Physical work environment in an activity-based flex office: a longitudinal case study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate and explore Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management, office ergonomics, and musculoskeletal symptoms in a group of office workers relocating from cell offices to activity-based flex offices (AFOs). METHODS: The analysis was based on qualitative interview data with 77 employees and longitudinal questionnaire data from 152 employees. RESULTS: Results indicate that there was a need to clarify roles and processes related to the management of OHS. Self-rated sit comfort, working posture, and availability of daylight deteriorated and symptoms in neck and shoulders increased after the relocation and seemed to be influenced by many factors, such as difficulties adjusting the workstations, the availability of suitable workplaces, and age, sex, and individual needs. CONCLUSION: Research on the long-term effects of physical work environments and management of (OHS) issues after implementing activity-based flex offices is sparse. This study demonstrates the importance of planning and organising OHS issue management when implementing an AFO, and to carefully implement office ergonomics among office workers.

Sex exceptionalism and erasure in porn health protocols.

Porn production, like all forms of labour, entails certain occupational health and safety (OHS) risks. Porn production has generally not been subject to state occupational health oversight, and porn workers have instead implemented self-regulatory OHS systems. However, in California, where the industry is most established, governmental and non-governmental bodies have made several paternalist attempts to legislate standardised OHS protocols. Their proposed legislation exceptionalises sex work as uniquely dangerous while failing to tailor guidance to the specific needs of and practices associated with porn work. This is largely because: 1) regulators are ignorant of porn's self-regulatory processes; 2) industry self-regulation conceptualises the occupational hazard on porn sets as infectious bodily fluids, whereas external regulators perceive the hazard as sex itself; and 3) regulators devalue porn work and so do not take the viability of the labour into account when evaluating protocol effectiveness. Using critical-interpretive medical anthropology involving fieldwork and interviews with porn workers and a critical analysis of porn OHS texts, I argue that porn health protocols should be left to industry self-determination, to be developed by porn workers rather than for them.

Remote area nurses' experiences of workplace safety in very remote primary health clinics: A qualitative study.

AIM: To explore Remote Area Nurses' experiences of the implementation of workplace health and safety policies and risk mitigation strategies in Australian very remote primary health clinics. DESIGN: This qualitative study used online semi-structured interviews, with participants purposively sampled to maximize variation in work location and service type. Data were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach. Coding was carried out inductively, with NVivo 12 aiding data management. SETTING: The interviews were conducted from 24 Februrary 2021 to 06 March 2021 with Remote Area Nurses from very remote primary health clinics in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Fifteen Remote Area Nurses participated in the study. RESULTS: Thematic analysis revealed varied approaches to workplace safety among the different health services and regions. While the spread of 'never alone' policies in many clinics addressed one of the significant risks faced by Remote Area Nurses, gaps remained even for hazards specifically highlighted in existing work health and safety legislation. Meaningful collaboration with staff and the community, local orientation, preparation for the role and providing quality care were protective factors for staff safety. Understaffing, unsafe infrastructure and inadequate equipment were common concerns among Remote Area Nurses. CONCLUSION: Health services need to prioritize workplace safety and take a continuous quality improvement approach to its implementation. This will include ensuring safety strategies are appropriate for the local context, improving infrastructure maintenance, and establishing sustainable second responder systems such as a pool of drivers with local knowledge. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION: Poor personal safety contributes to burnout and high turnover of staff. Nurses' insights into the barriers and enablers of current workplace safety strategies will aid policymakers and employers in future improvements. REPORTING METHOD: COREQ reporting guidelines were followed. PIPE STATEMENT: A panel of six Remote Area Nurses collaborated in the development of this project.

Newer New Jersey work-based learning teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: school safety regarding ventilation, trainings, and awareness of government agencies resources.

New Jersey (NJ) Safe Schools Program (NJSS) provides code-required trainings for NJ teachers supervising students in work-based learning (WBL) experiences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased use of chemical cleaning, sanitization, and disinfectant products (CSDPs) led to ventilation and other health concerns. NJSS conducted two surveys of newer NJ WBL teachers between October 2021 and June 2023, with a follow-up in fall 2022 for those who completed initial surveys before summer 2022. This study focused on questions regarding workspace ventilation; respirator and CSDPs trainings; awareness of government resources for safety and health (S&H); and demographics. Over 65% of participant classrooms have operable windows or ventilation systems, while 13% of school salons have ceiling fans. Half of participants didn't receive training on handling CSDPs, although 90% were aware of government S&H resources. Data suggested teachers have well-ventilated workspaces and are aware of different resources available, which is important to continue post COVID-19.

