The 136th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association "Public Health Without Borders" takes place October 25-29, 2008 in San Diego, CA. Advance Registration is now open.
posted 7/17/08
Associated Press
Wednesday July 9, 12:29 pm ET
By Jay Alabaster, Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm.
The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based.In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.
He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he was to leave for the United States.
The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said. An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed the ruling, but declined to comment on the record. In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.
There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.
Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her application to the local labor bureau for compensation was rejected.
posted 7/12/08
A new article by our colleagues has been posted online at the Epidemiologic Reviews website:
Netterstrom B, Conrad N, Bech P, Fink P, Olsen E, Rugulies R, Stansfeld S. The relation between work-related psychosocial factors and the development of depression. Epidemiologic Reviews 2008; doi:10.1093/epirev/mxn004. Please click here to see the online article.
posted 7/03/08
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH : Who's to Blame for Job Strain? June 2008
The American Heart Association estimates hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects about 73 million people ages 20 and older. In 2004, according to AHA, high blood pressure was the cause of death for 54,707 people in the United States.
Recent ongoing research suggests that hypertension is a relatively new problem that has only recently emerged in industrialized societies. Dr. Peter Schnall, MPH, director of the Center for Social Epidemiology, says when societies were largely agricultural, hypertension was virtually nonexistent. The emergence of hypertension and other coronary disease risk factors coincides with industrialization in countries around the world, Schnall adds. This posed a question to researchers: “What is it about an industrialized society that may be contributing to high blood pressure?”
To find the answer, Schnall, who is also a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at Irvine, says researchers have considered many factors of an industrialized culture. “In the last 30 years, the focus has been on trying to figure out why people have hypertension, or high blood pressure,” he says. “The research has focused on aspects of the individual’s genetics, weight, sodium in the diet, obesity, cigarette smoking, and alcohol. None of them have very strong relationship to blood pressure except people’s weight. Weight is important, but it’s obviously not the only factor because there are many people who get hypertension that aren’t overweight, so it’s not an absolutely critical part of the development of hypertension.”
To find the answer, Schnall, who is also a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at Irvine, says researchers have considered many factors of an industrialized culture. “In the last 30 years, the focus has been on trying to figure out why people have hypertension, or high blood pressure,” he says. “The research has focused on aspects of the individual’s genetics, weight, sodium in the diet, obesity, cigarette smoking, and alcohol. None of them have very strong relationship to blood pressure except people’s weight. Weight is important, but it’s obviously not the only factor because there are many people who get hypertension that aren’t overweight, so it’s not an absolutely critical part of the development of hypertension.”
In 1979, Robert Karasek, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, came up with the concept of the Job Demand Control Model (Figure 1), which showed that job strain occurs in work environments that have lots of demands coupled with little control. Control, Schnall says, is conceptualized by two different components: the ability of workers to learn and use their skills, called skill direction, and the ability to have some say or authority in the work process. When workers don’t have this perceived level of control, job strain is present and hypertension develops. Jobs with high demands and low control can include those in basic manufacturing, the transportation industry, short-order cooks, and salespeople, to name just a few. As an example, Schnall explains that, “In general, people on production lines with low-control jobs are far more likely to have hypertension than managers or executives. Managers and executives have the luxury of being able to take breaks when they want to, of changing their job around, of hiring people to do their work, et cetera. They have much greater skill use and skill utilization. They have much more say over their jobs, and this say buffers the effects of the demands.”
Please click here to see the full article
posted 6/26/08
The meeting was hosted by Catherine Heaney and there were three excellent presentations from Nick Warren, Annekatrin Hoppe / Catherine Heaney, and Peter Schnall.
Dr. Nick Warren talked about his recent research titled Job Stress and MSDs: Survey, Clinical and Subclinical Indicators in a 5-year Study of Vibration Effects
Annekatrin Hoppe & Catherine Heaney presented findings on Psychosocial working conditions and well-being among Latino and White warehouse workers
Peter Schnall gave a talk on the “Construction and implementation of a Wiki for Psychosocial Stress researchers”
posted 6/19/08
Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews
THE WORKPLACE AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Edited by Peter Schnall, Karen Belkic, Paul Landsbergis and Dean Baker
Published by Hanley & Belfus, Inc. Occup Med 15(1), 2000
We are making this book available online through the Job Stress Network website. Please click here to see the outline of this considerable work with contributions from many or our esteemed colleagues, and to download Adobe PDF files of individual chapters of The Workplace and Cardiovascular Disease.
posted 5/23/08
Colleagues:
The 23rd Session of the California Work & Health Study Group will be at Stanford University on Friday May 30th in Building 20, Room # 22C.
Our host is Catherine Heaney.
PROGRAM
10:00AM to Noon: Introductions
Show and Tell
Noon to 1:00PM: Lunch
1:00PM to 4:00PM: Presentations and Discussion
Please email us for further details and directions: cse@workhealth.org
posted 5/18/08
Death on the job report: More workers killed, fewer employer penalties (Mike Hall,
More workers are being killed on the job, but employers who are found to have violated federal safety laws in fatality cases are paying as little as $750 in penalties for each death, according to the latest edition of the
Released today, the 17th edition of the national and state-by-state profiles on worker safety and health in the
The report shows that each day in 2006, 16 workers were fatally injured on the job and more than 11,200 were hurt or made sick. But the price workers pay for toiling in dangerous jobs climbs even higher when the tally includes the 50,000 to 60,000 workers who die every year from occupational diseases.
The report was released in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, April 28, a day set aside every year to honor workers killed and hurt on the job and highlight the need for improved job safety standards.
Important standards close to completion at the end of the
Along with blocking new safety standards, the Bush administration has cut enforcement staff and enforcement budgets for OSHA and MSHA and turned to voluntary programs for employers to provide safe workplaces than relaying on strong enforcement of job safety laws. Even when workplace penalties are assessed, the small fines provide little deterrence, the report points out.
The average national total penalty in fatality investigations was just $10,133.
Both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have pledged to back tough new job safety laws and worker protections if elected president. But Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has a long record of voting against strong worker protections.
The report also breaks down the death and injury rates by industry, state and race; tracks trends in enforcement activities, regulations and funding; and examines other job safety statistics. Visit the AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day site to download a copy of Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect and other important material on job safety and Workers Memorial Day.
posted 4/28/08
The 29th triennial Congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH2009) will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 22-27 March, 2009. The Scientific Program has been posted on the website (www.icoh2009.co.za), and the Call for Abstracts has been issued, with an end date of 21 July 2008 for receipt of Abstracts. Early bird registration ends 30 April, 2008. Grants are available for some presenters from developing nations. A student prize will be awarded. Please quickly send in your Abstract and alert your colleagues. Two page brochures containing the scientific sessions and other key details can be downloaded from the website for printing and distribution.
posted 4/19/08
The American Psychological Association, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology, held their seventh international conference on occupational stress and health entitled "Work, Stress, and Health 2008: Healthy and Safe Work Through Research, Practice, and Partnerships" in Washington, DC, on March 6-8, 2008. The Work, Stress, and Health conference series is designed to address the constantly changing nature of work, and the implications of these changes for the health, safety, and well-being of workers. This year the conference focused on the translation of research to practice. Two of the panels at the conference dealt with labor unions' perspectives on these issues and opportunities for labor union and academic researcher collaboration on work and health studies. For those of you who could not attend the conference, we are posting slides from some of the presentations. Please click here to go to our APA-NIOSH 7th International Conference homepage.
posted 4/05/08
Aggression on job more harmful that sexual harassment
Health Day News,
Persistent criticism, belittling comments, bullying and other forms of workplace aggression may inflict more harm on employees than sexual harassment, according to a Canadian study.
