Occupational Sickness and Compensation: Two New Zealand Case Studies

This paper explores the process of seeking compensation for occupational illness under a no-fault accident insurance scheme. It uses two case studies, the first of firefighters who attended a fire at a chemical storage depot, the second of timbermill workers who worked with pentachlorophenol, to illustrate how science can be used to deny compensation to sick and dying workers. The paper suggests that science can be co-opted and used to support business and state interests against workers, and that this ideological support is increasingly hidden behind the development of 'objective' systems of assessing compensation claims

Occupational Sickness and Compensation: Two New Zealand Case Studies

This paper explores the process of seeking compensation for occupational illness under a no-fault accident insurance scheme. It uses two case studies, the first of firefighters who attended a fire at a chemical storage depot, the second of timbermill workers who worked with pentachlorophenol, to illustrate how science can be used to deny compensation to sick and dying workers. The paper suggests that science can be co-opted and used to support business and state interests against workers, and that this ideological support is increasingly hidden behind the development of 'objective' systems of assessing compensation claims

Narratives of Illness and Injury in the Workplace

This paper will discusses research examining workers ' responses to injury and illness in the workplace, in particular what factors would encourage or discourage workers from acknowledging signs and symptoms of illness and injury. The objective of this research was to place these responses within the context of efforts to reduce injury, the organisation of the workplace and broader social factors such as workers ' perceptions of the labour market and accident compensation. The paper is based on interviews and focus groups of workers from two workplace settings. Workers' perceptions of the working environment, and their narratives of illness and injury, will be discussed, with a focus on the concept of presenteeism and also entitlement to compensation

Review Essay: Emplacement and everyday use of medications in domestic dwellings

To extend knowledge of relationships between people and domestic settings in the context of medication use, we conducted fieldwork in twenty households in New Zealand. These households contained a range of ‘medicative’ forms, including prescription drugs, traditional remedies, dietary supplements and enhanced foods. The location and use of these substances within domestic dwellings speaks to processes of emplacement and identity in the creation of spaces for care. Our analysis contributes to current understandings of the ways in which objects from ‘outside’ the home come to be woven into relationships, identities and meanings ‘inside’ the home. We demonstrate that, as well as being pharmacological objects, medications are complex, socially embedded objects with histories and memories that are ingrained within contemporary relationships of care and home-making practices

Survival disparities in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders with colon cancer: the role of patient comorbidity, treatment and health service factors

Background Ethnic disparities in cancer survival have been documented in many populations and cancer types. The causes of these inequalities are not well understood but may include disease and patient characteristics, treatment differences and health service factors. Survival was compared in a cohort of Maori ( Indigenous) and non-Maori New Zealanders with colon cancer, and the contribution of demographics, disease characteristics, patient comorbidity, treatment and healthcare factors to survival disparities was assessed. Methods Maori patients diagnosed as having colon cancer between 1996 and 2003 were identified from the New Zealand Cancer Registry and compared with a randomly selected sample of non-Maori patients. Clinical and outcome data were obtained from medical records, pathology reports and the national mortality database. Cancer-specific survival was examined using Kaplane-Meier survival curves and Cox hazards modelling with multivariable adjustment. Results 301 Maori and 328 non-Maori patients with colon cancer were compared. Maori had a significantly poorer cancer survival than non-Maori ( hazard ratio (HR) 1.33, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.71) that was not explained by demographic or disease characteristics. The most important factors contributing to poorer survival in Maori were patient comorbidity and markers of healthcare access, each of which accounted for around a third of the survival disparity. The final model accounted for almost all the survival disparity between Maori and non-Maori patients ( HR 1.07, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.47). Conclusion Higher patient comorbidity and poorer access and quality of cancer care are both important explanations for worse survival in Maori compared with non-Maori New Zealanders with colon cancer

Narratives of Illness and Injury in the Workplace

This paper will discusses research examining workers ' responses to injury and illness in the workplace, in particular what factors would encourage or discourage workers from acknowledging signs and symptoms of illness and injury. The objective of this research was to place these responses within the context of efforts to reduce injury, the organisation of the workplace and broader social factors such as workers ' perceptions of the labour market and accident compensation. The paper is based on interviews and focus groups of workers from two workplace settings. Workers' perceptions of the working environment, and their narratives of illness and injury, will be discussed, with a focus on the concept of presenteeism and also entitlement to compensation

