National hazard exposure worker surveillance: exposure to biomechanical demands, pain and fatigue symptoms and the provision of controls in Australian workplaces

Biomechanical demands such as repetitive hand or arm movements, lifting heavy loads or working in awkward postures contribute to the development or worsening of inflammatory or degenerative musculoskeletal disorders. However, little is known about patterns of exposure to different biomechanical demands and how they relate to the demographic and employment characteristics of Australian workers. To address this, in 2008 the National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance [NHEWS] survey collected information on 4500 Australian workers’ exposure to nine biomechanical demands, pain and fatigue symptoms and the provision of various risk controls. Almost all workers reported some level of exposure to the biomechanical demands surveyed and 22 per cent were deemed to have high overall (composite) biomechanical demand exposure. In particular, young workers, male workers, night workers and lower skilled workers were most likely to report exposure and had the highest overall biomechanical demand exposure. The reporting of pain and fatigue symptoms was highly related to the level of biomechanical demand exposure. Workplace size (number of workers at a site) and the overall level of biomechanical demand exposure were the best predictors of control provision: workers from large workplaces and those with high exposure were most likely to be provided with biomechanical demand controls. This report presents detailed findings of the NHEWS survey and discusses the implications of these findings for work health and safety policy

Sexual Selection: Signals to Die for

SummarySexual signals are conspicuous and are typically assumed to be energetically costly, which keeps them honest. A recent study on fireflies has found that signal production is energetically cheap, but signalling remains expensive because of eavesdropping predators

The role of selfish genetic elements in sexual selection

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Data from: The impact of Wolbachia, male age and mating history on cytoplasmic incompatibility and sperm transfer in Drosophila simulans

Most insects harbour a variety of maternally inherited endosymbionts, the most widespread being Wolbachia pipientis that commonly induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and reduced hatching success in crosses between infected males and uninfected females. High temperature and increasing male age are known to reduce the level of CI in a variety of insects. In Drosophila simulans, infected males have been shown to mate at a higher rate than uninfected males. By examining the impact of mating rate independent of age, this study investigates whether a high mating rate confers an advantage to infected males through restoring their compatibility with uninfected females over and above the effect of age. The impact of Wolbachia infection, male mating rate and age on the number of sperm transferred to females during copulation and how it relates to CI expression was also assessed. As predicted, we found that reproductive compatibility was restored faster in males that mate at higher rate than that of low mating and virgin males, and that the effect of mating history was over and above the effect of male age. Nonvirgin infected males transferred fewer sperm than uninfected males during copulation, and mating at a high rate resulted in the transfer of fewer sperm per mating irrespective of infection status. These results indicate that the advantage to infected males of mating at a high rate is through restoration of reproductive compatibility with uninfected females, whereas uninfected males appear to trade off the number of sperm transferred per mating with female encounter rate and success in sperm competition. This study highlights the importance Wolbachia may play in sexual selection by affecting male reproductive strategies

Figure 1 data

Cytoplasmic incompatibility induction experiment data. This data has been used to produce figure 1

Mating Behaviour: Promiscuous Mothers Have Healthier Young

A small marsupial has thrown new light on the question of why females typically mate with several males: promiscuous female antechinuses have many more surviving offspring because males that are successful in sperm competition also sire healthy offsprin

Mating Behaviour: Promiscuous Mothers Have Healthier Young

A small marsupial has thrown new light on the question of why females typically mate with several males: promiscuous female antechinuses have many more surviving offspring because males that are successful in sperm competition also sire healthy offspring

Asbestos exposure and compliance study of construction and maintenance workers

  The use of asbestos has been banned in Australia since 2003. However, as a result of the widespread use of asbestos in the past, there remains a large amount of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) in older buildings. These ACMs include asbestos cement sheet walls, asbestos cement pipes and asbestos containing electrical switchboards. Construction and maintenance workers are likely to be involved in work tasks that may disturb ACMs. Therefore, there is a substantial risk of potential exposure to asbestos in these workers unless occupational health and safety (OHS) requirements on the management and control of asbestos are followed. To date, little research has been undertaken on these tradespersons and their awareness and compliance with OHS regulations relating to asbestos. The aims of the current study were to determine in construction and maintenance workers: • current levels of awareness of the risk of exposure to asbestos • current levels of compliance with OHS legislative requirements for working with ACMs • key perceptions, attitudes and motivations that act as barriers and enablers to compliance, and • current level of exposure to asbestos in selected construction and maintenance work activities. This study was conducted in five stages: 1) literature review; 2) focus groups with workers, employer organisations, unions and OHS authorities; 3) telephone survey of workers; 4) face-to-face interviews; and 5) atmospheric sampling. Four trades were selected as target occupations for this study: electricians, plumbers, carpenters and painters. Authors: Barry Pratt (Barry Pratt & Associates), Fleur de Crespigny and Su Mon Kyaw-Myint (Safe Work Australia). Image: greenforall.org / flick

Figure 3 data

% hatching success per sperm has been calculated and figure 3 has been produced

Sperm transfer experiment

This data has been used for sperm transfer experiment and production of figure 2