Occupational Health and Safety in the Healthcare Sector

Healthcare workers are exposed to several different occupational risk factors, and they pay an important tribute in terms of occupational diseases and work-related injuries. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has focused the attention on the problem of the infectious risk, which is certainly among the risks typically expected and specifically recognized for the health personnel, but also other occupational risks should not be overlooked, as, e.g., the risks associated with work-organization factors and with the exposure to chemical and physical agents. The health consequences associated with the exposure to all these factors have relevant impacts in terms of induced diseases, DALYs, sickness absence from work and costs for the health systems. According to these premises, this reprint has collected manuscripts addressing topics related to the prevention of the occupational risks in the healthcare sector, including original articles and reviews on the prevention of work-related illnesses and injuries of the health personnel, as well as on the evaluation of the risks in the healthcare workplaces, and on the topics of risk perception and of the knowledge and attitudes of the workers towards the preventive procedures and the use of protections. The themes of the prevention of occupational infectious risk, biomechanical overload of the musculoskeletal system and work-related psychosocial factors are specifically discussed in the papers collected

Macular degeneration and occupational risk factors: a systematic review

Purpose: Macular degeneration is a multi-factorial disease, leading cause of blindness for people over 50 years old in developed countries. To date, the knowledge on possible occupational factors involved in the development of the disease is scant. Method: We performed a systematic scientific literature search on the association between macular degeneration and occupational risk factors searching the MedLine and Scopus databases. Results: We examined 158 articles and, according to the inclusion criteria, 13 peer-reviewed studies evaluating occupational risk factors for macular degeneration or reporting the frequency of the disease in specific groups of workers were included in the review. Ten on thirteen articles evaluated the presence of macular degeneration in workers exposed to solar radiation. Only one study found that non-specific history of occupational chemical exposure was associated with the disease. Two studies showed an association between macular degeneration and the general category of “blue-collar” workers, but they did not identify the specific risk factors involved. Conclusions: To date few studies have examined occupational risk factors for macular degeneration. Nevertheless, available data indicate that long-term occupational solar radiation exposure, in particular for its blue-light component, is associated with macular degeneration in outdoor workers