Troubled Worlds: A Course Syllabus about Information Work and the Anthropocene

The goal of this syllabus is to interrogate the material, and socioeconomic processes which underpin our everyday information work. In particular, we examine the relationships developing between contemporary information practices and what problematically gets configured as “nature”—that messy world of non-human entanglements that often exists beyond the purview of innovation work, whether digital software development or industrial engineering. Much recent work on the environmental conditions of computing has sought to break down technology-nature dualisms in order to expose the implication of information technology in broader social and material ecologies. Library and information professionals and researchers are well poised to deepen this inquiry by presenting alternative nature-technology epistemologies grounded in longstanding analyses of information resources and their consumption. The “Troubled Worlds” syllabus starts with a discussion of concerns most obviously germane to the work of most library and information science professionals: practices at the intersection of structuring information and computing. Building on this attention, we turn to humanistic approaches to thinking through the era of dominant human activities widely known as the “Anthropocene” by introducing poetic, artistic, and activist lenses. We explore how artistic objects representing an increasingly troubled natural world raise awareness of the challenges facing it, as well as how they may incorporate and reshape information for aesthetic ends. We then look to questions of disability justice and how it works in blended built and natural spaces as well as the many different ways in which bodies respond to the toxic environments produced by information technologies. We next consider the newer design approaches to library and information research, specifically asking how design perspectives on digital information objects get inscribed in the Anthropocene. Lastly, we consider paradigms of repair and making and analyze the different valences through which information researchers and professionals categorize and contextualize what is possible with them. This compilation does not provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the environment within the information fields. Instead, it extends this literature to promote experimental research and practice. The modules construct an interdisciplinary and provisional path through the related literature in a form that we hope may be continually adjusted, rearranged, and augmented. Pre-print first published online 03/15/202

Lessons Learned From Efforts To Restore Oyster Populations In Maryland And Virginia, 1990 To 2007

A century-long decline of the fishery for the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791) in Maryland and Virginia stimulated numerous efforts by federal, state, and nongovernmental agencies to restore oyster populations, with limited success. To learn from recent efforts, we analyzed records of restoration and monitoring activities undertaken between 1990 and 2007 by 12 such agencies. Of the 1,037 oyster bars (reefs, beds, or grounds) for which we obtained data, 43% experienced both restoration and monitoring, with the remaining experiencing either restoration or monitoring only. Restoration activities involved adding substrate (shell), transplanting hatchery or wild seed (juvenile oysters), bar cleaning, and bagless dredging. Of these, substrate addition and transplanting seed were common actions, with bar cleaning and bagless dredging relatively uncommon. Limited monitoring efforts, a lack of replicated postrestoration sampling, and the effects of harvest on some restored bars hinders evaluations of the effectiveness of restoration activities. Future restoration activities should have clearly articulated objectives and be coordinated among agencies and across bars, which should also be off limits to fishing. To evaluate restoration efforts, experimental designs should include replication, quantitative sampling, and robust sample sizes, supplemented by pre- and postrestoration monitoring

'To live and die [for] Dixie': Irish civilians and the Confederate States of America

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become 'refugees' and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often 'collaborated' with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism

Smoking in film in New Zealand: measuring risk exposure

BACKGROUND: Smoking in film is a risk factor for smoking uptake in adolescence. This study aimed to quantify exposure to smoking in film received by New Zealand audiences, and evaluate potential interventions to reduce the quantity and impact of this exposure. METHODS: The ten highest-grossing films in New Zealand for 2003 were each analysed independently by two viewers for smoking, smoking references and related imagery. Potential interventions were explored by reviewing relevant New Zealand legislation, and scientific literature. RESULTS: Seven of the ten films contained at least one tobacco reference, similar to larger film samples. The majority of the 38 tobacco references involved characters smoking, most of whom were male. Smoking was associated with positive character traits, notably rebellion (which may appeal to adolescents). There appeared to be a low threshold for including smoking in film. Legislative or censorship approaches to smoking in film are currently unlikely to succeed. Anti-smoking advertising before films has promise, but experimental research is required to demonstrate cost effectiveness. CONCLUSION: Smoking in film warrants concern from public health advocates. In New Zealand, pre-film anti-smoking advertising appears to be the most promising immediate policy response