"As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable in society, organizations may be more attuned to helping victims, who may therefore find it easier to cope. In contrast, non-violent forms of workplace aggression such as incivility and bullying are not illegal, leaving victims to fend for themselves," lead author M. Sandy Hershcovis, of the
In their work, the researchers reviewed 110 studies conducted over 21 years. They found that both workplace aggression and sexual harassment create negative work environments and unhealthy consequences for workers, but aggression has more severe consequences.
Workers faced with bullying, incivility or interpersonal conflict were more likely to quit their jobs, have a lower level of well-being, be less satisfied with their jobs, and have less satisfying relationships with their bosses than workers who were sexually harassed, the researchers concluded. In addition, bullied employees reported more job stress, less job commitment and higher levels of anger and anxiety.
"Bullying is often more subtle and may include behaviors that do not appear obvious to others," Hershcovis said. "For instance, how does an employee report to their boss that they have been excluded from lunch? Or that they are being ignored by a co-worker? The insidious nature of these behaviors makes them difficult to deal with and sanction."
The study was presented at the International Conference on Work, Stress and Health, co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association, the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology.
posted 3/16/08
The American Psychological Association, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology, will convene the seventh international conference on occupational stress and health entitled "Work, Stress, and Health 2008: Healthy and Safe Work Through Research, Practice, and Partnerships" Washington, DC, on March 6-8, 2008, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Continuing Education Workshops will be held on March 5, 2008. Please plan to join us to add your perspective to a rapidly growing area of workplace health research and practice. Please click here to access the conference website.
posted 2/23/08
The American Public Health Association's 136th Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego, October 25-29, 2008. The theme "Public Health Without Borders" will explore transnational public health, and will provide a forum to address a diversity of topics, including immigrant and refugee health; water and land rights; coordinating disease surveillance and epidemiologic response activities across borders; air and water pollution management across borders; the international impact of trade, arms sales, tobacco sales and gun control policies; and the international transmission of socio-cultural behaviors with adverse health implications. You can access the APHA conference website by clicking here.
posted 2/14/08
BREAK THE CHAIN / JOB STRAIN: A five part series focusing on stress in the workplace will be held at the University of Texas at Arlington on January 29th, February 13th, March 26th, April 23rd and May 21st. The speakers are: James C. Quick; Peter L. Schnall; Connie Tyne; Judd R. Allen and Robert Gotchel. Please click here to access a PDF file of the full program.
posted 2/02/08
The 22nd meeting of the CWHSG (California Work & Health Study Group) was held on Tuesday January 22nd at the UCI COEH.
The speakers included:
1) Ellen Rosskam: Currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., Ellen was a guest of the UCI COEH on January 22nd presenting Tuesday evening at Grand Rounds, and was also a participant of the PAR workshop as part of the CWHSG meeting. Ellen discussed PAR – its action orientation and involvement of stakeholders; how it is appropriate and useful for the epidemiologic study of health issues in worker populations as well as the implications of PAR for policy work.
2) June Fisher: Director of the TDICT Project in SF, Dr. Fisher discussed two experiences with PAR; the SF Muni Bus Driver Project and the Health Care Worker Safety by Design Project. The latter is part of the TDICT Project (Training for Development of Innovative Control Technologies). What's unique about the TDICT Project is that it brings together the end users (stakeholders) - the line nurses who use the devices - and product designers to develop safety criteria.
3) Pam Tau Lee: Dr. Lee is the Coordinator of Public Programs for LOHP (Labor Occupational Health Program) at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She was co-director of the Hotel Workers Study which examined the health and working conditions of room cleaners in four major San Francisco hotels as well as in Las Vegas which has helped reduce the number of rooms that workers must clean each day. Pam discussed her experiences with PAR involving hotel workers and Unite Here!
Other speakers included Dr. Peter Schnall (Director of the Center for Social Epidemilogy and Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCI), Dr. Catherine Heaney (Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Biology at Stanford University) and Dr. Deborah Gordon.
posted 1/28/08
A reminder that proposals are due by March 15, 2008 for the:
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON WOMEN, WORK & HEALTH (Towards Decent and Healthy Jobs for Women)
To be held October 27-31, 2008 at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico (Leonor A. Cedillo, General Secretary).
The objectives for the Congress are the following:
posted 1/15/08
The next meeting of the CWHSG (California Work & Health Study Group) will be held on Tuesday January 22nd at the UCI COEH from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The agenda includes:
1) A morning session devoted to bringing participating colleagues up to date on participants research and programmatic activities and soliciting feedback.
2) An afternoon session which will be devoted to a discussion of PAR (Participatory Action Research).
AGENDA:
10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon: Introductions and update on current activities (talk-a-round)
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Participatory Action Research
SPEAKERS:
1) Ellen Rosskam: Currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., Ellen will be a guest of the UCI COEH on Tuesday January 22nd. She will be presenting Tuesday evening at Grand Rounds and will also be participating in our PAR workshop as part of the CWHSG meeting. Ellen will discuss PAR – its action orientation and involvement of stakeholders -- how it is appropriate and useful for the epidemiologic study of health issues in worker populations as well as the implications of PAR for policy work.
2) June Fisher: Director of the TDICT Project in SF, Dr. Fisher will discuss two experiences with PAR; the SF Muni Bus Driver Project and the Health Care Worker Safety by Design Project. The latter is part of the TDICT Project (Training for Development of Innovative Control Technologies). What's unique about the TDICT Project is that it brings together the end users (stakeholders) -- the line nurses who use the devices--and product designers to develop safety criteria.
3) Deborah Gordon: Dr. Gordon will discuss a health project she worked on in Italy for woman with breast cancer which used PAR. The project’s primary aim was trying to change the ‘culture’ around cancer, the first means were by articulating, interpreting, and communicating the experiences of these women through their cancer trajectories. With an interdisciplinary team and an ethnographic interview schedule, the experience of the 20 women with breast cancer was tracked, divided into two groups, over 10 meetings; which were taped and transcribed and then were wrote up in a locally- produced volume, used as an exhibit, and part of a daylong conference.
4) Pam Tau Lee: Dr. Lee is the Coordinator of Public Programs for LOHP (Labor Occupational Health Program) at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She was co-director of the Hotel Workers Study which examined the health and working conditions of room cleaners in four major San Francisco hotels as well as in Las Vegas which has helped reduce the number of rooms that workers must clean each day. Pam will discuss her experiences with PAR involving hotel workers and Unite Here!
5) Cathy Heaney is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Biology at Stanford University. She has a focus on occupational health and safety and has written extensively on the topic of worksite health interventions. She will be a discussant.
Please email us if you are interested in attending: cse@workhealth.org
posted 1/05/08
Colleagues,
As you many of you know, Ellen Rosskam, currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., will be a guest at the UCI COEH on Tuesday January 22nd for the day. She will be presenting Tuesday eve at Grand Rounds and will also be participating in a workshop we are putting together Tuesday afternoon from 1-4 pm on Participatory Action Research (PAR) as part of the CWHSG meeting.