Nurse rostering: understanding the current shift work scheduling processes, benefits, limitations, and potential fatigue risks.

BACKGROUND: Implementing appropriate shift work schedules can help mitigate the risk of sleep impairment and reduce fatigue of healthcare workers, reducing occupational health and safety risks. In Australia, the organisation has a responsibility to make sure all reasonable measures are taken to reduce fatigue of staff. Therefore, it is important to assess what the current rostering processes is for staff responsible for creating the rosters for nurses. AIM: The aims of the project were to understand (1) who creates the rosters and what the process is, (2) what training and knowledge these staff have in establishing rostering schedules that optimise the sleep and wellbeing of staff, and (3) what the benefits and limitations are of current rostering practices. METHODS: Findings were generated through semi-structured interviews, using cluster coding to form categories. Twenty four nurses responsible for rostering staff were interviewed from three different sites in Victoria (one metropolitan and two regional/rural hospitals). Data was analysed using selected grounded theory methods with thematic analysis. RESULTS: The common themes that came out of the interviews were that rostering staff were under prepared, unaware of fatigue and safety guidelines and polices from governing bodies and had not received any education or training before taking on the role. The most common rostering style was self-rostering, where staff could submit preferences. However, there were concerns about staff fatigue but were divided as to who should be responsible, with many saying it was up to staff to preference shifts that they could cope with. The final theme was cultural barriers to change. CONCLUSION: While self-rostering resulted in staff having more freedom and flexibility,  shift preferences may be influenced more so by a need to fit with lifestyle rather than to minimise fatigue and increase safety in the workplace. Greater consideration of the impact of shift work schedules on fatigue is required to ensure that the layers of clinical governance in health care organisations minimise the risk of occupation health and safety issues for employees delivering direct patient care.

Implementing workplace health promotion in nursing - A process evaluation in different care settings.

OBJECTIVE: Workplace health promotion (WHP) in Germany is receiving increasing support from health insurance funds. Nevertheless, there is hardly any knowledge on the process of how health outcomes are achieved, especially in nursing. The aim of the study was to find out how and what can be implemented in different care settings and to examine the reactions and interactions of the participants under routine conditions. METHODS: Guided by a logic model, a holistic WHP approach was implemented in four acute care hospitals, seven inpatient care facilities and four outpatient care services from April 2021 to October 2022. Data on realized WHP interventions, participant assessment and topics of work design was collected and analyzed descriptively. RESULTS: The realized WHP interventions were adapted depending on the content and context. Mainly short relaxation interventions were delivered or those with an event character were received by participants. The highest participation rate of planned participants was achieved in team building training. Participants predominantly assessed WHP interventions as useful, the quality as (very) good and were generally (very) satisfied with the intervention components. For work design topics, intentions for the design of work organization were mainly documented in action plans. CONCLUSION: Cooperation with practitioners in research should be continued as a contribution to quality development. This could provide suggestions as to which content adjustments lead to greater acceptance by the target group in a specific context. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The project was registered in the German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS00024961, 2021/04/09).

An exploratory survey of on-site heat stress management practices in the Canadian mining industry.

With climate change fueling more frequent and intense periods of hot weather, heat stress management programs are becoming increasingly important for protecting the health and safety of workers in the Canadian mining industry. While the inclusion of heat-mitigation measures such as those provided by the American College of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) are commonly employed by industry, there is a need to develop more comprehensive industry-specific measures for heat stress prevention and management. To better understand current heat management practices and identify opportunities for improvement, an exploratory survey of 51 employees responsible for health and safety at underground mining (n = 35), and surface operations (n = 16) (e.g., open-pit mining, milling, smelting, and exploration site) was conducted in Canada. The respondents answered 50 questions related to workplace heat stress management, including descriptors of the workplace environment, perceived heat stress hazard, administration of heat stress management programming, heat stress emergency procedures, environmental monitoring strategies, and knowledge of mining-specific regulations related to heat stress. Twenty-four managers (47%) reported that heat-related illnesses led to restricted duty or lost time claims at their site, with a median of 5 [IQR: 2-10, max: 30] reportable heat-related illnesses occurring per site annually. Many also felt that heat-related illnesses are under-reported by their workforce (n = 36, 71%). Most sites reported established heat stress management programs to prevent heat illness (n = 43, 84%), typically based on the TLVs (n = 38, 75%). Although some organizations do conduct pre-task evaluations for heat stress (n = 30, 59%), more than half do not conduct post-job evaluations (n = 28, 55%) or pre-employment screening for heat stress vulnerability (n = 3, 6%). While our findings indicate that the health and safety managers recognize the hazard posed by heat and have stated practices to help address the hazard, we also observed inconsistencies in heat stress management programming across the sample. Developing and adopting a standard heat stress management and reporting system would be an important step toward protecting workers from existing and emerging threats from extreme heat and climate change.

