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COVID-19: incidence and mortality in Sweden comparing all foreign-born to all Swedish-born individuals in different occupations in an unvaccinated cohort of year 2020
Conclusion Foreign born have a higher risk of COVID-19 compared with Swedish-born individuals at any age and occupation before vaccination began in 2021. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - March 8, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tondel, M., Nordquist, T., Helgesson, M., Svartengren, M. Tags: Open access Workplace Source Type: research

Chronic occupational exposures to irritants and asthma in the CONSTANCES cohort
Conclusions Lifetime occupational exposures to irritants were associated with current asthma and higher asthma symptom score. These exposures should be carefully considered in asthma management. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - March 8, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Sit, G., Orsi, L., Iwatsubo, Y., Dananche, B., Orsi, F., Goldberg, M., Leynaert, B., Nadif, R., Ribet, C., Roche, N., Roquelaure, Y., Varraso, R., Zins, M., Pilorget, C., Le Moual, N., Dumas, O. Tags: Editor's choice Workplace Source Type: research

Notification of hand eczema as an occupational disease among Danish hairdressers: a national survey on patients perception
Conclusions Based on hairdressers’ perception, occupational hand eczema still seems to be an under-reported disease which may lead to underestimation of the problem and impair prevention, diagnosis and treatment. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - March 8, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Kursawe Larsen, C., Havmose, M. S., Johansen, J. D. Tags: Workplace Source Type: research

Ethnic inequalities among NHS staff in England: workplace experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
Conclusions Structural changes to the way staff from ethnically minoritised groups are supported, and how their complaints are addressed by leaders within the NHS are urgently required. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - March 8, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Rhead, R., Harber-Aschan, L., Onwumere, J., Polling, C., Dorrington, S., Ehsan, A., Stevelink, S. A. M., Khunti, K., Mir, G., Morriss, R., Wessely, S., Woodhead, C., Hatch, S. Tags: Open access, Press releases, COVID-19 Workplace Source Type: research

Health Hazard Evaluations of occupational cancer cluster concerns: the USA, January 2001-December 2020
Conclusions The proportion of HHEs on workplace cancer cluster concerns remained steady over time; most did not meet the definition of a cluster or uncover an occupational cause. Public health practitioners can use this information to provide updated context when addressing workplace cancer cluster concerns and as motivation to refine investigative approaches. More broadly, this review highlights an opportunity to identify best practices on how to apply community cluster investigation methods to the workplace. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Shi, D. S., Rinsky, J. L., Grimes, G. R., Chiu, S. K. Tags: Editor's choice Practice Source Type: research

Who tests for lead and why? A 10-year analysis of blood lead screening, follow-up and CNS outcomes in a statewide US healthcare system
Conclusions Hospital lead testing covers a small portion of patients but includes a wide range of ages, presentations and provider specialities. Lack of lead decline among many paediatric patients suggests there is room to improve provider guidance around when to test and follow-up. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Reuben, A., Ward, R., Rothbaum, A. O., Cornelison, V. L., Huffman, S., McTeague, L. M., Schmidt, M. G., Specht, A. J., Kilpatrick, D. G. Tags: Exposure assessment Source Type: research

Identifying employee, workplace and population characteristics associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace: a population-based study
Conclusions This study has used novel national data linkages to identify potential risk factors of workplace COVID-19 outbreaks, including possible protective effects of vaccination and increased physical distance at work. The same methodological approach can be applied to wider occupational and environmental health research. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Overton, C. E., Abbey, R., Baird, T., Christie, R., Daniel, O., Day, J., Gittins, M., Jones, O., Paton, R., Tang, M., Ward, T., Wilkinson, J., Woodrow-Hill, C., Aldridge, T., Chen, Y. Tags: Open access Exposure assessment Source Type: research

Association of firefighting exposures with lung function using a novel job exposure matrix (JEM)
Discussion Smoke particle exposures were observed to have modest short-term and long-term associations with pulmonary function, particularly in those who, previously, had high levels of WTC exposure. Future work examining the association between P and pulmonary function among non-WTC exposed firefighters will be essential for disentangling the effects of ageing, routine firefighting and WTC exposures. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Goldfarb, D. G., Prezant, D. J., Zeig-Owens, R., Hall, C. B., Schwartz, T., Liu, Y., Kavouras, I. G. Tags: Workplace Source Type: research

