Background. The present study aimed to analyze the levels of work-related stress and perceived well-being among employees of cooperative credit banks (BCCs) in the Veneto region (Italy). The risk of stress was assessed using Karasek’s Job Demand-Control (JDC) model. Methods. An anonymous online questionnaire was administered via email to workers registered with trade unions, covering 91% of the total workers. The study collected socio-demographic and work-related information between April and June 2021 using the following validated questionnaires: the Bank Employee Stress Test 8 (BEST8), the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) by Karasek, the Short-Form (SF)-12 Health Survey, and the Positivity Scale (PS). A logistic regression analysis was used to assess the significant associations between quality of life (QoL) and potential stressors. Results. A total of 1,506 questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 38%. Fifty-eight percent of the participants were male, with an average age of 45 years (standard deviation [SD]=8.2). Regarding QoL, the average physical component score (PCS) was 52.3 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 51.9-52.7), while the mental component score (MCS) was 35.9 (95% CI: 35.5-36.6), which is significantly lower than the average for the Italian population, typically ranging from 48 to 51.7. According to the JCQ, the mean decision latitude (DL) reported by participants was 65.7, and the mean job demand (JD) was 38.5. Overall, 24.3% of the workers were found to be in a state of distress. The regression model showed that distress was significantly associated with anxiety over unmet budget targets due to potential relocation or role changes, difficulty adapting to a fast-paced work environment, moral conflict with sales or consultation demands, and pressure from colleagues or superiors to be more flexible. The model demonstrated a goodness-of-fit of 46%. Conclusions. The “contextual stressors” identified in this study appear to be linked to organizational culture, career development opportunities, decision-making autonomy, and the level of control given to employees. On the other hand, the “content-related stressors” are connected to the intensity and pace of work. The QoL among workers was significantly lower than the national average. From an epidemiological standpoint, these findings offer valuable insights for future studies aimed at better understanding the causal relationship between stressors and health outcomes, and they may also encourage the implementation of health prevention and stress management interventions.

Background. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of becoming infected and, in turn, becoming contagious. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among HCWs and to identify associated factors, with the goal of defining the specific residual risk within work environments. Methods. The data from the health surveillance of HCWs between January 2017 and January 2020 were collected at the Policlinico Umberto I Hospital in Rome and used to assess the prevalence of LTBI through purified protein derivative (PPD) and interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) tests (QuantiFERON®-TB Gold). Results. Out of 3,102 HCWs, the PPD was positive in 431 subjects (13.9%); however, out of 479 operators undergoing TB Gold, 42.8% were positive. The risk of testing positive for LTBI increased with age, particularly in the nursing profession and, in subjects over 50, among technicians. Conclusions. Our study identified a relatively high prevalence of LTBI, confirming that the risk among HCWs is higher than in the general population. Furthermore, the PPD test, despite having low specificity, can be considered a first-level screening tool in Italian hospitals, with positive results requiring confirmation by IGRA tests.

Background. The term intoxication refers to the disease, acute or chronic, caused by harmful substances or those made harmful due to factors such as high concentration or impaired immune defenses. These substances can cause reversible or irreversible changes in tissues and organs, including oncogenic and mutagenic effects. In response to the need for treatment and prevention services for intoxication and chemical impacts, poison control centers (PCCs) have emerged worldwide. This study aimed to verify the link between the type of intoxication detected by the PCC of the Policlinico Umberto I of Rome and occupational exposure. Methods. The study employed a retrospective case-control design. Cases and controls were identified from the archive of the Clinical Toxicology Unit – Poison Control and Anti-Drug Center at Policlinico Umberto I, which included individuals who had contacted the PCC between 2009 and 2018. The case group comprised patients whose intoxication occurred at the workplace and/or was accidental and work-related. Controls were randomly selected from the PCC database using EpiCalc2000, excluding those who met the case criteria. Results. A total of 448 patients were included (202 cases, 246 controls). The most involved agents were drugs (44.7% controls, 3.5% cases), caustic cleaning products (19.7% controls, 27.7% cases), fuels, solvents, paints, oils (2.5% controls, 22.8% cases), and pesticides (5.3% controls, 12.9% cases). Ingestion was the primary exposure route among cases (68.6%), while inhalation prevailed among controls (46.5%). Multivariate analysis revealed that occupational intoxication was strongly associated with exposure to other toxic substances (OR 55.19), fuels, solvents, paints, oils (OR 48.36), and pesticides (OR 12.61). Conversely, the association with risk factors such as drugs (OR 0.06), substances of abuse (OR 0.10), and mushrooms (OR 0.10) was found to be protective. Conclusions. The primary routes of exposure to toxic substances in the workplace were inhalation in approximately half of the cases and ingestion in just over a quarter of the cases. The substances most commonly involved were caustic cleaning products and fuels, solvents, paints, and oils. These results may facilitate the development of specific prevention strategies.

The essay envisages the topic of psycological risks (PSRs) not only from a strictly legal perspective but also from a more specifically political one. In this reconstruction, the author highlights how the key question underlying the development of the EU regulative system in the field of PSRs does not concern the actual existence of a solid protection basis at hard law level89/391/Eec directive - but rather to the effectiveness of such protection and to the functionality of soft law in ensuring its implementation and detailing its content. The system effects are measured on the transposition at national level of the Agreement of 2007 on harassment and violence in the workplace. As a final result, it revealing several important structural tensions as well as the shortcomings of the Social European project.