Occupational Health and Safety Digitalization in Thailand: A Framework and Case Study.

Disruptive technological change plays a major role in the development of not only the global economy and traditional business operations but also in occupational health and work safety. Many countries, including Thailand, use digital technology to improve the quality of life of their citizens. This paper aims to describe digitization in Thailand and the digitalization of occupational health and safety in Thailand. We also provide a case study in which the Internet of Things (IoT) was applied to forklift management to improve occupational health and safety and productivity outcomes.

Volatile gas scavenging in the paediatric intensive care unit: Occupational health and safety assessment.

Introduction: The use of volatile anesthetic agents in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is experiencing increased interest since the availability of the miniature vapourizing device. However, the effectiveness of scavenging systems in the presence of humidifiers in the ventilator circuit is unknown. Approach Methods: We performed a bench study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Deltasorb® scavenging system in the presence of isoflurane and active humidity by simulating both infant and child ventilator test settings. A total of four ventilators were set to ventilate test lungs, all with active humidity and a Deltasorb scavenging canister collecting exhaled ventilation gas. Two ventilators also had isoflurane delivered using the Anesthesia Conserving Device- small (ACD®-S) on the inspiratory limb (also called alternative ventilator configuration). We performed instantaneous measurements of isoflurane and continuous sampling with passive badges to measure average environmental exposure over a test period of 6.5 hours. Scavenging canisters were returned to the company, where desorption analysis showed the volume of water and isoflurane captured in each canister. Findings: Both instantaneous point sampling and diffusive sampling results were below the occupational exposure limit confirming safety. The canisters collected both isoflurane and a portion of the water vapour delivered; the percentage of captured water and isoflurane collected in infants was higher than the child ventilator test settings. Practice implications Conclusion: The tested scavenging configuration was effective in maintaining a safe working environment with active humidity and inspiratory limb (alternative) ventilator configuration of the the miniature vapourizing device.

High intensity and sprint interval training, and work-related cognitive function in adults: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: To assess evidence on the impact of acute and chronic high intensity interval training (HIIT) and sprint interval training (SIT) on work-related performance tests of cognitive function in adults. METHODS: The databases PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for relevant articles up to August 2022. Eligible studies assessed the effects of HIIT (70%-100% VO2max ) and/or SIT (≥100% VO2max ) on cognitive function test scores in cognitively healthy adults, relative to a control or comparative exercise group/condition. Data on participant characteristics, exercise protocol, key outcomes, and intervention setting were extracted. Study quality was assessed using a 9 (single session HIIT/SIT) and 14 (multiple session HIIT/SIT) item checklist. RESULTS: Thirty-six studies (15 countries; n = 11-945 participants) met inclusion criteria. Mean quality scores were "fair-to-good" for acute (single session; mean = 6.9 [SD 1.0]) and chronic (multiple session; mean = 9.8 [SD 1.6]) training studies. Eighteen from 36 studies (12/20 [55%] acute and 6/16 [38%] chronic training studies) evidenced significant improvements in aspects of cognitive function related to work performance (i.e., attention, inhibition, memory, information processing speed, cognitive flexibility, intelligence, reaction time, and learning). Only four studies tested the impact of HIIT/SIT on cognitive function in a work-based setting (e.g., the office or home). CONCLUSIONS: While there is promising evidence, particularly from acute training studies, to indicate that high intensity, short duration exercise benefits cognitive function in adults, there is very limited evidence of application in workplace contexts. To better understand the potential benefits to employee performance and safety, HIIT/SIT and cognitive function research needs to transition from laboratory to "in-situ" occupational settings.

Occupational physical activity predicts baseline and 8-year progression of carotid atherosclerosis among women.