In addition to a presentation by Ellen Rosskam, June Fisher from UCSF will discuss her PAR research experiences, Cathy Heaney from Stanford U. will be a discussant. Peter Schnall will give a short overview of work organization issues as well and there may be another speaker or two as well. If any of you have any PAR experiences to share please let me know and join the program.
A fuller description of the program will be forthcoming shortly. As usual we will begin at 10am with an open discussion of current activities.
Let me wish all of you a most Happy Holiday Season. Looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd.
Peter Schnall
Director, Center for Social Epidemiology
Clinical Professor of Medicine, U. of CA at Irvine COEH
posted 12/24/07
Tenure-track Occupational Epidemiology on Occupational Health Faculty
The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, is seeking an occupational epidemiologist to join our faculty as a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor. The Division is a core program of the UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and affiliated with the newly established Program in Public Health.
The successful candidate will be expected to establish an independent research program in occupational epidemiology and will be responsible for teaching and supervising graduate students in occupational or environmental epidemiology. The division has particular interests in work organization, reproductive epidemiology or intervention research, although we will consider candidates all areas of occupational epidemiology or occupational health. The candidate must have a PhD degree in epidemiology, occupational health, or equivalent.
Interested candidates should send CV and 3 references to Dr. Dean Baker, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 5201 California Avenue, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92617, before December 31, 2007. (dbaker@uci.edu) The University of California has an active career partner program and an NSF ADVANCE Program for Gender Equity and is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to excellence through diversity.
posted 12/24/07
Save the Date! 6th National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
March 26–28, 2008; The Marvin Center, George Washington University; Washington, D.C. Registration information available beginning January 1, 2008 at http://www.6thnationalforum.com.
The Forum was established in 2003 to implement A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke. The Action Plan provides a comprehensive public health strategy and a framework to guide health practitioners' and policy makers' actions in heart disease and stroke prevention. The Forum involves participants from more than 80 national and international organizations representing public and private health care, faith, advocacy, academic, and policy organizations. The CDC, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials were the lead partners in developing the Action Plan and continue to participate in the leadership of the National Forum. For more information about the Action Plan, visit http://www.cdc.gov/DHDSP/library/action_plan/index.htm
posted 12/15/07
SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, May 29th NYCOSH Annual Awards Celebration
The NYCOSH Board of Directors has selected the following individuals and organizations to be honored at its 29th Annual Safety and Health Awards Celebration:
M. Patricia Smith, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor who previously served at the Chief of the Labor Bureau in the office of the New York State Attorney General;
Gary Labarbera, President of Joint Council 16, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and President of the
Project Hospitality, of
Local 372, District Council 37, ASFSCME, will receive the NYCOSH Local’s Union Award for their 5 year struggle to win legislation to provide air conditioning for workers in school cafeterias. NYCOSH’s annual Karen Silkwood Award will be given to
The awards will be presented at the Annual Awards Celebration to be held
Please visit our website: http://www.nycosh.org.
posted 12/15/07
Colleagues: if you are planning on attending the APA/NIOSH meeting in Wash DC in March 2008 – 5th-9th and haven’t yet made room reservations you should do so soon as rooms are quickly disappearing. The APA NIOSH group code is 12400607761. The group rate is $188 night.
Dr. Peter Schnall
posted 12/01/07
The Measurment and Evidence Knowledge Network (Michael P. Kelly and Josiane Bonnefoy, co-chairs) have presented their final report "The Social Deteminants of Health: Developing an Evidence Base for Political Action" to the World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. The lead authors of the report are Michael P. Kelly, Antony Morgan, Josiane Bonnefoy, Jennifer Butt and Vivian Bergman. Please click here to access a PDF file of the report.
posted 11/25/07
Money and work continue as the leading causes of stress for three quarters of Americans, a dramatic increase over the 59 percent reporting the same sources of stress in 2006. The survey also found that the housing crisis is having an effect on many, with half of Americans (51 percent) citing rent or mortgage costs as sources of stress this year.
Nearly half of all Americans report that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives. About one-third (31 percent) of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities and 35 percent cite jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a significant source of stress. Stress causes more than half of Americans (54 percent) to fight with people close to them. One in four people report that they have been alienated from a friend or family member because of stress, with 8 percent connecting stress to divorce or separation.
“Stress in America continues to escalate and is affecting every aspect of people's lives — from work to personal relationships to sleep patterns and eating habits, as well as their health,” says psychologist Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA executive director for professional practice. “We know that stress is a fact of life and some stress can have a positive impact, however, the high stress levels that many Americans report experiencing can have long-term health consequences, ranging from fatigue to obesity and heart disease.”
posted 11/16/07
Dr. Peter Schnall was invited to speak at the rally by Local 11 Union of United HERE at the Westin Hotel on October 25th. The meeting was hosted by Mariaelena Salinas, and included among its participants Doleres Huerta.
Among Dr. Schnall's comments were: "I am proud to tell you that I have had a long association with union workers. My father was an union organizer for Local 144 of the Hotel Workers Union in NYC during the 1940's and 1950's. I grew up in a union household. As part of my work I have been involved in several studies of housekeeper injuries and stress among GRA's (guest room attendants) in Las Vegas and San Francisco for several years. I was fortunate to work with Dr. Niklas Krause and Pam Tau Lee of the Northern California COEH as well as with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 (HERE) in Las Vegas as well as with Mike Casey, President of Local 2 in San Francisco.
Work is often organized to maximize profits and ignores the well-being of workers. May of the illnesses caused by work can be prevented by making the work environment healthier thru reducing stress (fewer rooms to clean, etc.) It is very important for all of us to take action to improve our working conditions. Local 226 used the information gathered to negotiate a better contracts in Las Vegas for hotel workers with fewer rooms to clean each day. Organizing and taking collective action has the beneficial effect of reducing stress and promoting health.
Remember, the people united can never be defeated!"
posted 11/03/07
At the recent 21st session of the California Work & Health Study Group held in San Francisco on October 22nd, Dr. Peter Schnall and Dr. Haiou Yang both spoke about the Beijing Occupational Health Workshop on Job Stress. Please click here to access the PowerPoint presentation presented by Dr. Schnall.
Dr. Julia Faucett also spoke about a new study involving OHN graduates. "We are developing an international network of researchers to investigate the working conditions, employment and migration patterns, and occupational illness and injury of registered nurses in various countries around the world. We are starting, more or less, with the Pacific Rim countries and have commitments from Australia, Philippines, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong to begin to plan for the survey and the procedures that we would all agree to use. We also have colleagues in the UK who have committed to participate. One central component of the plan is to link with university based schools of nursing to facilitate distribution of the survey. A workshop is planned in Kitakyushu in October". An additional thank-you to Dr. Julia Faucett for facilitating this session of the CWHSG.
posted 10/25/07
Work stress 'worsens heart health' (Job Strain and Risk of Acute Recurrent Coronary Heart Disease Events, Aboa-Éboulé et al.,JAMA.2007; 298: 1652-1660.)
Stressful jobs could double the risk of heart problems in people who have already had a heart attack, new research has revealed. Previous studies have shown that work stress can increase the risk of a first coronary heart disease (CHD) event.
