Workers In Other Industries Research Articles

Limitation of occupational radiation risk by radiation protection legislation in the Federal Republic of Germany

In the Federal Republic of Germany, as in most other countries, the annual dose limit of 50 mSv for occupationally radiation exposed persons as recommended by ICRP, is applied. Thus, radiation workers shall not be exposed to higher risks than workers in other industries with a high safety standard. A reduction of the annual dose limit was recently considered because the number of fatal work-related accidents has declined in the past 10 years and a higher radiation risk is assumed after the revision of the dosimetry together with the now longer follow-up of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Both factors suggest a reduction of the annual dose limit to 10 mSv. Under the present conditions, the German Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) recommends that the rule of minimisation be applied more strictly and that in the future, in adherence to the annual dose limit of the Radiological Protection Ordinance of 50 mSv, a total dose of 400 mSv during a whole working lifetime shall not be exceeded (occupational lifetime dose). The expected effects of restricting the annual dose limit to 10 mSv are discussed.

Sampling Farm Accidents

Statistical problems are described which arose in the attempt to estimate the overall extent and cost of farm accidents in Great Britain. Information was obtained on all 56 fatal accidents and on a sample of 791 non-fatal accidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive between 1 July 1981 and 30 June 1982. Consideration is given to the planning and execution of a survey of 805 farms to obtain information on unreported accidents. Difficulties in deriving national estimates and problems of communicating results are also covered. 1.1 Background The modernisation and particularly mechanisation of farming in Britain has exposed farmers and farm workers to health and safety risks which are greater than those faced by workers in other industries. Not only has agriculture become increasingly mechan- ised, but machines are now larger and more powerful, and there has been a growth in the use and variety of toxic chemicals, such as pesticides. Furthermore, a steadily declining labour force (with less than half of all farms now employing non-family labour) and an increase in the speed and sophistication of many operations have meant that workers are often alone and unsupervised for long hours. The necessity to operate an extensive range of specialist equipment, much of which may be used for short periods only but requiring the acquisition of particular operating skills, has created further risk to users. The use of pesticides, aerial spraying and straw burning represent potential hazards to the farming and rural community. There are additional health hazards specific to farm work, particularly tetanus, farmer's lung and Weil's disease. A distressing component of the farm accident record is the fatal and serious injuries sustained by children, reflecting the circumstances of the 'family farm' and the proximity of home and workplace. The available data on farm accidents have largely been limited to fatal accidents and those non-fatal accidents which are reported to the U.K. Health and Safety Executive (HSE): until 1983 these were mostly accidents to employees for which Industrial Injury Benefit was claimed. Little information is available, however, on non-fatal accidents to employees for which state benefits are not claimed, nor on those sustained by self-employed persons (who now exceed employees in farming) not entitled to benefits. In addition to the compelling humanitarian reasons for making agriculture a safer and healthier environment in which to live and work, there are economic reasons for pursuing health and safety improvement. Accidents cost money and resources; to the injured party, to the employer, to the National Exchequer and to the national

Health of workers exposed to electric fields.

The results of health questionnaire interviews with 390 electrical power transmission and distribution workers, together with long term estimates of their exposure to 50 Hz electric fields, and short term measurements of the actual exposure for 287 of them are reported. Twenty eight workers received measurable exposures, averaging about 30 kVm-1h over the two week measurement period. Estimated exposure rates were considerably greater, but showed fair correlation with the measurements. Although the general level of health was higher than we have found in manual workers in other industries, there were significant differences in the health measures between different categories of job, different parts of the country, and in association with factors such as overtime, working alone, or frequently changing shift. After allowing for the effects of job and location, however, we found no significant correlations of health with either measured or estimated exposure to electric fields.

