers were infectious disease and personal safety and violence. Occupational health and safety programs need to address infectious disease and personal safety issues in this environment. Further research is needed regarding workplace health and safety in inner-city workplaces, both regarding hazards particular to the inner city and occupational health programs for the workers, both paid and volunteer, who work there.

Female↗

PubMed1996

AIDS programmes at the workplace: a scoresheet for assessing the quality of services.

Little data is available on the extent or comprehensiveness of AIDS prevention activities at South African workplaces. A cross-sectional postal survey was performed of all members of the local occupational health nursing association in the area of greater Cape Town in 1994 to assess the quality of such programmes. Use was made of an index to score services based on their comprehensiveness, using criteria based on recommendations previously identified in the South Africa literature on AIDS control. The presence of a workplace policy on AIDS was the strongest predictor of high quality AIDS prevention activities. Substantial numbers of companies reported sending staff for HIV-related training, and the presence of training was non-significantly associated with higher quality services with regard to HIV prevention. Treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) was reported in slightly over half of the sample. Given the central importance of STD treatment for the prevention and control of AIDS, improvements in STD management at the workplace may significantly assist attempts at the public health control of the HIV epidemic. In addition, worker involvement in the planning, management and implementation of AIDS prevention activities is also limited at present and needs attention. Recommendations for the use of a scoring system to promote evaluation of AIDS programmes in the workplace are made.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed1999

Workplace exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and high density lipoprotein cholesterol among nonsmokers.

There are few epidemiologic studies among adult nonsmokers on the effects of workplace environmental tobacco smoke on high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). The authors investigated this relation, using data from health examinations conducted in 1995 on 3,062 Japanese nonsmokers in a total of 27 municipal offices with few smoking restrictions. Multiple regression analysis with adjustments for age, body mass index, alcohol drinking, and sports activities showed that in women, and in men lacking both alcohol consumption and sports activities characteristics, there were inverse linear relations between workplace smoking indices and HDL-C levels. Multivariate logistic regression showed that nonsmoking women in the upper two thirds of offices ranked by smoking intensity had an increased risk of low HDL-C levels (<45 mg), taking those in the lowest third of offices as reference (the medium third: odds ratio = 1.7; 95% confidence interval: 1.2, 2.5; the highest third: odds ratio = 1.6; 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 2.4). The results indicated that workplace environmental tobacco smoke exposure is associated with HDL-C among nonsmokers. However, the lack of data on home exposure limits causal inferences about the effects of workplace exposure.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Radon in the workplace: implications of studies of post-remediation monitoring.

Radon gas has been shown to cause an increased incidence of lung cancer. In affected areas, levels in the overground workplace can be sufficiently high to be a health risk and remediation is required. In the UK, the workplace Action Level is 400 Bq m(-3). The variation of radon levels in the workplace was studied both before and after remediation. In most rooms, remediation resulted in a greater reduction at night than during the working day. The dose reduction, and therefore the health benefit, to workers is less than that predicted by the drop in radon averaged over 24 h. In order to obtain a health benefit to 75% of workers in our series, the 24 h average radon level in each room must be reduced to <225 Bq m(-3). It is recommended that UK Regulatory Agencies adopt a post-remediation workplace Action Level of 225 Bq m(-3).

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗

PubMed2007

Pilot study of indoor radon in Greek workplaces.

Radon and gamma dose rate measurements have been performed in 561 workplaces in 19 prefectures of Greece. The distribution of radon concentration can be well described by a log-normal distribution. Most of the radon concentrations are between 50 and 200 Bq m(-3) with an arithmetic mean of 123 Bq m(-3). The maximum measured value of radon gas concentration is 695 Bq m(-3). About 10% of the workplaces exceed 200 Bq m(-3). Only a small fraction ( approximately 1%) of workplaces exceed the European Commission action level (400 Bq m(-3)). Despite the relative small fraction of workplaces which exceed the value of 400 Bq m(-3), it is clear from the results of the present work that for certain prefectures, further and more extensive research is needed.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗

PubMed2004

How we prevent prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace.

American businesses face huge costs for work-related musculoskeletal pain. Work-related musculoskeletal pain is not new or unique to the population of the United States. Many historic manifestations of workplace pain have been related to innovation and technology changes. Incidence rates and severity of symptoms have had an interesting relationship to the public concern and governmental decisions. In 1999, a National Academy of Sciences study found total costs to be more than US dollar 1 trillion per year and concluded that effective prevention of workplace pain through active intervention is not only possible, but results in a significant cost savings for the employer while reducing the disability experienced by the employee. Employers have been reluctant to embrace the benefits of workplace prevention for work-related musculoskeletal pain. The purpose of this review is to examine (1). what is know about prevention of work-related musculoskeletal pain and workplace musculoskeletal disorders, (2). a brief description of several prevention preventing behaviors, (3). an analysis of how these preventing behaviors are maintained, and (4). suggestions on how to reverse these prevention preventing behaviors.