For the latest report researchers analysed people's work stress and whether a CHD event occurred six years after the first heart attack. Scientists from University Laval, Quebec, asked 972 men and women aged 35 to 59 years who had returned to work after a heart attack to rate their job strain. After nearly six years they returned to the participants and found that 206 patients had a confirmed recurrent CHD event (111 nonfatal heart attack, 82 unstable angina, and 13 fatal CHD).
The researchers say that chronic job strain was associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of recurrent CHD events after adjusting for other factors. "These results suggest that preventive interventions aimed at reducing job strain might have a significant impact on recurrent CHD events," the researchers write in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Although further studies are required to establish optimal interventions, information about the results of this study should be disseminated in cardiac practice and in occupational health services with the aim of reducing job strain for workers returning to work after [a heart attack]."
In an accompanying editorial, Dr Kristina Orth-Gomer from Sweden's Karolinska Institute said there needs to be a greater emphasis on evaluating job strain. "Patients and physicians may benefit from widening the medical framework to include job strain evaluation," she wrote. "If physicians have difficulty finding adequate time to discuss job experiences with patients, this role may be adopted by other health care professionals, such as experienced cardiac rehabilitation nurses. Patients are often relieved and may spontaneously report improved quality of life and increased capacity for coping once they have their concerns assessed."
posted 10/18/07
Dr. Peter Schnall and colleagues recently organized, attended and presented at The Workshop on Mental and Occupational Health in Beijing. This workshop was held September 24-28, 2007 at Beijing University. Colleagues who have been involved in this project and who traveled to the conference from the United States include Dr. Paul Landsbergis, Dr. Haiou Yang, Dr. Dean Baker and Dr. Edward Hitchcock. In attendance from China, organizers and presenters included Dr. Sheng Wang, Dr. Denghua Tang, Dr. Yuequin Huang, Dr. Mo Wang and Dr. Jian Li. Please click here to see the full program and to access the presentations.
posted 9/28/07
A World Health Organization GOHNET (Global Occupational Health Nework) Special Issue has been published in July, 2007. This issue addresses psychosocial risks and work-related stress in countries in economic transition, in newly industrialized countries, and in developing countries. It includes an article by Arturo Juarez-Garcia and Peter L. Schnall entitled "Psychosocial factors and work stress research in Mexico: A new Latin-American Network. Please click here to access this GOHNET special issue.
posted 9/22/07
The next meeting of the California Work & Health Study Group (CWHSG) will be held in San Francisco on Monday, October 22nd at the UCSF School of Nursing. There will be an open discussion from 10:00AM - 12:00 Noon in which participants will have time to discuss their current work. The afternoon session (from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM) will include two presentations:
1) Dr. Julia Faucett will report on a new study involving OHN graduates. "We are developing an international network of researchers to investigate the working conditions, employment and migration patterns, and occupational illness and injury of registered nurses in various countries around the world. We are starting, more or less, with the Pacific Rim countries and have commitments from Australia, Philippines, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong to begin to plan for the survey and the procedures that we would all agree to use. We also have colleagues in the UK who have committed to participate. One central component of the plan is to link with university based schools of nursing to facilitate distribution of the survey. A workshop is planned in Kitakyushu in October, and I will be reporting on the outcomes of our planning.”
2) Dr. Peter Schnall will be speaking about the Beijing Occupational Health Workshop on Job Stress. Several organizers and participants (from a group including Dr. Paul Landsbergis, Dr. Dean Baker, Dr. Haiou Yang and Dr. Mo Wang) will join Dr. Schnall in discussing the conference as well as their trip to China (September 20th - October 7th, 2007), which was funded by a conference grant from NIOSH.
For further information on attending this event, please email us at cse@workhealth.org.
posted 9/22/07
A new article has been published (LaMontagne AD, Keegel T, Louie AM, Ostry A, Landsbergis PA. A systematic review of the job-stress intervention evaluation literature, 1990-2005. Int J Occup Environ Health 2007;13(3):268-280) in which ninety reports of systematic evaluations of job-stress interventions were rated in terms of the degree of systems approach used. The study found that individual-focused approaches are effective at the individual level, but tend not to have favorable impacts at the organizational level. Organizationally- focused approaches are beneficial at both individual and organizational levels. Please click here to see the full article. Full details of reviewed studies are available in an electronic version by following this link.
posted 9/13/07
The ICOH Scientific Committee on Cardiology in Occupational Health and the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM) take great pleasure in inviting you to attend the Fifth Conference on Work Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases, to be held on September 27-30, 2009 in Cracow Poland. This conference will be an excellent opportunity to exchange views and experiences among fellow cardiologists, occupational physicians, cardiac rehabilitation specialists, sociologists, psychologists and policy makers in Occupational Health. Organizing chairs Professor Konrad Rydzynski and Associate Professor Alicja Bortkiewicz hope that you will join us. Please save the date! Further information (including a call for abstracts) will be posted as it becomes available.
posted 8/22/07
Dr. Peter Schnall was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article published on August 13th entitled "COMPANIES AIM TO COMBAT JOB-RELATED STRESS". Please click here to access the article.
posted 8/22/07
The Fifth International Congress on WOMEN, WORK & HEALTH (Towards Decent and Healthy Jobs for Women) will be held in Mexico at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas on October 27-31, 2008. Dr. Leonor A. Cedillo has been named the General Secretary.
The objectives for the Congress are the following:
Abstracts are due by March 15th, 2008. For further information, please contact wwwh2008@gmail.com
posted 8/13/07
Proposals for the 7th International Conference on Occupational Stress and Health (Work Stress and Health: Healthy and Safe work Through Research, Practice and Partnerships) to be held March 6-8, 2008 at teh Omin Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC must be submitted by 11:59 PM EDT, Friday August 31, 2007. Please visit their website to submit a proposal.
posted 8/13/07
Preventing Fire Fighter Fatalities Due to Heart Attacks and Other Sudden Cardiovascular Events: NIOSH Publication No. 2007-133
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) requests assistance in preventing on-duty cardiovascular deaths among U.S. fire fighters. To reduce these deaths, NIOSH recommends that fire departments and fire fighters follow established medical screening guidelines, adopt risk reduction measures during fire fighting operations, and develop and participate in comprehensive wellness/fitness programs. To bring the information and recommendations in this Alert to the attention of the fire service community, NIOSH requests help from the following individuals and organizations: fire commissioners, fire chiefs, State and local fire district administrators, State fire marshals, safety and health officials, health care providers (physicians, nurses, etc.), human resource specialists, unions, labor organizations, insurance companies and editors of trade journals and other publications.
posted 8/13/07
Study links high pressure jobs to mental problems: high-pressure jobs are a major cause of psychiatric problems in workers in their early30s, a ground-breaking study into workstress in New Zealand has shown. Link to online news article
posted 8/06/07
The final statement from the International Commission on Occupational Health's (ICOH) World Day for Saftety and Health at Work can be read by clicking here.
posted 7/18/07
A project entitled WORKHEALTH has finished it's Second Phase. This project was supported by the European Union and involved partners from all European Union member states. Co-operating partners in WORKHEALTH are experts in public health sciences as well as experts representing the field of occupational health and safety, labour inspectorates and social insurance institutions. The consortium emphasizes that sustainable health promotion and prevention calls for collaboration across different professions and policy fields You can explore this project further through the European Network for Health Promotion. Thank you to Dr. Wolfgang Bodeker for submitting this information.
posted 7/06/07
Dr. Peter Schnall and Dr. Paul Landsbergis will be travelling to China during September and October, 2007. One of the stops on their itinerary is Tapei (in Taiwan) for the following meeting arranged by our colleague Ta Chen Su:
Psychosocial Factors at Work and Cardiovascular Diseases
Date: 2:00-5:00 pm, October 4, 2007
Place: Room 701, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University
17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei, 10020 Taiwan
In addition, Dr. Schnall and Dr. Landsbergis will be traveling to the mainland, including Guaungzhou (for an additional conference) as well as Beijing and Shanghai.
posted 7/06/07
University of Melbourne study finds that women bear the brunt of precarious working conditions
Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne, from the University of Melbourne’s McCaughey Centre presented the findings of his research at a seminar on Labour Market Flexibility and Regulation. Associate Professor LaMontagne’s research investigated the work conditions of over 1100 Victorians, comparing their modes of employment and levels of job stress and other working conditions.