INTRODUCTION: Recent reviews link higher levels of occupational physical activity (OPA) to cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the evidence for women is inconsistent and studies of activity-limiting symptomatic CVD are prone to healthy worker survivor effect. To address these limitations, this study investigated OPA effects on asymptomatic carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) among women. METHODS: Participants include 905 women from the population-based Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study with baseline (1998-2001) data on self-reported OPA and sonographic measurement of IMT. Linear mixed models with adjustment for 15 potential confounders estimated and compared mean baseline IMT and 8-year IMT progression for five levels of self-reported OPA. Analyses stratified by cardiovascular health and retirement status were planned because strong interactions between preexisting CVD and OPA intensity have previously been reported. RESULTS: Light standing work, moderately heavy active work, and heavy or very heavy physical work were all consistently associated with greater baseline IMT and 8-year IMT progression than light sitting work. The greatest baseline IMT was observed for heavy or very heavy physical work (1.21 mm), and the greatest 8-year IMT progression for light standing work and moderately heavy active work (both 0.13 mm), 30% above sitting work (0.10 mm). Stratified analyses showed that these differences were driven by much stronger OPA effects among women with baseline carotid artery stenosis. Retired women experienced slower IMT progression than those working at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of OPA predict higher baseline IMT and 8-year IMT progression, especially among women with baseline stenosis.

Influence of psychosocial safety climate on occupational health and safety: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Creating a healthy, decent and safe workplace and designing quality jobs are ways to eliminate precarious work in organisations and industries. This review aimed at mapping evidence on how psychosocial safety climate (PSC) influence health, safety and performance of workers. METHODS: A literature search was conducted in four main databases (PubMed, Scopus, Central and Web of Science) and other online sources like Google Scholar. A reference list of eligible studies was also checked for additional papers. Only full-text peer-reviewed papers published in English were eligible for this review. RESULTS: A search in the databases produced 13,711 records, and through a rigorous screening process, 93 papers were included in this review. PSC is found to directly affect job demands, job insecurity, effort-reward imbalance, work-family conflict, job resources, job control and quality leadership. Moreover, PSC directly affects social relations at work, including workplace abuse, violence, discrimination and harassment. Again, PSC has a direct effect on health, safety and performance outcomes because it moderates the impact of excessive job demands on workers' health and safety. Finally, PSC boosts job resources' effect on improving workers' well-being, safety and performance. CONCLUSION: Managers' efforts directed towards designing quality jobs, prioritising the well-being of workers, and fostering a bottom-up communication through robust organisational policies, practices, and procedures may help create a high organisational PSC that, in turn, promotes a healthy and decent work environment.

An integrated approach to health, wellbeing, and productivity at work: a design of a stepped wedge worksite intervention study.

BACKGROUND: Despite an intensive focus on workers' health during recent decades, the prevalence of work-related diseases remains unchanged in Denmark and internationally. Therefore, USA and Australian researchers have initiated new paradigms for integration of health promotion, prevention of work-related disease, and organization of work. Inspired by the Australian WorkHealth Improvement Network program (WIN), this paper describes the background, design, intervention methodologies, and evaluation methods of an Integrated Approach to Health, Wellbeing, and Productivity at Work (ITASPA) intervention aiming to prevent work-related injuries and diseases and promote the health, safety, and wellbeing of the worker. METHODS: Using a stepped wedge design, worksites will be enrolled at baseline and offered the intervention starting at different times. Data will be collected at baseline, before the off-set of the intervention, and after each implementation period. The effect evaluation will be based on a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative data are based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The quantitative data consists of questionnaires, anthropometrics, and resting blood pressure and will be analyzed based on the intention-to-treat principle in linear mixed models with random slope and intercept. DISCUSSION: Integrated interventions are shown to increase overall health and safety at worksites more effectively and rapidly than more narrowly focused programs. Still, previous integrated interventions are lacking successful implementation. In ITASPA, the effects of the intervention is tested in a strong scientific mixed-methods design. Thus, the ITASPA project contributes to the knowledge about what characterizes a best practice for the implementation of integrated worksite interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ITASPA is retrospectively registered in Clinicaltrials.gov on May 19, 2023 (NCT05866978).

National survey of safe handling of hazardous drugs in hospital settings: Use of an innovative approach.

