[EU policy orientations on road accidents prevention and workplace health promotion in the transport sector]. / La promozione della salute e della sicurezza dei lavoratori del settore trasporti: gli orientamenti europei per la prevenzione degli incidenti stradali.

In the European Union (EU) transport industry directly employs more than 10 million people, accounting for 4.5% of total employment. Road traffic accidents and road safety are a major public health issue. The Commission of the EU has published policy orientations on road safety to provide a general framework, under which concrete action can be taken at European, national, regional and local levels. Some strategic objectives were identified in order to 1) improve education and training of road users and the quality of the licensing and training system of drivers; 2) make both road infrastructure and vehicles safer. These orientations will translate for the workers of the transport sector in an important initial and periodic training with the aim to improve their health and well-being and to reduce road risk and road accidents, representing a very good example of health promotion.

[Workplace and laws: from health prevention to health promotion]. / L'evoluzione normativa e i riflessi sulla tutela del lavoratore: dalla prevenzione nei luoghi di lavoro alla promozione della salute.

DLgs 626/94 adopted European Directives and changed the Italian field of safety and health at work: it set out minimum requirements and fundamental principles, such as the principle of prevention and risk assessment, as well as the responsibilities of employers and employees. The actual DLgs 81/08 introduced in the workplace the health promotion idea with the aim to promote, protect and maintain health, considering workers' safety and health as social and ethic issues.

[Occupational medicine and communication: which role for print media?]. / Medicina del lavoro e comunicazione: l'uso dei media.

The diffusion of recent regulations on work safety has captured mass-media's interest on work accidents. The present work aims to highlight the role of print media in building a social representation of work safety, by performing a qualitative analysis of articles published between 2009 and 2010 in three of the main national newspapers. Results showed that print media are accurate in reporting news, but they do not serve as source of education in work safety's issues. Information is mainly focused around catastrophic events, with headlines inducing negative emotions. Very few articles contain a critical discussion of methods and operational proposals tested around the Country. A possible transformation of media's role in promoting work safety is discussed.

[Communication-based strategies to improve workers' health and safety: the role of the Responsible for Prevention and Protection Service (RSPP) and the Occupational Health Physician (OHP)]. / Le strategie relazionali ai fini della tutela dei lavoratori: il ruolo del Responsabile del Servizio Prevenzione e Protezione (RSPP) e del Medico Competente (MC).

Communication has a crucial role in enhancing workers' safety behaviours. In order to guarantee workers' safety and health, both the RSPP and the occupational health physician (OHP) need to be involved in frequent and personal relationships with other members in the organization. In the first part of the present work, the network of safety-related relationships within work environment is highlighted with respect to the specific regulations established by D.Lgs 81/2008. In the second part, the most effective behavioural approaches aimed to improve workers' safety behaviours are briefly presented. Particular emphasis is put on communication-based interventions which enhance leader-members exchanges. Incorporating these approaches into a comprehensive safety management system can be a key-tool to improve the effectiveness of both RSPP and OHP.

[The accidents trend in the third millennium]. / Gli infortuni sul lavoro nel terzo millennio.

The Authors assess data and tables of accidents at work in the last Annual Report 2010 and in the Report of the last ten years. The data confirm the decrease of the total number of accidents, reflecting also the forced attention of subjects involved in prevention thanks laws (i.e. D.Lgs 626/94 and D.Lgs 81/08). Considering the high number of accidents and the actual number of three deaths per day in the workplace, the Authors appreciate the results in the injuries prevention, considering them not enough.

[The ISPESL-SIMLII surveys to develop and address updating and accreditation's projects in occupational medicine]. / Le indagini conoscitive ISPESL-SIMLII per lo sviluppo e l'indirizzo dei progetti di aggiornamento e accreditamento in medicina del lavoro.

The SIMLII set up a program of continuous training and accreditation of postgraduate specialists in Occupational Health in 2000, before continuous medical training (ECM) was formally introduced. Therefore, especially over the past few years, SIMLII has involved its membership to an ever increasing extent, in an attempt to understand their expectation as regards the scientific community and as regards a continuously evolving discipline that is subject to continuous changes in educational requirements. The surveys carried out by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Prevention (ISPESL), in collaboration with SIMLII, provided data that, besides identifying the type of activity of the membership, attempted to assess members' compliance with the society's initiatives, with special reference to the Programme for continuous training and accreditation of postgraduates in Occupational Health and the issue of Guidelines.

Potential of ultrasonography for epidemiological study of work-related wrist tenosynovitis.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the possible role of ultrasonography in case definitions for epidemiological studies of work-related wrist tenosynovitis. METHODS: Clinical and ultrasonography (7.5 MHz linear probe) data systematically collected from meat workers (n = 128) with biomechanical exposure characterisation were analysed. The diagnostic accuracy of different combinations of potentially relevant ultrasonography findings (nonhomogeneity, thickening and anechoic halo) was evaluated using symptomatology as a reference standard. The concordance between ultrasonography findings and symptoms was then analysed. RESULTS: Analysis of wrist biomechanical exposure was suggestive of increased prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. Using symptoms as a reference standard, each of the three ultrasonography findings (and their combinations) showed good specificity (> or =85%) accompanied by low sensitivity (<60%); the positive likelihood ratio for at least two findings was 4.1. kappa Values (95% confidence intervals) between symptoms and different sets of ultrasonography findings were as follows: for non-homogeneity, kappa = 0.31 (0.19 to 0.43); at least one finding, kappa = 0.28 (0.16 to 0.40); at least two findings, kappa = 0.32 (0.20 to 0.44); all p<0.01. CONCLUSION: The use of ultrasonography in symptomatic subjects could contribute to a more specific epidemiological case definition of wrist tenosynovitis. The results of this study could help orient future research in this direction.

[Microtrauma radial thrombosis]. / Trombosi radiale microtraumatica.

The articles describes a case of radial artery thrombosis by repeated microtrauma. It describes, by one side, the occupational history, the personal habits and the typical movement and condition of the hands while working, on the other, the clinical and diagnostic picture of radial artery thrombosis. Then it shows the correlation between occupational factors and radial artery thrombosis and so the occupational genesis (repetitive microtrauma) of the disease.

Short-term neurobehavioural effects in anaesthetists with low exposure to nitrous oxide.

The aim of this study was to assess whether a sample of 37 anaesthetists occupationally exposed only to N2O showed any deterioration in vigilance and/or mood. The anaesthetists were examined with three neurobehavioural tests (Simple Reaction Time and Colour Word Vigilance to measure the vigilance and Mood Rating Scale to evaluate the level of stress and arousal) and underwent N2O biological monitoring (to correlate the test results with the N2O exposure) on the first and on the last day of the work week, before and after work in the operating room. No significant relationship was found between the biological monitoring and the test results. The only significant statistical difference was found between the beginning and the end of each workday in the arousal level, regardless of the result of the biological monitoring.