“There is an increased trend of casualisation of labor markets around the world. Previous research has shown that precarious employment is linked to bad health outcomes,’’ Associate Professor LaMontange said. “However, the ways in which precarious work arrangements harms health are not clear. Our study shows that people working in more precarious conditions – such as part-time or full-time casual work, labour hire or fixed-term contracts – have higher levels of job strain and lower levels of control over their jobs. These measures of job stresses are associated with poor health outcomes, such as a two to threefold increase in the risk of depression. Yet legislation which aims to increase labor market flexibility – such as WorkChoices – may accelerate the trend of working conditions which have a negative impact on people’s health.” Associate Professor LaMontagne said women, in particular, bore the brunt of precarious employment arrangements.
His research found:
• Overall, women were more likely to report being under strain at work than men;
• Six percent of women compared to two per cent of men of women said they had received unwanted sexual advances at work;
• Women in casual full-time and fixed-term jobs reported much higher levels of unwanted sexual advances than those in full-time or permanent part-time jobs;
• Men working in labor hire or casual work reported high levels of job strain and low levels of job control compared to those in permanent full-time work;
• Women working in labor hire or full-time casual jobs reported high levels of job strain and low levels of job control compared to permanent full-time workers.
“It is often argued that people in casual work have lower skill levels and less responsibility and therefore it’s presumed their jobs are less stressful,’’ Associate Professor LaMontagne said. "But this research shows that in many cases people in casual work are more stressed. Occupational health and safety law says employers must provide a safe workplace but there is a poor understanding of job stress and other hazards in various employment arrangements. WorkSafe is obliged to protect workers from psychological hazards as well as physical, while these are much harder to quantify this research suggests that it should be a priority for investigation.”
posted 6/06/07
A new publication entitled "Raising Awareness of Stress at Work in Developing Countries: A modern hazard in a traditional working environment" from the Protecting Workers' Health series by the World Health Organization (WHO) is now available for download at: www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/pwh6/en/index.html.
It was authored by Irene Houtman, Karin Jettinghoff, and Leonor Cedillo. The purpose of the booklet is to raise awareness for employers and worker representatives of work-related stress in developing countries.
posted 5/29/07
The 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine will be held in Tokyo, Japan from August 27th to 30th, 2008. Norito Kawakami is chair and I am co-chair of the work-related health track. In this function, it is my pleasure to inform you about this congress and to encourage you to submit abstracts for symposia, papers, posters, and workshops. The deadlines are:
For more information go to the website of the congress at: www.icbm2008.jp
With best regards,
National Research Centre for the Working Environment
Lerso Parkallé 105, DK-2100
Fax: +45 39 16 52 01
rer@nrcwe.dk
posted 5/26/07
The 20th meeting of the California Work & Health Study Group will be held on Friday, June 1st at UCLA from 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM in Room 58-261B of the Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Dr. Paul Landsbergis will discuss interventions to improve work organization and reduce the risk of stress-related injury and illness, including work site efforts as well as legislation and regulation. He will present results from a new review of work stress interventions that will be published soon in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health.
Dr. Leslie Hammer will update us on her current NIOSH funded work on research into work/family conflicts with a focus on planned interventions.
Dr. Linda Delp will discuss UCLA LOSH activities as well as her recently completed PhD thesis research which investigated job stressors and satisfaction among home care workers in California's In-Home Supportive Services Program.
We will also discuss our progress on the upcoming book to be published by Baywood Press entitled "Healthy Work".
Please email us for further information.
posted 5/18/07
A position has become available at the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health as a Community Health Education Coordinator. This is an excellent opportunity for recent Masters's grads or undergrads with strong community experience to immerse themselves in the community and strengthen their skills. It is an ideal position for anyone with a strong interest in workers' health and safety rights, health care access for workers, progressive coalition building, and adult/popular education.
Please e-mail Eden Flynn for further information and a full job description: socalcosh@iir.ucla.edu
posted 5/12/07
Colleagues,
Dr. Paul Landsbergis will be in Los Angeles the week of May 28th thru June 3rd. We thought it would be interesting to have a meeting of the California Work & Health Study Group on Friday June 1st. Paul could discuss some of his recent work as well as share his expertise on worksite health interventions. We will post further information as soon as it becomes available. Please email us if you would like to join the group.
posted 5/07/07
I am very pleased to announce that Steven Sauter, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2007 James P. Keogh Award for Outstanding Service in Occupational Safety and Health. The James P. Keogh Award for Outstanding Service in Occupational Safety and Health recognizes one current or former NIOSH employee each year for exceptional service to the field. The award is offered in honor of Dr. James P. Keogh, a tireless advocate for worker safety and health who died in June 1999. The Keogh Award committee solicited nominations from NIOSH employees and judged the nominees on the basis of contributions above and beyond the call of duty.
Dr. Sauter is being presented with the Keogh Award in recognition of his outstanding career of scholarship and leadership in preventing occupational injury and illness among workers. He has had a remarkable and unique impact on the field of occupational safety and health through his dedicated efforts to integrate the behavioral sciences into the mainstream of research and practice aimed at reducing injury and promoting worker well-being.
Dr. Sauter was the NIOSH chair of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Organization of Work Team during the first ten years of NORA, and was the principle force behind the development of a national organization of work research agenda and the growth in the prominence of organization of work in the occupational health research community. He has always had a strong appreciation of the full cycle of research, from exploratory and etiologic research to implementation and evaluation of practical solutions in the workplace. He has overseen a coordinated program of research on organization of work and musculoskeletal disorders for the past 14 years, which has had demonstrable effects on reducing risks to workers. For example, his first project in NIOSH was a study of rest break scheduling in "light, repetitive work." After conducting controlled laboratory studies, the results were used as a basis for a series of frequent rest break interventions conducted at the Internal Revenue Service sites which demonstrated the ease of application of the rest break intervention as well as its effectiveness. The frequent rest schedule was subsequently adopted by the IRS sites where it had been tested.