A Proposal For A Nonreinstatement Rule In Unfair Labor Practice Cases Involving Patient Abuse

Nursing home discharges of employees based on patient abuse raise a difficult issue when the motivating factor for the disciplinary action is union activism. A tension is created between the rights of employees to engage in protected concerted activity and the rights of patients to quality care. In 1974, Congress passed the Health Care Institutions Amendments, which granted to non-profit health care workers collective organizing and bargaining rights substantially similar to those which workers in other industries had enjoyed for decades under the National Labor Relations Act. Congress intended to give health care workers only that degree of parity, however, which is compatible with the provision of high quality patient care. The agency charged with enforcing the Act, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has failed to distinguish employee misconduct in industrial settings from patient abuse in health care institutions when fashioning remedies for discriminatorily discharged union activists. The NLRB typically has ordered the reinstatement, with back pay, of the patient abuser as the patient's primary care-giver. This Article suggests that a front pay remedy is more appropriate to these cases because it protects the patient's right to be free from abuse without sacrificing employee unionization rights.

Results of sputum, cytology among workers exposed to vinyl chloride monomer and to poly(vinyl chloride).

The results of systematic cytological sputum examinations of 3,380 Italian VC-PVC industry workers and of 2,287 workers in other industries at different potential risk and chosen as control groups are reported. The results indicate an increase in cellular abnormalities and dysplasias in the epithelium of the respiratory tract among VC-PVC workers. These data are in line with experimental results showing that VC produces lung tumors in mice and with early epidemiological evidence among exposed workers.

Results of Sputum Cytology among Workers Exposed to Vinyl Chloride Monomer and to Poly(Vinyl Chloride)

The results of systematic cytological sputum examinations of 3,380 Italian VC-PVC industry workers and of 2,287 workers in other industries at different potential risk and chosen as control groups are reported. The results indicate an increase in cellular abnormalities and dysplasias in the epithelium of the respiratory tract among VC-PVC workers. These data are in line with experimental results showing that VC produces lung tumors in mice and with early epidemiological evidence among exposed workers.

THE HAZARDS OF FARMING.

AGRICULTURE is annually responsible for more occupational deaths than any other major industry in the United States: 3100 lives were lost while men and women were living and working on farms in this country in 1962. Furthermore, fatal accidents comprise only a small proportion of the total; for every fatality there are approximately 100 serious, disabling, crippling injuries that often require weeks in the hospital, which most farmers can ill afford, and months of convalescence before rehabilitation is adequate for return to work.By recognition of the inherent dangers to which workers in other industries are exposed and by the . . .

Preventive value of mass radiography surveys in the boot and shoe industry in Northamptonshire

Summaryo(1)Mass radiography surveys of industrial Northamptonshire in 1945–46 showed a high incidence of unsuspected active pulmonary tuberculosis in boot and shoe workers compared with workers in other industries. A similar high incidence was noted in the clothing industry which largely employs young female labour.(2)Mass radiography surveys at three-yearly intervals have reduced the incidence of unsuspected phthisis in industrial workers to a low level. This reduction has been most spectacular in the boot and shoe factories which no longer show any significant excess of the disease compared with other occupations in the country.(3)The reasons for this favourable result in the boot and shoc industry are the high response of volunteers for mass radiography amongst boot and shoe workers; the relative stability of the boot and shoe population; and the weeding out of a relatively large number of elderly male sputum-positive cases with trivial symptoms.(4)It is suggested that mass radiography surveys are likely to have a more lasting effect in industries with a stable population like the boot and shoe, than in industries with a large labour turnover. Mass radiography surveys of industrial Northamptonshire in 1945–46 showed a high incidence of unsuspected active pulmonary tuberculosis in boot and shoe workers compared with workers in other industries. A similar high incidence was noted in the clothing industry which largely employs young female labour. Mass radiography surveys at three-yearly intervals have reduced the incidence of unsuspected phthisis in industrial workers to a low level. This reduction has been most spectacular in the boot and shoe factories which no longer show any significant excess of the disease compared with other occupations in the country. The reasons for this favourable result in the boot and shoc industry are the high response of volunteers for mass radiography amongst boot and shoe workers; the relative stability of the boot and shoe population; and the weeding out of a relatively large number of elderly male sputum-positive cases with trivial symptoms. It is suggested that mass radiography surveys are likely to have a more lasting effect in industries with a stable population like the boot and shoe, than in industries with a large labour turnover.