Hand eczema and contact allergy in healthcare work

Hand eczema is common in healthcare workers. Besides wet work, healthcare work also implies exposure to contact allergens. Occupational hand exposures have changed in recent years owing to implementation of hand hygiene procedures including an increased use of medical gloves. An increase of hand eczema caused by contact allergy to surgical gloves, in most cases owing to contact allergy to the rubber additive diphenylguanidine (DPG), was found in surgical theatre personnel (paper I). Most patients had worked with surgical gloves for decades, but their hand eczema was of recent onset. Contact allergy to DPG in medical gloves has previously been disputed, but in this study the presence of DPG in the patients' gloves was confirmed by chemical analysis. In a questionnaire study distributed to healthcare workers in Southern Sweden (paper II) a 1-year prevalence of hand eczema of 21% was found. After adjustment for confounding factors a dose-dependent association with hand eczema was found for daily number of hand washes with soap at work, and for time working with medical gloves. No association was found between hand eczema and use of alcoholic hand disinfectant.In a cross-sectional study healthcare workers with hand eczema were investigated (paper III). Occupational hand eczema was found in 62%. Of these 11% had occupational allergic contact dermatitis, in most cases caused by contact allergy to rubber glove additives. Occupational contact allergy to rubber additives was associated with sick-leave related to hand eczemaIn an experimental study factors influencing DPG release from a polyisoprene rubber glove was investigated (paper IV). Alcoholic hand disinfectant prior to glove donning increased the amount of DPG recovered from the hands. Within 10 minutes more than 80% of available DPG was released from the glove into artificial sweat. Compared to a nitrile glove, proportionally more DPG was released into artificial sweat from the polyisoprene glov

Traceability of hides and skins: from field to leather

Content: Quality of leather is deeply dependant on the origin of the livestock including breeding, transportation and slaughter. Ten years ago, the French leather industry have commissioned CTC, the French Leather, leather goods and footwear research centre to improve the quality of hides and skins. In order to improve raw material, a unitary link is required between the quality of leather and its origin that is to say the raw material. This was the beginning of a huge project: traceability of hides and skins through the supply chain, from breeding to wet-blue (and even leather). Data is captured from the animal’s ear tag at the point of slaughter which is then transfer on to a paper bar code. Hides and skins traders will then transfer definitively the code from the paper tag to the hides or skins thanks to an automatic high-pressure CO2 marking device on the hair side of the fresh or salted hide in the neck region. That unitary traceability is resistant to water, acid, alcalis, grease, solvents but also mechanical impacts such as splitting, shaving and even buffing. It is visible throughout all the process and fast enough. Once the permanent number code has been added, it can be visually or automatically read throughout the subsequent tanning process steps. The automatic code reader takes the algorithm of the number and the data is collected by mean of artificial intelligence. This technology has been implemented by several abattoirs, trader and tanners. Traceability is the essential tool for quality management throughout the supply chain. It helps the identification of the origin of defects for improvement and provides the origin of grade 1 hides and skins. This realistic industrial solution is a major issue for the leather industry whether it is for the improvement of quality or mastery of the supply chain and sustainability. Take-Away: In order to improve the quality of raw material, a unitary link is required between the quality of leather and its origin that is to say the raw material. This is the objective of that project: traceability of hides and skins through the supply chain, from breeding to wet-blue (and even leather) thanks to CO2 laser marquing

Work Life 2000 Yearbook 2: 2000

This volume reported the proceedings of a series of international research workshops in 1999, funded by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life, in preparation for the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in 2001

Development of Design Optimization for Smart Grid (DOfSG) Framework for Residential Energy Efficiency via Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) Approach

The smart grid revolution has benefited many sectors but the potential for design optimization among residential units has yet to be explored. Despite some researchers having negative perception of house design's association with the smart grid system, there is in fact potential for investigating design attribute optimisation aligned with the smart grid system. As electricity becomes a necessity of the 21st century society, residential dwellers are becoming more dependent on this indispensable source of energy. As such, this paper explains the development of a framework focusing on design optimization for residential units aligned to the smart grid system using the Fuzzy Delphi Method approach. It focuses on the significant smart grid components linked to the residential sector incorporating key design attributes for energy optimization purposes. The proposed framework denoted two main components of residential design optimization, depicted as indoor and outdoor parameters with its subsequent attributes further categorised into main and detailed components. Twelve design parameters were found to be substantial for the DOfSG development, intended to provide useful guide for aligning residential design towards the smart grid system in Malaysia

