On the road toward the development of clothing size standards and safety devices for Chilean workers.

The range of sizes used in Chile for clothing comes from criteria developed in continental Europe, mainly the EN 13402 standard. Any standard adopted by a country should consider the anthropometric dimensions of the user population, particularly to discern the ratio of garments for different size. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to propose standards for the size of clothing based on anthropometric characteristics of a sample of Chilean miners. The study was conducted in 447 male workers. The age and body weight were measured in each workers as well as their percentage of body fat. Anthropometric measurements for garments were made according to the criteria of the European Community (EN 13402-1) and ISO (8559- 1989). Body dimensions for the design of gloves, shoes, helmets and caps, clothes that cover the upper part of the body and clothes that cover the lower part were measured. The results obtained made it possible to establish the percentage of workers falling within the range of sizes that manufacturers consider as reference. One of the main conclusions of the study is the need to carefully consider a set of complementary anthropometric measures, which can help to improve the comfort of costumes, to the extent that the providers adapt their designs to the characteristics of Chilean workers.

Medidas generales de prevención de accidentes hipobáricos-hiperbáricos en la esfera otorrinolaringológica / General measures for preventing hypo-hyperbaric accidents in otorhinolaryngology

Los accidentes barotraumáticos en la esfera otorrinolaringológica son muy frecuentes, especialmente el de oído medio. Prevenirlos es una de las tareas en las que más hincapié debemos hacer. Para ello, debemos realizar un estudio anatómico de vías altas en el que analicemos las fosas nasales y el cavum, así como estudios de función tubárica y estudios radiológicos para cuantificar la neumatización mastoidea. Es importante conocer las maniobras de compensación tubárica más comunes, así como la fisiopatología del propio barotrauma. En las personas con el diagnóstico de enfermedades que comprometen la función tubárica o el normal drenaje de los ostia sinusales, podemos aplicar medidas y tratamientos específicos que solucionan los problemas de compensación de presiones. En el medio aéreo se dispone de unas medidas muy sencillas encaminadas a la prevención de los barotraumas de oído (AU)

Barotrauma accidents are highly frequent in otorhinolaryngology, especially those involving the middle ear. Emphasis should be placed on preventing these lesions. To do this, anatomical study of the upper airways should be performed with analysis of the nasal fossae and cavum, as well as evaluation of Eustachian tube function and radiological tests to quantify mastoid pneumatization. Otorhinolaryngologists should be familiar with the most common maneuvers of tubal compensation, as well as the physiopathology of barotrauma. In patients diagnosed with disorders that can compromise Eustachian tube function or normal drainage of the sinus ostium, specific measures and treatments can be applied that solve the problems of pressure compensation. In flying, several simple measures are available to prevent barotrauma to the ear (AU)

Effect of a back belt on reaching postures.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated the effect of a back belt on reach actions. SUBJECTS: Sixteen undergraduate college students (8 male students, 8 female students) ranging in age from 18 to 22 years. Thirteen subjects were included in the final analysis. SETTING: The Department of Psychology at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio METHODS: Using a well-established set of procedures developed in our laboratory for studying reaching, seated adult participants reached for and retrieved an object placed at various distances from them. Reach distances included values both closer than and farther than each subject's maximum seated reach. The reach task had 2 conditions: picking up and retrieving a small block and skewering and retrieving a small bead with a needle. For each task condition, each subject either wore the belt or did not use a belt. RESULTS: Results indicate that when subjects wore the belt while reaching, they tended to have initial transition points (sitting to nonsitting) closer to their bodies than while not wearing the belt. That is, for a distant object, subjects were more likely to raise their bodies out of the chair rather than perform an extreme seated reach, possibly acting to preserve a greater margin of safety. CONCLUSIONS: The back belt consistently modified reaching postures by limiting extreme ranges of motion during a task that required enhanced stability. Furthermore, the methodology and analysis presented in this article when applied to chiropractic will allow us to begin thoughtful investigation of the effects of chiropractic adjustments on postural transitions and margin of safety.

Methods of measuring the attenuation of hearing protection devices.

The published literature describing three real-ear-attenuation-at-threshold (REAT), nine above-threshold, and four objective methods of measuring hearing protector attenuation is reviewed and analyzed with regard to the accuracy, practicality, and applicability of the various techniques. The analysis indicates that the REAT method is one of the most accurate available techniques since it assesses all of the sound paths to the occluded ear and, depending upon the experimenter's intention, can reflect actual in-use attenuation as well. An artifact in the REAT paradigm is that masking in the occluded ear due to physiological noise can spuriously increase low-frequency (less than or equal to 500 Hz) attenuation, although the error never exceeds approximately 5 dB, regardless of the device, except below 125 Hz. Since the preponderance of available data indicates that attenuation is independent of sound level for intentionally linear protectors, the use of above-threshold procedures to evaluate attenuation is not a necessity. An exception exists in the case of impulsive noises, for which the existing data are not unequivocal with regard to hearing protector response characteristics. Two of the objective methods (acoustical test fixture and microphone in real ear) are considerable time savers. All objective procedures are lacking in their ability to accurately determine the importance of the flanking bone-conduction paths, although some authors have incorporated this feature as a post-measurement correction. The microphone in real-ear approach is suggested to be one of the most promising for future standardization efforts and research purposes, and the acoustical test fixture technique is recommended (with certain reservations) for quality control and buyer acceptance testing.

Eye protection in psoralen photochemotherapy.

The optical performance of some commercially-available tined lenses is discussed. There is a wide variation in the UV absorbing power of sunglasses although adequate protection against solar UV-A can be achieved with some, but not all, polarizing material. The darkness of a tint is not an indication of its likely performance within the ultraviolet bands and it is possible that lenses could be produced that lacked any significant tint yet absorbed strongly throughout the UV region.

[Effect of protective helmets and head guards on localization of injuries to the skull and brain in cranio-cerebral injuries]. / Vliianie zashchitnykh shlemov i kasok na lokalizatsiiu povrezhdenii cherepa i golovnogo mozga pri cherepno-mozgovoi travme.

The results of post-mortem examination of 140 cadavers of persons who had died of craniocerebral injuries are appraised. It was established that in injury inflicted through a protective head-piece, the proportion of damage to the bones of the base of the skull, basally located structures of the large hemispheres and stem of the brain in the total number of injuries increases. The study is supplemented with mathematical calculations which explain the dependence observed.