Dr. Sauter has edited several influential books, many of which are used as textbooks in universities in both the U.S. and Europe. He is a visionary in the work organization field, with a gift for identifying emerging issues of importance such as long hours of work and health disparities. He also has made great contributions through leadership in developing and promoting occupational health psychology as an academic discipline and applied research field. His collaboration with the American Psychological Association (APA) resulted in the creation of a new specialty within the field of psychology to meet the growing demands for a national cadre of researchers and practitioners able to address organization of work issues. In addition, he promoted the formation of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology that was recently chartered through Portland State University, and has worked with the international community to foster coordination with sister organizations. As a result of these efforts, five international NIOSH/APA conferences have taken place since 1990. Through collaboration with APA, he also founded the Journal of Occupational Psychology.
During his career, Dr. Sauter's research activities have impacted workplaces and workers alike. He is being presented with the Keogh Award for his exemplary accomplishments and their international influence on worker safety and health. NIOSH is very pleased to honor Dr. Sauter with this award in memory of Jim Keogh.
Please join us in recognizing Steve's accomplishments at the Alice Hamilton Awards Ceremony on 1 May 2007, which will originated from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Congratulations, Steve!
JOHN HOWARD, Director NIOSH
posted 4/28/07
A study in the April 2007 issue of JOEM provides from the Belstress Study provides very nice c-s replication of the NYC Worksite BP Study findings:
Clays E, Leyman F, De Bacquer D, Kornitzer M, Kittel F, Karasek R, De Backer G. High job strain and ambulatory blood pressure in middle-aged men and women from the Belgian Job Stress Study. J Occup Environ Med. 2007;49:360-367.
posted 4/14/07
Job strain increases obesity risk
Being stressed out at work can make you fat, a new study suggests.
The more job stress men and women reported, the more likely they were to become obese, Dr Eric J Brunner of the Royal Free and University College London Medical School and colleagues found. Higher stress levels were also tied to excess fat around the middle, which is particularly harmful for health.
Chronic stress has been linked to heart disease and the metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms including excess belly fat that increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, Brunner and his team note. They hypothesized that job stress might make people more likely to develop obesity during adulthood as well.
To investigate, they followed 6,895 men and 3,413 women for 19 years. All were 35 to 55 years old at the study's outset.
Participants reported levels of job strain, defined as having heavy demands, little decision-making power, and little social support, at several points during the study.
Men and women who reported job strain on at least three occasions were 73 per cent more likely to become obese than those who never said they were stressed on the job. They were also 61 per cent more likely to develop central obesity, defined as a waist circumference greater than 102 cm for men or 88 cm for women.
Those who reported job strain on one occasion were at 17 per cent increased risk of obesity and central obesity, while those who reported stress on two occasions were at 24 per cent increased risk of obesity and 41 per cent increased risk of central obesity.
Adjusting for factors that could be related to both job strain and obesity, such as socioeconomic status and cigarette smoking, reduced the relationship by only a small amount.
The findings provide "firm evidence that high psychological workload, together with lack of social support at work, acts as a causal factor for obesity," Brunner and his colleagues conclude.
(Prospective Effect of Job Strain on General and Central Obesity in the Whitehall II Study. Brunner et al., 10.1093/aje/kwk058. American Journal of Epidemiology published online, Jan 22 2007)
posted 3/29/07
WORKLIFE 2007 NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACT DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 30TH, 2007
September 10 - 11, 2007
Hyatt Regency
Bethesda, Maryland
On-line Submission at http://www.worklife2007.com.
You are invited to submit an abstract for presentation at the WorkLife 2007 National Symposium. The Symposium will provide researchers, policymakers, practitioners, academics, employers, and labor leaders an opportunity to share their experiences with integrated and coordinated health protection and promotion programs. These worksite programs must address health risk by combining attention to both the individual workers and the environments in which they work. The conference planning committee is accepting abstracts on research and design, evaluation, and implementation of such worksite programs.
posted 3/21/07
An internship is available at UCLA. Please click here to see the flyer and share with students and/or faculty you know who may have students interested in occupational safety and health.
Thanks so much!
Laurie K. Kominski, MSW
Associate Director of Program Administration
UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program
200 Kinross Building, Box 951478
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478
Phone: (310) 794-5992 - Direct Line
Phone: (310) 794-5964 - General Line
Fax: (310) 794-6403
Email: Lauriek@ucla.edu
Website: www.losh.ucla.edu
Working 80% time - Monday through Thursdays only
posted 3/07/07
Long-Time Labor Protection Advocate Patricia Smith Takes Charge of the New York State Department of Labor
New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer has appointed Patricia Smith to head the state Department of Labor, a move that received strong praise from occupational safety and health, workers rights and union advocates.
Shortly after her appointment was announced, New York State
In an interview with the Update on Safety and Health, Smith said, “
One of Smith’s first official acts was to appoint long-time Law Department lawyer Pico Ben-Amotz as the Labor Department's Deputy Commissioner for Worker Protection, a post that gives him responsibility for Safety and Health, Labor Standards and the Public Work/Prevailing Wage programs. Ben-Amotz had been with the Attorney General's Office for 18 years and has been a lead attorney for the state on prevailing wage and worker protection issues.
Before becoming acting Commissioner of Labor, Smith was the Assistant Attorney General in-charge of the state Law Department’s Labor Bureau, a position she held since 1999. She served at the Labor Bureau for 12 years, first as Prevailing Wage Section Chief and then as Deputy Bureau Chief.
From 1979 to 1987, Ms. Smith served as a Litigation Director at the Legal Services Organization in
Excerpted from NYCOSH UPDATE ON SAFETY
WorkSafe is proud to present a new training program: Workers' Compensation for Legal Services Programs - Assisting Injured Workers
Please call them to arrange for training programs on occupational safety and health. http://www.worksafe.org for more information.
posted 2/20/07
WorkLife 2007: Protecting and Promoting Worker Health
A National Symposium
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
September 10 - 11, 2007
Hyatt Regency
Bethesda, Maryland
Abstracts must be received by March 16, 2007
On-line Submission at http://www.worklife2007.com.
You are invited to submit an abstract for presentation at the WorkLife 2007 National Symposium. The Symposium will provide researchers, policymakers, practitioners, academics, employers, and labor leaders an opportunity to share their experiences with integrated and coordinated health protection and promotion programs. These worksite programs must address health risk by combining attention to both the individual workers and the environments in which they work. The conference planning committee is accepting abstracts on research and design, evaluation, and implementation of such worksite programs.
View the preliminary symposium agenda online for more information about each session.
posted 2/13/07
Statement by Raymond Gibbons, M.D., President of the American Heart Association, on House Passage of FY 2007 Joint Funding Resolution
"We’re encouraged that House members recognized that medical research aimed at saving lives and improving quality of life cannot move forward on a barebones budget. The additional $600 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal year 2007 will bring us closer to curing heart disease, stroke and other life-threatening illnesses that afflict millions of Americans and cost our country billions of dollars in medical expenses and lost productivity each year. A strong investment in medical research will also offset the heavy financial burden these diseases place on our healthcare system. We urge our nation’s elected leaders to keep the momentum going by further increasing funding for NIH-supported medical research in the next spending cycle to better match biomedical inflation.