INTRODUCTION: Workers can reduce their risk of exposure to hazardous drugs by following safe handling guidelines. Healthcare centers need to dedicate time and resources in order to implement new safety recommendations. The objective was to present the results of a national survey about the safe handling of hazardous drugs in healthcare centers. METHODS: Quebec healthcare centers performed an auto-evaluation to the newly updated safe handling guidelines in 2021. Centers rated each criterion as compliant or non-compliant. The guidelines tailored recommendations according to three categories of hazards: G1, consisting mostly of carcinogenic drugs; G2, other hazardous drugs; and G3, those with reproductive toxicity. The questionnaire prompted participants to document their planned corrective measures for non-compliant criteria. RESULTS: Most centers participated (28/29, 97%). The overall compliance was 58% (8761/15,216 criteria). The conformity per theme was hygiene and sanitation (1290/1,878, 69%), laundry (221/367, 60%), pharmacy (2658/4,474, 59%), nursing (3436/6,017, 57%), spills and accidental exposure (353/649, 54%), and general measures (803/1,831, 44%). It was higher for recommendations regarding G1s (4226/6,115, 69%) than for G2s (1626/3557, 46%) and G3s (372/916, 41%). CONCLUSIONS: This project successfully used an innovative approach that combined a national auto-evaluation survey, an actionable report, and the involvement of a community of practice. Centers were able to benchmark their implementation of safe handling guidelines, and community of practices may help in sharing the best practices. The design of the questionnaire helped in targeting corrective measures. More work is needed for safe handling practices that relate to G2 and G3 drugs.

Registered nurses' exposure to workplace aggression in Norway: 12-month prevalence rates, perpetrators, and current turnover intention.

BACKGROUND: Identifying occupational health hazards among Registered Nurses (RNs) and other health personnel and implementing effective preventive measures are crucial to the long-term sustainability of health services. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the 12-month prevalence rates of exposure to workplace aggression, including physical violence, threats of violence, sexual harassment, and bullying; (2) to identify whether the perpetrators were colleagues, managers, subordinates, or patients and their relatives; (3) to determine whether previous exposure to these hazards was associated with RNs' current turnover intention; and (4) to frame workplace aggression from an occupational health and safety perspective. METHODS: The third version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III) was used to assess RNs' exposure to workplace aggression and turnover intention. A national sample of 8,800 RNs in Norway, representative of the entire population of registered nurses in terms of gender and geography, was analysed. Binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses were conducted, and odds for exposure and intention to leave are presented, with and without controls for RNs' gender, age, and the type of health service they work in. RESULTS: The 12-month prevalence rates for exposure were 17.0% for physical violence, 32.5% for threats of violence, 12.6% for sexual harassment, and 10.5% for bullying. In total, 42.6% of the RNs had experienced at least one of these types of exposure during the past 12 months, and exposure to more than one of these hazards was common. Most perpetrators who committed physical acts and sexual harassment were patients, while bullying was usually committed by colleagues. There was a strong statistical association between exposure to all types of workplace aggression and RNs' intention to leave. The strongest association was for bullying, which greatly increased the odds of looking for work elsewhere. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to prevent exposure to workplace aggression should be emphasised to retain health personnel and to secure the supply of skilled healthcare workers. The results indicate a need for improvements. To ensure the sustainability of health services, labour and health authorities should join forces to develop effective workplace measures to strengthen prevention, mitigation, and preparedness regarding incidents of workplace aggression in health services and the response and recovery regarding incidents that could not be prevented.

Integrative Prevention at Work: A Concept Analysis and Meta-Narrative Review.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to conceptualize integrative prevention at work and to identify its operational variables to support its application in occupational rehabilitation. Methods Based on Walker and Avant's specifications for concept analysis, we conducted a systematic five-step procedure (i.e., 1-identification of research question, 2-literature search through meta-narrative review, 3-manuscript selection, 4-extraction, 5-analysis). Results Analysis of information extracted from 20 manuscripts across diverse literature fields allowed to identify that the shared attributes of integrative prevention at work are: (a) coordination of the three levels of prevention, (b) integration of health promotion with prevention, (c) shared understanding of the goal, (d) engagement of stakeholders, and (e) variety of actions. The analysis also identified three antecedents and five consequences, situating the concept within the context of a change process. The results include recommendations for promoting the practical application of the concept. Conclusion The results of this study offer an informative, non-prescriptive, and operational definition of integrative prevention at work that all the stakeholders involved, including occupational rehabilitation professionals, can use.

Frugal Heart Rate Correction Method for Scalable Health and Safety Monitoring in Construction Sites.