Poison in Pink

Humans slather, spray, mist, and cleanse their bodies with personal care products like lotion, hairspray, cologne, and shampoo every day. Our cupboards are stocked full of them, but few of us understand what is in those jars and bottles. We trust that if it’s on the shelf at the store, it’s safe. However, this is not always the case, and many personal care products contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health. My multi-disciplinary Environmental Studies thesis project combines evidenced-based research, interviews, nonfiction narrative, and science communication to create part of a book manuscript intended to educate general consumers about the harmful ingredients found in everyday products in their homes. The book aims to motivate readers to make changes in their own homes and on store shelves. My thesis begins with an overview to orient the reader to the problem that consumers face. The next chapter, “A Few Drops of No. 5,” unpacks the term “fragrance,” a catchall term that can be more than one hundred chemical ingredients. In this chapter, I discuss the historical, political, and regulatory context that has given rise to term “fragrance,” as well as the chemical ingredients found in fragrance formulations. The third chapter, “Polished,” explores the health effects that nail salon workers experience as a result of failed state and federal policies that allow for exposure to harmful chemicals in salons. The three chapters are preceded by a preface to the thesis project and followed by a conclusion, which overviews future plans for the book manuscript

Cleaning cooperatively : an analysis of the success and potential of a cooperative business

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-101).In this study, I evaluate a cooperative cleaning business's success in improving employment outcomes for immigrant workers. Cooperative business development is often undertaken as a community economic development strategy that seeks to promote better work experiences for those with limited employment options. The argument that ownership and control in the workplace are key features of such a strategy is superficially easy to accept, but becomes more problematic when trade-offs among goals and outcomes are introduced. To better understand the nature of these trade-offs, I compare employment outcomes and business strategy across four different cleaning companies: a cooperative cleaning business, a maid service franchise, a unionized janitorial firm, and an independent housecleaner. While wages and benefits do not differ substantially across the four cases, cooperatives provide opportunities for training and mobility, control over work and over management of the business, and a sense of satisfaction that are unusual in the cleaning industry and of value to their members. These findings are tempered by the observation that these cleaning cooperatives remain a scattered set of experiments that often must struggle to sustain themselves. Enjoying the benefits of cooperative ownership may require members to sacrifice time and salary, and may in the short-term hamper business growth and profitability. The strategies used by successful cooperative and non-cooperative cleaning businesses provide a useful guide to these businesses as they seek to meet the dual goals of providing better work experiences for their members and successfully competing within the cleaning industry.by Virginia L. Doellgast.M.C.P

Gateway to a city: a transport interchange in Vereeniging

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017This research report is an exploration of the public arena of a transport interchange in Vereeniging’s urban centre, and the opportunities created within a zone where many people of different backgrounds converge and interact. Therefore the document looks at various forms of transport converging on a single node and how best to integrate these into a single zone where all can feed off one another and enhance the experience within the public transport realm itself. The divisions of race, class & income cannot be wished away in Vereeniging, therefore the urban context of the inner city needs to be addressed (this indirectly affects the mindsets of the city’s inhabitants). The local informal economy, mini-bus taxi industry, bus services and rail have each appropriated responses to overcome the obstacles of segregation. The entrenched presence of the local informal economy and mini-bus taxi industry and its legal conflict with formal urban systems further fuels their independence. This still young newly found independence can mature in an urban intervention in which new rules of engagement are charted and a new tradition in the built environment begins. Therefore a gateway is a metaphor for the integration of public transport modes into a point of convergence at an urban movement node. It is also here at the threshold of this gateway, in and out of the city, that trade is best exploited and social engagements have the highest potential. It is not about erasing but rather reassembling a viable urban future, through learning from and working within the given conditionsXL201

Inscribing a discipline: tensions in the field of bioinformatics

Bioinformatics, the application of computer science to biological problems, is a central feature of post-genomic science which grew rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s. Post-genomic science is often high-throughput, involving the mass production of inscriptions [Latour and Woolgar (1986), Laboratory Life: the Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press]. In order to render these mass inscriptions comprehensible, bioinformatic techniques are employed, with bioinformaticians producing what we call secondary inscriptions. However, despite bioinformaticians being highly skilled and credentialed scientists, the field struggles to develop disciplinary coherence. This paper describes two tensions militating against disciplinary coherence. The first arises from the fact that bioinformaticians as producers of secondary inscriptions are often institutionally dependent, subordinate even, to biologists. With bioinformatics positioned as service, it cannot determine its own boundaries but has them imposed from the outside. The second tension is a result of the interdisciplinary origin of bioinformatics – computer science and biology are disciplines with very different cultures, values and products. The paper uses interview data from two different UK projects to describe and examine these tensions by commenting on Calvert's [(2010) “Systems Biology, Interdisciplinarity and Disciplinary Identity.” In Collaboration in the New Life Sciences, edited by J. N. Parker, N. Vermeulen and B. Penders, 201–219. Farnham: Ashgate] notion of individual and collaborative interdisciplinarity and McNally's [(2008) “Sociomics: CESAGen Multidisciplinary Workshop on the Transformation of Knowledge Production in the Biosciences, and its Consequences.” Proteomics 8: 222–224] distinction between “black box optimists” and “black box pessimists.