Targeting occupational health and safety interventions to different groups of employees and sectors is important. The aim of this study was to explore the environment-intervention fit of a Danish psychosocial work environment intervention program for the residential and home care sector. Focus group interviews with employees and interviews with mangers were conducted at 12 selected workplaces a...

OBJECTIVE To measure secondhand smoke levels in workplaces in Guatemala and to compare exposure to levels in other Latin American cities. METHODS Exposure was estimated by passive sampling of vapor phase nicotine using a filter badge. Filters were placed in 1 hospital, 1 school, 2 universities, 1 government building, the airport, and 10 restaurants/bars. In total, 103 filters were deployed (p...

Research on work-related health has mainly focused on individual factors. The present study expands the focus by exploring the role of organizational characteristics of workplaces for different individual health outcomes. The aim of the study was to look at differences in relative effect of workplace variations on five health outcomes, and to explain those differences in health outcomes by orga...

This paper considers the size of the market for unionisation in Britain and what unions can do to increase employees’ desire for membership and representation. It identifies quite high levels of union satisfaction among members, but a sizeable minority of 10-14% of members who are discontented with their union who are most at risk of leaving the union. Successful retention depends upon unions i...

Homicide is the second leading cause of death on the job for workers in the United States. To identify workplace-level predictors of homicide risk, a case-control study of worker killings in North Carolina in 1994-1998 was conducted. Workplaces were the units of analysis: case workplaces (n = 105) were those where a worker was killed during the study period, while controls (n = 210) were a dens...

OBJECTIVES We developed a standardized cost estimation method for occupational health (OH) services. The purpose of this study was to set reference OH services costs and to conduct OH services cost management assessments in two workplaces by comparing actual OH services costs with the reference costs. METHODS Data were obtained from retrospective analyses of OH services costs regarding 15 OH ...

In recent years, the existence of a significant problem in workplaces has been documented in Sweden and other countries. It involves employees "ganging up" on a target employee and subjecting him or her to psychological harassment. This "mobbing" behavior results in severe psychological and occupational consequences for the victim. This phenomenon is described, its stages and consequences analy...

NC Med J November/December 2006, Volume 67, Number 6 he North Carolina State Health Plan (SHP), a self-funded plan established by the North Carolina General Assembly, provides healthcare coverage for more than 615,000 active public sector employees, retirees, and dependents. Employee members of the SHP work in 225 organizations in approximately 3,000 worksites throughout the state. Seventy perc...

BACKGROUND Numerous studies confirm the association between exposure to indoor air dampness and molds and different health outcomes. Of these, upper respiratory tract problems are the most commonly reported work-related symptoms in damp indoor environments. The aim of this study was to describe a clinically investigated patient series with occupational rhinitis induced by molds. METHODS Nasal...

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a condition of repetitive episodes of decreased or arrested respiratory airflow during sleep. Many workers over the world remain undiagnosed and untreated for SDB, and leaving themselves at the high risk for accidents and cardiovascular disease. Since, the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport distributed the sleep apnea syndrome manual toge...