Documents occupational disease 1 270 results

"This paper summarizes the rationale for, possible mechanisms of, and problems related to risk assessment of the association between shift work and cancer. The mechanisms by which circadian disruption may favor the induction and/or promotion of malignant tumors are complex and multifactorial. The multilevel endocrine changes caused by circadian disruption with melatonin suppression through light at night (LAN) lead to the oncogenic targeting of the endocrine-responsive breast in women and possibly the prostate in men. Repeated phase shifting with internal desynchronization may lead to defects in the regulation of the circadian cell cycle, thus favoring uncontrolled growth. Sleep deprivation leads to the suppression of immune surveillance that may permit the establishment and/or growth of malignant clones. The epidemiological studies published so far, although dealing with large cohorts and controlling for several personal confounders, have defined the exposure to shift and/or night work rather loosely and consequently do not allow for the proper assessment of the risk connected with circadian disruption."

"Background
Young workers (≤25 years) face a well-documented increased risk of occupational injury, but little is known about their risk for occupational disease or how it compares to older workers, even though similar factors may contribute to both injuries and hazardous exposures.
Objective
The objective of this mixed-methods study was to assess young workers' ability to identify carcinogens and identify factors that may be indicative of a higher risk of occupational cancer.
Methods
We conducted a survey of young workers in Canada and the United Kingdom via Prolific to assess knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours around carcinogenic exposures in the workplace. Participants were asked True/False (T/F) questions on factors affecting hazardous exposures, Likert-scale questions on workplace behaviours, and to identify carcinogens among various hazards. Scores were assigned based on ability to identify carcinogens, median scores were compared across demographics, occupational groupings, and responses. Participants were then recruited to participate in focus groups to discuss questions in further detail.
Results
Median scores were lowest among participants in (1) retail and sales, and (2) agriculture, trades and manufacturing. Regardless of occupation, the ability to identify carcinogens was low. Median carcinogen scores were lower among incorrect T/F responses related to hazardous exposure. Many participants indicated a lack of knowledge regarding workplace hazards or how they may affect their health despite reporting receiving training.
Conclusions
There are knowledge gaps by occupational groups that highlight a need for improvements to the delivery of training to young workers in the primary sector, manufacturing, and retail and sales."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"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."

"Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether shift work (with or without night work) is associated with increased risk of breast cancer.Methods The population consisted of 4036 women. Data were obtained from WOLF (Work, Lipids, and Fibrinogen), a longitudinal cohort study. Information about baseline characteristics was based on questionnaire responses and medical examination. Cancer incidence from baseline to follow-up was obtained from the national cancer registry. Two exposure groups were identified: shift work with and without night work. The group with day work only was used as the reference group in the analysis. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate relative risk.Results In total, 94 women developed breast cancer during follow-up. The average follow-up time was 12.4 years. The hazard ratio for breast cancer was 1.23 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.70–2.17] for shifts without night work and 2.02 (95% CI 1.03–3.95) for shifts with night work. When including only women <60 years of age, the risk estimates were 1.18 (95% CI 0.67–2.07) for shifts without night work, and 2.15 (95% CI 1.10–4.21) for shifts with night work.Conclusions Our results indicate an increased risk for breast cancer among women who work shifts that includes night work.

"Objectives The objective of this study was to estimate the mortality from cancer, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases attributable to occupational exposure in Sweden.Methods Estimates were calculated for men and women separately, and we considered only deaths between 25–74 years of age. We considered cancer exposures/sites classified as I or 2a according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Acute myocardial infarction was the only included cardiovascular disease. Respiratory diseases comprised chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) asthma, pneumoconiosis and alveolitis. All deaths of pneumoconiosis and alveolitis were considered work-related. Estimates were based on the Swedish mortality in 2007. Results In total, we estimate that there are about 800 work-related deaths per year in the studied causes. The majority are due to acute myocardial infarction, with 126 deaths among women and 337 deaths among men attributable to job strain, shift work, exhaust gases, combustion products, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). There are 99 respiratory disease-related deaths, the vast majority from COPD (N=92). In total, 270 cancer deaths are estimated to be work-related. For men, half of the cases are attributed to asbestos exposure. Conclusions Our results indicate that preventive measures to decrease occupational mortality should consider factors associated with myocardial infarction such as job strain, shift work and exhaust gases from vehicles and combustion products. Exposures to factors associated with COPD, such as dust, also seem important to prevent."

"Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of women who had and had not worked at night in terms of their risk factors for common disease, indicators of general health, social activities, employment, and sleep behavior.Methods The Million Women Study is a large prospective cohort study of women's health in the United Kingdom with 1.3 million women recruited during 1996–2001 (aged 50–64 years) through 66 National Health Service breast screening centers. We analyzed the data from a random sample of 41 652 participants who, in 2009–2010, reported their history of night work. ResultsOf the participants, 1 in 8 women (13%) reported that they had ever worked at night and 1 in 50 (2%) reported working at night for ?20 years. For 33 sociodemographic, behavioral, reproductive, and hormonal factors examined, 20 showed highly significant differences between “ever” and “never” night workers (P<0.0001); 12 showed significant trends by duration of night work (P<0.01). In particular, compared to women who had never worked at night, women who had worked at night were more likely to (i) be of lower socioeconomic status [the odds ratio (OR) for ever versus never night workers of being in the lowest third of socioeconomic status was 1.15, 99% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.06–1.25]; (ii) have ever used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the menopause (OR 1.43, 99% CI 1.33–1.55); (iii) be current smokers (OR 1.37, 99% CI 1.19–1.58); and (iv) be obese (OR 1.26, 99% CI 1.15–1.37). Compared to women who had never worked at night, women who had worked at night for ?20 years were more likely to be (i) of lower socioeconomic status (OR 1.28, 99% CI 1.04–1.57); (ii) nulliparous (OR 1.47, 99% CI 1.12–1.91); (iii) current smokers (OR 1.63, 99% CI 1.18–2.25); and (iv) obese (OR 1.55, 99% CI 1.25–1.93). Former night workers were more likely than never night workers to report a range of sleep disturbances, including poor quality of sleep (OR 1.15, 99% CI 1.01–1.31) and having to take medication to sleep (OR 1.35, 99% CI 1.15–1.60). Conclusions Women who reported having worked at night were substantially different from those who reporting never having worked at night and many of the differences would put “ever night workers” at increased risks of cancer, vascular disease, and many other common conditions."

"This publication documents the relationship between gender inequality and health and safety problems. It reviews gender issues in research, policies and programmes on work and health, and highlights some specific issues for women, including the types of jobs they do, as well as their need to reconcile the demands of work and family. Biological differences between women and men also are considered in relation to hazards they face in the workplace. Implications of the findings and recommendations for legislation and policy are discussed. Women will be more and more involved in the global workforce, in both formal and informal work. In ensuring economic survival for themselves and their families they employ a variety of strategies, some of which entail great danger for their health. This review highlights the necessity to strengthen and put in place more and better programmes and practices so as to ensure women's health and safety at work, while facilitating their access to economic and social equality."