Cost Savings↗

PubMed1994

Changes in smoking behavior and body weight after implementation of a no-smoking policy in the workplace.

There is little information on the long-term consequences for employees when no-smoking policies are established in the workplace. Our study was designed to assess changes in employee health and smoking behavior. Of the original 60 subjects, 40 employees (18 smokers, 22 nonsmokers) completed this study, which was conducted in a major medical institution. Nonsmokers were recruited as part of the study to determine whether they showed evidence of workplace carbon monoxide associated with passive smoke, potentially inhaled at the work site. Baseline measurements of smoking frequency, carbon monoxide, and weight were obtained during the month preceding the smoking restrictions and at 6 and 18 months afterward. Smokers made significant reductions in daily smoking during the first 6 months but gradually returned to prepolicy levels over the following year. Smokers, in particular, showed increases in weight. Smokers gained 4.93 lb after 18 months, whereas nonsmokers gained 2.25 lb in the same period. Nonsmoker employees showed no evidence of workplace carbon monoxide exposure associated with passive smoke. We discuss the implications of the findings for no-smoking policies in the workplace.

Body Weight↗

PubMed1998

Surveillance of non-fatal workplace assault injuries, using police and employers' reports.

Although the majority of work-related homicides are routinely reported in the United States, information on non-fatal events is less complete. Comprehensive surveillance of non-fatal events depends on understanding reporting trends to different agencies. This study characterizes workplace assaults reported to police and through employers in eight southern California cities. Employers' reports filed from October 1, 1994, through January 31, 1995, and police reports filed from June 1, 1994, through March 31, 1995, that involved a non-fatal workplace assault injury were included. Reports from police and employers were linked, and annualized rates combining non-duplicative reports were calculated and event characteristics compared. The combined annualized rate of workplace assault injury for the eight cities was 184.6 per 100,000 workers, which was almost twice the rate found in either reporting source individually. Police reports differed from employers' reports by industry and occupation of victim but not type of event or weapons used. Examination of multiple reporting sources for non-fatal workplace assault injuries is essential to identifying the magnitude of these events. Understanding trends in reporting is important for the effective design of prevention programs.

California↗

PubMed2005

Impact of a workplace peer-focused substance abuse prevention and early intervention program.

BACKGROUND: PeerCare is a workplace peer intervention program that focuses on changing workplace attitudes toward on-the-job substance use and trains workers to recognize, intervene with, and refer coworkers who have a problem. METHODS: Monthly injuries at the study company (January 1983 through June 1996) were compared to counts at four other companies in the same industry. Using these panel data, fixed-effects negative binomial regression measured the association of the percentage of the workforce covered by PeerCare with the workplace injury rate. RESULTS: For every 1% increase in the workforce covered with PeerCare, the risk of injury declined by 0.9984 (95% confidence interval, 0.9975-0.9994). These findings suggest that, by June 1996, when 86% of the workforce was covered under PeerCare, the program had reduced injury rates by an average 14% per month. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the implementation of peer intervention programs as a means to reduce workplace injuries.

Accidents, Occupational↗

PubMed2004

Do drug-free workplace programs prevent occupational injuries? Evidence from Washington State.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a publicly sponsored drug-free workplace program on reducing the risk of occupational injuries. DATA SOURCES: Workers' compensation claims data from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries covering the period 1994 through 2000 and work-hours data reported by employers served as the data sources for the analysis. STUDY DESIGN: We used a pre-post design with a nonequivalent comparison group to assess the impact of the intervention on injury risk, measured in terms of differences in injury incidence rates. Two hundred and sixty-one companies that enrolled in the drug-free workplace program during the latter half of 1996 were compared with approximately 20,500 nonintervention companies. We tested autoregressive, integrated moving-average (ARIMA) models to assess the robustness of our findings. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The drug-free workplace intervention was associated (p < .05) with a statistically significant decrease in injury rates for three industry groups: construction, manufacturing, and services. It was associated (p < .05) with a reduction in the incidence rate of more serious injuries involving four or more days of lost work time for two industry groups: construction and services. The ARIMA analysis supported CONCLUSIONS: The drug-free workplace program we studied was associated with a selective, industry-specific preventive effect. The strongest evidence of an intervention effect was for the construction industry. Estimated net cost savings for this industry were positive though small in magnitude.

Accidents, Occupational↗