Occupational Lyme Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Lyme disease (LD) can have significant consequences for the health of workers. The frequency of infection can be estimated by using prevalence and incidence data on antibodies against Borrelia Burgdoferi (BB). A systematic search of studies published in English between 2002 and 2021 and a meta-analysis were conducted in PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Out of a total of 1125 studies retrieved, 35 articles were included in the systematic review. Overall, in these studies, outdoor workers showed a 20.5% BB seroprevalence rate. Meta-analysis, performed on 15 studies (3932 subjects), revealed a significantly increased risk in outdoor activities (OR 1.93 95%CI 1.15–3.23), with medium-level heterogeneity (I2 = 69.2%), and non-significant publication bias. The estimated OR in forestry and agricultural workers was 2.36 (CI95% 1.28; 4.34) in comparison with the controls, while a non-significant increase in risk (OR = 1.05, CI95% 0.28; 3.88) was found in the remaining categories of workers (veterinarians, animal breeders, soldiers). The estimated pooled risk was significantly higher in the studies published until 2010 (OR 3.03 95% CI 1.39–6.61), while in more recent studies the odds became non-significant (OR 1.08 95% CI 0.63–1.85). The promotion of awareness campaigns targeting outdoor workers in endemic areas, and the implementation of local programs aimed at controlling range expansion of vectors, are key strategies for protecting workers

Somero estudio climático de los valles de los ríos Neuquén, Limay y Negro

Fil: Velasco, Matilde I.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Filosofía y LetrasFil: Capitanelli, Ricardo G.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Filosofía y Letra

Common Occupational Trauma: Is There a Relationship with Workers’ Mental Health?

Exposure to major trauma can have significant consequences for workers’ mental health, but common trauma may also result in poor mental health outcomes. This cross-sectional study retrospectively investigated the occurrence of common physical or psychological workplace trauma in 901 health, social service, and trading company workers and studied these experiences in relation to occupational stress, anxiety, and depression. Stress was measured with the effort/reward imbalance (ERI) model while anxiety and depression were evaluated with the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale (GADS). Healthcare workers reported a high frequency of trauma and significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression than other workers. Even in the entire population of workers of the various professional categories, verbal violence (harassment and threats), traffic accidents, home injuries, and family bereavement were significantly associated with high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Major trauma survivors are known to be at increased risk of mental disorders and require support in the workplace, however, even minor repeated emotional trauma and injuries can affect mental health. During mandatory health surveillance, the occupational physician should systematically collect information on minor trauma and mental health outcomes when assessing the occupational fitness of the workers assigned to him

Workplace health promotion programs in different areas of Europe

Background Aging of the workforce challenges European countries. Keeping aged workers healthy and productive, through health promotion, is a key goal of European labour policy. The aim of the present study was to collect experiences of workplace health promotion for older workers (WHPOW) conducted in 10 representative countries of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Methods A literature review of activities of WHPOW was conducted through a comprehensive search of major scientific databases and on the website of the major European Agencies on worker health promotion. The search was restricted to papers published in English from 2000 to 2015. Companies were asked for additional documentation about WHPOW programmes in a survey conducted with SurveyMonkey. Results A total of 756 initiatives regarding WHPOW were identified. 134 of these were guidelines, regulations, or review studies. The remaining 622 activities were intervention studies performed or promoted in the workplace and targeted at older workers or at the aging of the workforce. Most of the programs were carried out in Central Europe (295, 47.4%), less in East Europe (193, 31.0%) and in Mediterranean countries (134, 21.6%). Conclusion Our study shows that there are only a limited number of WHPOW actions throughout the 10 selected European Countries. While in Central Europe widespread interest in issues of aging workforce has resulted in national policies to encourage WHPO, not all the countries of Eastern Europe are equally well equipped. Lastly, in Southern Europe health promotion activities are largely inadequate compared to needs

L’ uso di alcol in edilizia: risultati di una survey

A 239 lavoratori di due imprese edili è stato somministrato il questionario CAGE, integrato con notizie socio-demografiche. I dati sono stati elaborati con SPSS 17.0. L’associazione tra abuso di alcol e altre variabili è stata investigata con il Chi-Square test e eventuali correlazioni con la r di Spearman. L’abuso di alcol ha riguardato il 21,3% dei lavoratori, con prevalenza degli “installatori-montatori meccanici” (80,00%), “ponteggiatori edile” (60,00%) e “autotrasportatori” (50,00%) e dei lavoratori con età di 31-40 anni (28,33%) e >60 anni (30,00%), ed è risultato associato alla nazionalità (p=0,001) (prevalenza nel 44,0% dei soggetti europei non italiani), allo stato civile (p60 years (30,00%). Alcohol abuse was associated with nationality (p=0,001) (prevalence of 44.0% among subjects of European non-Italian nationality), marital status (p<0.001) (prevalence of 55.55% among separated subjects) and education (p<0.05) (prevalence of 28.18% among subjects with middle school diploma). The results suggest the need for preventive strategies and management of alcohol abuse, including for the possible interaction between alcohol and solv

Detection, localisation and tracking of pallets using machine learning techniques and 2D range data

The problem of autonomous transportation in industrial scenarios is receiving a renewed interest due to the way it can revolutionise internal logistics, especially in unstructured environments. This paper presents a novel architecture allowing a robot to detect, localise, and track (possibly multiple) pallets using machine learning techniques based on an on-board 2D laser rangefinder only. The architecture is composed of two main components: the first stage is a pallet detector employing a Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) detector cascaded with a CNN-based classifier; the second stage is a Kalman filter for localising and tracking detected pallets, which we also use to defer commitment to a pallet detected in the first stage until sufficient confidence has been acquired via a sequential data acquisition process. For fine-tuning the CNNs, the architecture has been systematically evaluated using a real-world dataset containing 340 labelled 2D scans, which have been made freely available in an online repository. Detection performance has been assessed on the basis of the average accuracy over k-fold cross-validation, and it scored 99.58% in our tests. Concerning pallet localisation and tracking, experiments have been performed in a scenario where the robot is approaching the pallet to fork. Although data have been originally acquired by considering only one pallet as per specification of the use case we consider, artificial data have been generated as well to mimic the presence of multiple pallets in the robot workspace. Our experimental results confirm that the system is capable of identifying, localising and tracking pallets with a high success rate while being robust to false positives

Work-related stress as a cardiovascular risk factor in police officers: a systematic review of evidence

Purpose: Several studies suggest that work-related stress in police officers may be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. A systematic review of studies is, however, still lacking. Method: According to PRISMA statement, a systematic search of PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Cinahl and PsychInfo electronic databases was undertaken. Studies published in English between 1/1/2000 and 31/12/2016 were included. A studies quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle Ottawa scale (NOS). Results: The preliminary search retrieved 752 records. After selection, 16 studies (total population 17,698) were retrieved. The average quality of studies was low. Exposure to stress in cross-sectional studies was inconstantly associated with hypertension, obesity, dyslipidaemia, and impaired glucose metabolism. In addition, there was a prevalence of positive studies showing an association between stress and cardiovascular disease morbidity. Studies of higher quality, such as longitudinal studies on large sample size, were more supportive of a significant positive association between stress and cardiovascular risk factors. Results were, however, often conflicting and inconsistent with regard to definitions and measurement of stress, features of individual study design, study conduct, and conclusions drawn. Conclusions: A sound precautionary principle would be to adopt worksite health promotion programs designed to implement stress management strategies in this category of workers