Continuous, real-time monitoring of occupational health and safety in high-risk workplaces such as construction sites can substantially improve the safety of workers. However, introducing such systems in practice is associated with a number of challenges, such as scaling up the solution while keeping its cost low. In this context, this work investigates the use of an off-the-shelf, low-cost smartwatch to detect health issues based on heart rate monitoring in a privacy-preserving manner. To improve the smartwatch's low measurement quality, a novel, frugal machine learning method is proposed that corrects measurement errors, along with a new dataset for this task. This method's integration with the smartwatch and the remaining parts of the health and safety monitoring system (built on the ASSIST-IoT reference architecture) are presented. This method was evaluated in a laboratory environment in terms of its accuracy, computational requirements, and frugality. With an experimentally established mean absolute error of 8.19 BPM, only 880 bytes of required memory, and a negligible impact on the performance of the device, this method meets all relevant requirements and is expected to be field-tested in the coming months. To support reproducibility and to encourage alternative approaches, the dataset, the trained model, and its implementation on the smartwatch were published under free licenses.

'Powering through': A qualitative descriptive study of nurses working while in pain.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the experience of nurses working while in pain and the potential impact on work performance. Pain is described more broadly and inclusive of musculoskeletal injuries, psychological and emotional pain. BACKGROUND: Nurse have been recognised as developing pain and injuries; however, the experience of nurses working while in pain and its impact is not well-described. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive analysis of interviews from an explanatory mixed methods study. METHODS: Twenty direct care nurses who experienced pain in the past week participated in the semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using content analysis. Guidelines for reporting following the COREQ checklist. RESULTS: Categories identified: (1) pain provocation, quality of pain, refers, severity, and time (PQRST); (2) Avoiding pain at work; (3) Hiding pain's impact; (4) Tools at Work; (5) Pain recovery at home; (6) Career consequences; and (7) 'Supernurse' culture; (8) Stigma and its impact on pain management; and (9) Dream work environment. CONCLUSIONS: Pain was described as part of nursing and impacted nurses' career plans and performance. Nurses described minimising the direct impact on their patient care but admitted that there was an impact on teamwork and thinking which have been linked to negative patient outcomes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Clinical practice was an aggravating factor for all nurses in the study and impacted their performance and career trajectory. Workplace tools to decrease nurse injury and pain exist; however, tools were not used often due to lack of resources and training. The culture of nursing that accepts pain as part of the job needs to be addressed.

Exposure levels for carbon monoxide in nuclear submarine atmosphere.

This work proposes exposure limits for carbon monoxide in the nuclear submarine environment. Linear and non-linear forms of the Coburn-Foster-Kane equation were used to evaluate carbon monoxide exposure for an environment with low oxygen content, different exposure times and crew physical activity levels. We evaluated the 90-day Continuous Exposure Guidance Level, 24-h and 1-h Emergency Exposure Guidance Levels and 10-day and 24-h Submarine Escape Action Levels. The results showed that the concentration of carbon monoxide in the environment must not exceed 9 ppm for the 90-day Continuous Exposure Guidance Level, 35 ppm for the 24-h Emergency Exposure Guidance Level, 90 ppm 1-h Emergency Exposure Guidance Level, 60 ppm for the 10-day Submarine Escape Action Level and 80 ppm for the 24-h Submarine Escape Action Level. Comparing these values with those established by the National Research Council for the United States Navy, the limits proposed by this work are verified to be lower, which may indicate a risk to the health of the crew. They also show the impact of the crew's level of physical activity on the formation of carboxyhemoglobin.

Occupational Risks of Podologists: A Combined Assessment of VOCs, Vibration, Noise Levels and Health Complaints.

Podologists are exposed to many occupational hazards, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from insole manufacturing and noise/vibration during nail or tissue grinding. In this study, VOCs, noise, and vibration were measured in five podiatry clinics and three offices. Questionnaires were administered to 23 podologists and 19 office workers to inquire about their pain, ocular, skin and respiratory complaints. The results showed that the podologists' exposure to the total VOC concentrations was approximately twice as high as that of the office workers. The podologists' complaints regarding pain were found to be correlated with ambient noise and hand-arm vibration levels. Ocular, skin, and respiratory complaints were also found to be correlated with total VOC concentrations. These results suggest that VOCs, noise and vibration in the working environment may impair podologists' health and that they have an intensifying effect on each other, increasing the severity of health issues.