Agricultural exposure and risk of ovarian cancer in the AGRIculture and CANcer (AGRICAN) cohort
Conclusion This study is the first to assess the association between specific agricultural exposures and ovarian cancer comprehensively. Some of the positive associations observed suggest that some pesticide exposure (especially during puberty) could play a role in the development of ovarian cancer. On the other hand, agricultural exposure during early life could have a protective effect, as observed for lung cancer among farmers. Finally, we did not confirm the previous putative effect of exposure to triazine herbicides. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Renier, M., Hippert, J., Louis-Bastien, W., Tual, S., Meryet-Figuiere, M., Vigneron, N., Marcotullio, E., Baldi, I., Lebailly, P., AGRICAN group, Dabakuyo-Yonli, Bara, Bouvier, Busquet, Coureau, Delanoe, Grosclaude, Vigneron, Herbrecht, Valera, Lapotre-Le Tags: Workplace Source Type: research

Epidemiology of work-related fall injuries resulting in hospitalisation: individual and work risk factors and severity
Conclusion Work-related falls were common and relatively severe. Same-level falls are relatively likely to occur in older women, the fastest-growing workplace demographic, and therefore the incidence is expected to increase. Comorbidities are an important fall risk factor. Employers could consider industry-relevant high and same-level fall prevention strategies for reducing the workplace injury burden. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Wah, W., Berecki-Gisolf, J., Walker-Bone, K. Tags: Press releases Workplace Source Type: research

Chronic respiratory symptoms following deployment-related occupational and environmental exposures among US veterans
Conclusion Exposures to burn pit smoke and military occupational VGDF during deployment were associated with an increased odds of chronic respiratory symptoms among US Veterans. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Garshick, E., Redlich, C. A., Korpak, A., Timmons, A. K., Smith, N. L., Nakayama, K., Baird, C. P., Ciminera, P., Kheradmand, F., Fan, V. S., Hart, J. E., Koutrakis, P., Kuschner, W., Ioachimescu, O., Jerrett, M., Montgrain, P. R., Proctor, S. P., Wan, E. Tags: Workplace Source Type: research

Chronic respiratory symptoms observed in US veterans following deployment may not be unique to that population
Military personnel can be exposed to a variety of occupational and environmental pollutants that places their health at risk. In a recent publication in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Garshick and colleagues characterised the inhalational exposures during deployment of US military personnel to Afghanistan and Southwest Asia and the associations with postdeployment respiratory symptoms.1 They observed significant associations between burn pit smoke and military job-related vapours, gases, dusts and fumes (VGDF) exposure and chronic respiratory symptoms. These findings may lead to a further question: what does this...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - February 2, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Peters, S. Tags: Commentary Source Type: research

Response to comment by Erren and Morfeld on our paper 'Night work and breast cancer risk in a cohort of female healthcare employees in Stockholm, Sweden
In response to our paper, Erren and Morfeld argue that chronotype is an overseen and underestimated modifier of the risk for breast cancer in association with night work. This hypothesis was presented in 20131 and has been repeated several times since then. However, Erren and Morfeld present little or no evidence to support the hypothesis by empirical data. The references in their letter repeat the theory rather than to test it. We do not see the relevance of citing a paper saying that it is important to include data on smoking in studies of lung cancer (ref 6 in their letter). We appreciate that Erren actually has contrib...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - January 13, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Gustavsson, P., Bigert, C., Andersson, T., Kader, M., Härmä, M., Selander, J., Bodin, T., Albin, M. Tags: PostScript Source Type: research

Occupational and circadian epidemiology
With interest, we read the article by Gustavsson et al1 on the breast cancer risk in a cohort with night work. The authors started from two facts: first, ‘night shift work’2 3 was classified as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ (group 2A) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC); second, the evidence in humans was considered limited because of variable results and potential bias. Since prior studies had problems regarding exposure assessment, Gustavsson et al emphasised their very detailed registry-based data on night work. Yet, as key result the authors noted that ‘conclusion...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - January 13, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Erren, T. C., Morfeld, P. Tags: PostScript Source Type: research

Observational study on occupational exposure of dairy farmers to formaldehyde
Conclusions The exposure of Dutch dairy farmers presumably falls within the established safety norms. Nonetheless, substantial levels of formaldehyde could be detected. This study further emphasises the importance of substitution of formalin in dairy practice and the relevance of informing dairy farmers on proper handling of formalin to reduce exposure. (Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine)
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - January 13, 2024 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Janssen, E. R., Nielen, M., Spithoven, J. J. G., van Werven, T., Wouters, I. M. Tags: Exposure assessment Source Type: research