The COVID-19 pandemic: one year later – an occupational perspective

This report points to the importance of oc cupation as a risk factor but also to the availability and use of appropriate personal protection to mitigate the risk of becoming infected. In addition, well-established socio-economic factors of health inequalities intermingled with occupations at risk, demonstrated by the fact that most taxi driv ers belonged to the same ethnic group and that taxi drivers had higher mortality rates when residing in London (5). These findings are mirrored in a recent preprint publication from the US state of California, reporting that relative excess mortality was particularly high among food/agriculture, tra nsportation/logistics, facilities, and manufacturing workers. Again, Latino and Black Californian workers were disproportionally affected (6). Hence, working and living circumstances are strongly intertwined, best illustrated by several well-documented outbreaks of COVID-19 in slaughterhouses point ing at working conditions significantly interrelated to housing and transportation arrangements, and precarious work with migrant workers doing the lowest paid jobs (7). A recent large population-based study in Sweden showed that COVID-19-related mortality was influenced by housing conditions (less m2 per individual in household; someone of working age in the household), neighbourhood characteristics (higher population density) and educational level (lower education) (8). This raises the question how well we can distinguish the relative contributio...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health - Category: Occupational Health Tags: Editorial Source Type: research