At the same time, Congress cannot lose sight of the critical role that prevention plays in the overall health of our nation. It’s unfortunate the House did not increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program even though it has been successful in encouraging individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles and reducing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, our nation’s No. 1 killer. We hope Congress will allocate more resources to this important program in the future." (2/01/07)
posted 2/07/07
Workers are familiar with corporate downsizing and the toll it takes on those laid off, but mental health problems can also rise in those who keep their jobs, a European study shows. "Employees who remained in work after downsizing may be at increased risk of being prescribed psychotropic drugs," said lead author Mika Kivimaki, from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. The report appears in the February issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. "Policy makers, employers, and occupational health professionals should recognize that organizational downsizing may pose mental health risks among employees," Kivimaki said.
posted 1/23/07
Colleagues, a sad and serious sign of the times – the new conservative government of
posted 1/10/07
SAVE THE DATE!
The 7th Work, Stress and Health Conference, organized by the American Psychological Association, NIOSH, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology will be held on March 6-8, 2008 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC. More details will be forthcoming shortly on their website: www.apa.org.
posted 1/03/07
The Job Stress Nework would like to wish our colleagues and viewers a very healthy and happy 2007. We hope that our research and efforts towards creating a healthy workplace will be enacted and legislated in the coming years and decades. Thank you to all the researchers and workers involved in this effort.
The staff of the Job Stress Nework and the Center for Social Epidemiolgy.
posted 12/31/06
Published in UCLA PUBLIC HEALTH Winter, 2006
Hypertension Risk Grows as Work Hours Increase
UCLA AND UC IRVINE RESEARCHERS have published the first evidence suggesting that self-reported hypertension increases the more hours per week that workers put in, with those who clock more than 50 hours a week being 29% more likely to report hypertension than those who work fewer than 40. Publishing in the journal Hypertension, the researchers also reported that nearly one in five working Californians said they log more than 50 hours a week.
The research team from the UCLA and UC Irvine Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health used data from the California Health Interview Survey (based in the UCLA School of Public Health) to study the role played by the work environment in causing hypertension and coronary artery disease. The survey responses of 24,205 working
Previous research has shown that by the age of 60, three of five American workers will have developed hypertension, a major risk factor for stroke and cardiovascular disease.
“Work can negatively impact our health, an impact that goes well beyond the usual counts of injuries and exposure to toxic chemicals that we more commonly associate with occupational health,” says Dr. Peter Schnall, director of the Center for Social Epidemiology, a member of the
It was unclear from the study whether the long working hours per se are responsible for the increased hypertension risk. Based on past findings, the authors estimated that job strain – work characterized by high demands and low control – accounts for one-fourth of all heart disease-related illness and death among working people after controlling for individual risk factors such as personality, diet, obesity, and cigarette smoking. This might explain why clerical and unskilled workers had far higher rates of diagnosed hypertension ; 23% and 50% respectively – than did white-collar workers who worked the same number of hours.
“Tomorrow’s jobs must be deliberately crafted to allow the full development of the human spirit through work that encourages – not discourages – human potential,” says Schnall. “A key characteristic will be the full participation of all working people in the decision-making processes surrounding the organization of work.”
posted 12/22/06
Dr. Paul Landsbergis writes that he's recently returned from attending the APHA conference in Boston, and previously attended recent conferences in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. This week he's in the Detroit area recruiting study volunteers at an auto plant.
posted 12/07/06
A while back, NC State University received an OSHA grant to create safety and health training for small businesses. They created an online program named OSHA Safety & Health Management Systems for Small Business. This program is designed to assist small- and medium-sized businesses in developing and implementing an effective and inexpensive safety and health management system.
The program is free online, and will remain free until April 2007
Submitted by:
Dan Lucas
NCSU Industrial Extension Service
posted 12/1/06
A reminder to our colleagues in the California Work & Health Study Group: We have an exciting program set for Friday November 17th. We have reserved the Madden Conference Room at UCLA in the SPH - the room number is 13-265 CHS (community health sciences inside the health sciences building).
The program runs from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The 2 hours in the morning will allow people to share ideas and current projects. We will provide lunch so please RSVP if you will be attending! (email Peter at pschnall@workhealth.org)
Lunch 12:00 -1:00 PM
We have two speakers scheduled for the afternoon.
1:00 -3:00 PM
Dr. Leslie Hammer, Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Director, of the Portland State University Occupational Health Psychology Program has agreed to fly down and present her current NIOSH funded work on work/family conflicts. She is going to talk about her longitudinal study of Dual-Earner Couples in The Sandwiched Generation Project as well as about her research on work-family conflict. Dr. Hammer has just published a book with her colleague Dr. Margaret Neal titled "Working Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents: Effects on Work and Well-Being".
3:00 -4:00 PM
Our second presenter will be Dr. Haiou Yang, Research Associate at UC of Irvine, who is the first author on our recently published article (Work Hours and Self-Reported Hypertension Among Working People in California: Haiou Yang; Peter L. Schnall; Maritza Jauregui; Ta-Chen Su; and Dean Baker, Hypertension, November 2006). She will talk about her findings and the issue of long working hours as they impact on our mental and physical health.
Look forward to seeing you all in Los Angeles on the 17th of November.
Peter Schnall
posted 11/10/06
Colleagues: A sad and serious sign of the times – the new conservative government of
Dear colleagues,
I am writing to you just to inform you about the closing of the National Institute for Working Life.
Two days ago we got the message from the new government that they have decided close down the entire NIWL. All staff will be recieving notice to quit January 1st, 2007. All operations will be closed by July 1st, 2007. Nothing will be saved and there is no budget for continuation in any other organisational form for work life research and OHS education in Sweden according to the budget proposition from the newly elected government.
We are shocked and of course very angry and frustrated. We were somewhat prepared that we would be closed as a governmental authority but we thought that there would be some kind of solution for a continuation in some other form, e.g. at universities. As it is now, there is little time to act.
This means that Sweden will have no platform for acting at an international and European level in the future (at least the coming three years).
The arguments from the government for this decision are very vague. Cutting taxes is the highest priority, that is why they closed government bureacracies as they say (two more are closed, one on the integration of immigrants and the other on animal protection!). Work life issues are a matter for the partners on the labour market, not for the government, and they want all research to take place at universities, with research funded by competition, preferably in centres of excellence.
In the biggest newspaper today there is an article from a right wing debater, applauding the government decision regarding the NIWL: "we are only producing ideology statements"... and "we are the source for financing researchers and debaters, producing politically correct and politically ordered, predictable reports".
We are under scientific evaluation ordered by the former government. This is almost finished and a few of us have got oral information from the person who did the bibliometric evaluation. The report says that the whole NIWL recieved impact records that are above mean in international comparison within our fields of disciplines. However, the government evaluation office will not let these reports become public and we do not know why. We are not allowed to disseminate the results but we are doing that anyway by informing the media.
On Friday, the new minister will visit us. We do hope that there can be some kind of dialogue on the consequences for the competence loss.
If any of you as individual researchers or your institutes would like to send a message to our government or to media (that they can translate) on the consequences for work life research in an international perspective, it would be very helpful (see a list of e-mail adresses below). There is a short note in English on the government decision on our website www.arbetslivsinstitutet.se
We do think that the new government (sitting now for just a couple of weeks) have not had time enough to see the consequences of their decision. They might not know that we also have obligations and cooperation at an international level to contribute to a productive, sustainable working life. However, there is very little time for that, the next few days are critical. We have very little hope, but at least it could be good to let the government know that our research is acknowledged in an international perspective.
Annika Härenstam
Professor in Work Organisation, National Institute for Working Life
Useful web adresses if someone wants to send a message to those who made the decision.
