Documents McElvenny, Damien M. 5 results

"It is recognised that firefighters can be exposed to many different harmful substances. In 2007 the International Agency for Research on Cancer convened a working group to assess the carcinogenicity of a variety of occupations, increased rates of testicular, prostate and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were identified for firefighting. This report examines the research published since an IOM review for the UK Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, by carrying out a systematic review and meta-analyses of the epidemiological evidence for specific cancers in firefighters. In total 304 publications were screened against the inclusion criteria, 261 publications were excluded based on their title/abstract and a further 20 were excluded once the full publication had been examined. The remaining 23 papers were included in the review. Meta-analyses were carried out for 23 specific cancer sites. Cancers identified as having a positive association with firefighting included colon (meta-RR=1.18, 95% CI 1.08-1.29), rectal (meta-RR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.29), lymphatic and haematopoietic (meta-RR=1.20, 95% CI 1.07-1.35), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (meta-RR=1.14, 95% CI 1.05-1.23), melanoma (meta-RR=1.41, 95% CI 1.21-1.65), prostate (meta-RR=1.13, 95% CI 1.03-1.24), bladder (meta-RR=1.12, 95% CI 1.01-1.26) and kidney cancer (meta-RR=1.16, 95% CI 1.00-1.23). The report highlights that a number of cancers were identified as having a raised risk among firefighters, but there was no evidence in this literature of the association found previously with testicular cancer. "

"This report contains a systematic review of the epidemiological and mechanistic evidence from 2005 to 2015 relevant for examining the association between shift work and cancer. The systematic review is supplemented by a review of relevant health and safety practices and policies as well as a compendium of current and ongoing relevant epidemiological work in the field. The systematic review employed standard methodology. The epidemiological evidence examining the relationship between shift work and breast cancer is now appreciable. Recent studies have better adjusted for potential confounding factors, but many still have imprecise and inconsistent definitions of shift work. Across all the epidemiological evidence examined the overall relative risk is around 1.2 or 1.3. During the write-up of this report a meta-analysis of prospective epidemiological studies was published which provides evidence that the overall relative risk for breast cancer in relation to shift may not be raised at all. The epidemiological evidence for other cancer sites remains relatively sparse and the evidence supporting a causal association remains somewhat limited. Suppression of night time melatonin production and or obesity remains the most plausible biological mechanism for the association with breast cancer. A number of practices have been implemented, for example shift design, pharmacological interventions etc. to reduce the potential carcinogenic risk of shift work, but have not yet been fully evaluated. The main recommendations emanating from this review relate to encouraging employers to provide healthy and nutritious food for shift workers as well as the opportunity to exercise and access programmes for smoking cessation and moderating of alcohol consumption. Encouraging employers to facilitate employee participation in national cancer screening programmes is also recommended. Further prospective epidemiological studies with well characterised data on shift working patterns, as well as good data on known and suspecting confounding factors remains warranted."

"Objective
To investigate the carcinogenicity of styrene by reanalysing data from a previous international cohort study of workers in the reinforced plastics industry.
Methods
Mortality from cancers of prior interest was analysed with more detailed consideration of exposure–response relations and an updated classification of leukaemias and lymphomas in data from a previous international cohort study of 37 021 reinforced plastics workers exposed to airborne styrene.
Results
Increased mortality from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) was associated with the mean level of exposure to styrene in air (relative risk (RR) 2.31, 95% CI 1.29 to 4.12 per 100 ppm), but not with cumulative styrene exposure. Similar associations with mean exposure were observed for the oesophagus (RR 2.44, 95% CI 1.11 to 5.36 per 100 ppm) and pancreas (RR 1.89, 95% CI 1.17 to 3.09). Oesophageal cancer mortality was also associated with cumulative styrene exposure lagged 20 years (RR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.31). No other cancer, including lung cancer, was associated with any indicator of styrene exposure.
Conclusion
This reanalysis does not substantially change the conclusions of the original study with respect to NHL or lung cancer but new evidence concerning cancers of the oesophagus and pancreas merits further investigation."

"Harmonized tools and approaches for data collection can help to detect similarities and differences within and between countries and support the development, implementation, and assessment of effective and consistent preventive strategies. We developed open source occupational questionnaires on COVID-19 within COVID-19 working groups in the OMEGA-NET COST action (Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts, omeganetcohorts.eu), and the EU funded EPHOR project (Exposome project for health and occupational research, ephor-project.eu). We defined domains to be included in order to cover key working life aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where possible, we selected questionnaire items and instruments from existing questionnaire resources. Both a general occupational COVID-19 questionnaire and a specific occupational COVID-19 questionnaire are available. The general occupational COVID-19 questionnaire covers key working life aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the domains: COVID-19 diagnosis and prevention, Health and demographics, Use of personal protective equipment and face covering, Health effects, Work-related effects (e.g. change in work schedule and work-life balance), Financial effects, Work-based risk factors (e.g. physical distancing, contact with COVID-19-infected persons), Psychosocial risk factors, Lifestyle risk factors, and Personal evaluation of the impact of COVID-19. For each domain, additional questions are available. The specific occupational COVID-19 questionnaire focusses on occupational risk factors and mitigating factors for SARS-CoV2 infection and COVID-19 disease and includes questions about the type of job, amount of home working, social distancing, human contact (colleagues, patients, and members of the public), commuting, and use of personal protective equipment and face coverings. The strength of this initiative is the broad working life approach to various important issues related to SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 disease, and potentially future pandemics. It requires further work to validate the questionnaires, and we welcome collaboration with researchers willing to do this. A limitation is the moderate number of questions for each of the domains in the general questionnaire. Only few questions on general core information like ethnicity, demographics, lifestyle factors, and general health status are included, but the OMEGA-NET questionnaires can be integrated in existing questionnaires about sociodemographic and health-related aspects. The questionnaires are freely accessible from the OMEGA-NET and the EPHOR homepages."

"Background
Evidence synthesis in the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) has been continuously growing over the last two decades. With over 100 systematic reviews now published, the Cochrane Work Review group has played an important role in this development and the Cochrane Thematic Group ‘Work & Health & Social Security' was established recently to combine evidence from both the OSH and insurance medicine fields. Worldwide, many organizations produce and synthesize evidence in OSH that can complement and support each other. We believe that a global network including Cochrane and others can collaborate on methods development and in the production, synthesis, use and dissemination of different types of evidence even more effectively.
Aims
To determine if establishing a global network for evidence synthesis in OSH is feasible.
Methods
We conducted a survey of international and national institutions between November 2022 and January 2023 using LimeSurvey. Participants included representatives of affiliated and sustaining members of the International Commission on Occupational Health, national institutes for OSH, academia and other international organizations.
Results
From 151 invitations, we received responses from 57 representatives of 54 organizations. Representatives reported that their organization will contribute financially on an annual basis (n = 1) or provide in-kind support (n = 10), and will probably be able to provide financial or in-kind support (n = 25).
Conclusions
The feasibility criterion was met and an international network is being established."