Although a growing portion of european working population is facing with psycho-social risks, only about 30% of public and private institution identify individual cases and are implementing actions aimed to their prevention and management. In addition to the formal evaluation of work-related stress, it is crucial to identify individual cases in order to support people to face them efficiently. The ambulatory of Occupational Medicine jointly instituted by the University of Rome Tor Vergata and by the Policlinico Tor Vergata di Roma (having an agreement with the National Health System) offers to patients a multi-disciplinary approach including psychiatric and psychological evaluation in addition to the evaluation of the occupational setting. Since 2010, 264 patient have been visited, with a growing percentage in recent years of cases related to inter-personal conflicts as well as other forms of organizational constraints and some recent situations which could be linked to strain (which is a peculiar organizational consequence which may cause personal damage owing to the creation of psychological subalternity). Therefore, the psychological pathway given by the ambulatory seems increasingly useful in order to preserve the occupational relationship, at least in the cases in which it is not definitively compromised. The occupational physician has a primary role in identifying cases in which an in-depth evaluation is needed, in encouraging the sharing of negative experiences and in correctly evaluating the clinical picture.

Nanoparticles toxicity is associated with cardiovascular diseases (CDs). Although epidemiological studies confirmed such link, they did not prove a direct causation on cardiac tissue. Normotensive and hypertensive (SHR) rats were exposed to titanium dioxide (TiO,) and diesel exhaust particles (DEP) from Euro3 and Euro4 derived-engines. We explored the interaction between NPs and in-vivo/in-vitro cardiac tissue and we determined the effect on electro-mechanical performance by evaluating genetic, morphological, functional and toxicological alterations. We observed a direct contamination of cardiac tissue by tracheallyinstilled NPs, correlated with structural remodeling, ROS, DNA damaged, modulation of ECGs and arrhythmogenesis. Such conditions are further aggravated in normotensive animal acutely exposed to Euro4-DEP and in SHR repeatedly exposed to 1i0,-NPs. Such NPs produce transient nanopores (≤50 nm), which causes membrane leakage and action potential reduction. Our proposed approaches show a direct involvement of NPs linked to CDs, by establishing a novel arrhythmogenic mechanism.

Although the debate among the scientific community is still open to identify the parameters which better represent engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) toxicity, numerous methodological approaches to assess workers exposure to airborne ENMs have been proposed. The measurement of exposure to ENMs is a critical step in the analysis of the potential risks for workers and the distinction of engineered nano-objects from the background is highly important to understand the contribution of specific sources. In 2015, OECD reviewed the major published strategies and promoted a harmonized three-tiered approach to measure and assess the airborne exposure to engineered nano-objects in the workplace, with the aim also to balance costs and effectiveness of investigation efforts. In this framework this study proposes the preliminary results of occupational exposure measurements conducted in both industrial and laboratory workplaces in which different types of nanmaterials were used. The results of this study will be useful to validate the proposed exposure measurement strategy.

Conceptually, the initial phase of nanomaterial occupational safety and health research is now largely completed and the next phase targeting more refined research is starting. The pending question is what is the critical research that should be conducted to move the field forward and advance worker protection. Research is needed to further understand toxic effects of nanomaterials. There is also need for more exposure data, and for data on the prevalence of the use of controls to prevent worker exposures. One growing area that needs attention is determination of ENM exposure in additive manufacturing. Overall, for the nanomaterial workforce enough time has now passed to consider and implement more rigorous longitudinal epidemiological studies of various groups of workers. Additionally, special attention needs to be continued for investigation of hazard risk and control of exposure to high aspect ratio nanomaterials. Most importantly, there is need for continued refinement of strategies to group nanomaterials and develop categorical risk management guidance.

In the last decade there have been several developments in European Union in recognizing the relevance of psychosocial risks, particularly as regard to work-related stress, resulting in novelties at policy level and in the development of practical solutions for managing such risk. The current national legislative framework on occupational health and safety establishes the obligation of assessing work-related stress risk in companies, in accordance to the European Framework Agreement of 2004, and provides the minimum legal requirements. Research experiences in this field contributed to develop and increase the existing methodological processes, also to verify the effectiveness and to identify needs related to sectors and context particularly at risk. Among the others, findings from the Project "Monitoring and intervention for improving the assessment and management of work-related stress" contributed to the development of management models and intervention strategies to face and prevent the work-related stress risk.

The world is changing rapidly, even work. The main new features of the labor market relate mainly to the supremacy of consumption over production, the ease with which you can access the information, to the space conquered by the ideas and knowledge and, most recently, the sharing of experiences, which led to the sense making the organizational business culture. These deep changes are grafted into organizational models that gradually try to satisfy the demands of the market. By Taylor-Fordist model to the Japanese based on "just in time" many things have changed, but it has changed above all the meaning that is attributed to human nature. In summary, the historic transition is that once business owners reminded to employees: "You're not paid to think", but now urge them thus: "The quality is up to you." The route taken by the first to the second statement is the meaning of the genetic changes in work and workers today.