Politicians:
Minister of Employment: Sven-Otto Littorin registrator@industry.ministry.se
The Secretary at the Ministry of Employment: Eva Udden Sonnegård registrator@industry.ministry.se
Chair of Committee on Labour Market: Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd catharina.elmsater-svard@riksdagen.se
Member of Committee on Labour Market: Sven-Erik Österberg sven-erik.osterberg@riksdagen.se
Member of Committee on Labour Market: Lennart Levi lennart.levi@riksdagen.se
Group leaders of:
The Moderate party Lars Lindblad lars.lindblad@riksdagen.se
The Center party Roger Tiefensee roger.tiefensee@riksdage.se
The Liberal party: Johan Pehrson johan.pehrson@riksdagen.se
The Christian Democrats: Stefan Attefall stefan.attefall@riksdagen.se
Media:
posted 10/20/06
CALIFORNIA WORK & HEALTH STUDY GROUP XIX
The next meeting of the CWHSG will be held at UCLA in Los Angeles on Friday November 17th, 2006 from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
Dr. Leslie Hammer, Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Director of the Portland State University Occupational Health Psychology Program has agreed to fly down and present her current NIOSH funded work on work/family conflicts. She is also going to talk about her longitudinal study of Dual-Earner Couples in The Sandwiched Generation Project. Dr. Hammer has just published a book with her colleague Dr. Margaret Neal titled Working Couples Caring for Children and Aging Parents: Effects on Work and Well-Being.
Our second presenter will be Dr. Haiou Yang, Research Associate at UC of Irvine, who is the first author on our recently published article Work Hours and Self-Reported Hypertension Among Woring People in California. (
We are also making great strides in finishing our book on Healthy Work. We have a contract with Baywood to publish the book in 2007. A summary of our progress with the book and some remaining issues will be discussed. We hope you can join us.
Peter L. Schnall MD, MPH
Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California at Irvine
Among the risk factors for hypertension, stress, especially work stress, has drawn increasing attention. Another potential work-related risk factor for hypertension identified in the past few years is work hours. This article presents an analysis of work hours and self-reported hypertension among the working population in the state of California. The data set used for this study comes from the Public Use File of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. The logistic regression analysis shows a positive association between hours worked per week and likelihood of having self-reported hypertension. Compared with those working between 11 and 39 hours per week, individuals working 40 hours per week were 14% (95% CI: 1.01 to 1.28) more likely to report hypertension, those who worked between 41 and 50 hours per week were 17% (95% CI: 1.04 to 1.33) more likely to report hypertension, and those who worked 51 hours per week were 29% (95% CI: 1.10 to 1.52) more likely to report hypertension after controlling for various potentially confounding variables, including demographic and biological risk factors and socioeconomic status. This analysis provides evidence of a positive association between work hours and hypertension in the California working population.
posted 9/29/06
An interesting finding from the Whitehall II Study:
Kivimaki M, Head, J, Ferrie JE, Shipley MJ, Brunner E, Vahtera J, Marmot MG. Work stress, weight gain and weight loss: evidence for bidirectional effects of job strain on body mass index in the Whitehall II study. International Journal of Obesity (2006) 30, 982–987.
Objective:
Previous research has focused on overall associations between work stress and body mass index (BMI) ignoring the possibility that stress may cause some people to eat less and lose weight and others to eat more. Using longitudinal data, we studied whether work stress induced weight loss in lean individuals and weight gain in overweight individuals.
Results:
In men, the effect of job strain on weight gain and weight loss was dependent on baseline BMI (P<=0.03). In the leanest quintile (BMI<22 kg/m2) at baseline, high job strain and low job control were associated with weight loss by follow-up, whereas among those in the highest BMI quintile (>27 kg/m2), these stress indicators were associated with subsequent weight gain. No corresponding interaction was seen among women.
Conclusion:
Inconsistent findings reported by previous studies of stress and BMI have generally been interpreted to indicate the absence of an association. In light of our results, the possibility of differential effects of work stress should also be taken into account.
posted 9/23/06
Our colleagues have received a prestigious award. Congratulations to David Rempel and Niklas Krause et al!
The winners of the IEA Liberty Mutual Prize in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics found that a simple workstation modification could help reduce upper body pain and prevent musculoskeletal disorders among customer service workers who use a computer.
The Prize will be presented to David M. Rempel, M.C., M.P.H.;
“Our findings indicate that employers should consider forearm support and training for workers who use computers for customer service work,” said Dr. Rempel, professor of medicine at the
With a cash award of U.S.$5,000, the IEA Liberty Mutual Prize recognizes outstanding, original research in the field of occupational safety and health. An independent IEA-appointed review committee evaluated all submissions for their contributions to the prevention or mitigation of occupational accidents or the facilitation of return to work.
The second award winner will receive the IEA Liberty Mutual Medal for his development of a new safety management system by evaluating and combining the best practices of behavior-based and organizational culture safety programs. David M. DeJoy, Ph.D., receives the award for his scientific paper, “Behavior Change Versus Culture Change: Divergent Approaches to Managing Workplace Safety” which was published in Safety Science (Vol. 43, pp. 105-129, 2005).
“There are very few one size fits all approaches to safety, and to maximize safety program effectiveness, organizations must be willing to constantly monitor their results and make changes in their safety management programs,” said Dr. DeJoy, professor of Health Promotion and Behavior in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia “The behavior change and culture change approaches to managing safety are essentially complementary and can be successfully integrated. I’m honored that Liberty Mutual and IEA have selected my paper for the award. It is important to recognize, and encourage, researchers to focus on occupational injury problems and ergonomics.”
posted 9/15/06
A new article on job strain and the risk of drug dependency in working men and women has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology:
Reed PL, Storr CL, Anthony JC. Drug Dependence Enviromics: Job Strain in the Work Environment and Risk of Becoming Drug-Dependent. American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 163(5):404-411.
In a prospective epidemiologic study of a sample of young adults, the authors estimated the risks of being drug-dependent and becoming drug-dependent in relation to the psychosocial work environment encountered during young adulthood. Data were obtained from two young adult assessments of 2,311 children who entered the first grade of primary school in 1985-1986. A total of 1,692 participants completed the first young adult assessment (YAT0) in 2000-2002, and a follow-up young adult assessment (YAT1) was completed approximately 1 year later. Work environments characterized by high job strain (low job control combined with high job demands assessed at YAT0) signaled a 2- to 3-fold excess risk of being drug-dependent (adjusted prevalence ratio = 2.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.4, 4.0). In reestimation for 861 young adults (61% female) with no drug dependence at YAT0, low job control alone was associated with a 2- to 3-fold excess risk of developing drug dependence (adjusted relative risk = 2.6, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 6.5) between YAT0 and YAT1. The relative risk estimates did not change appreciably with statistical adjustment for demographic covariates, individual drugs used, childhood predispositional traits, job characteristics, and measurements of socioeconomic status at three time points (first grade, adolescence, and young adulthood).
posted 9/15/06
Combing through a survey of Californians, researchers at UC Irvine have established a long-suspected link between work and health in
By Melissa Healy, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times: September 4, 2006
posted 9/08/06
American Heart Association rapid access journal report:
Long work hours linked to high blood pressure risk
A survey of
“Research during the past two decades has provided solid evidence that psychosocial factors at work, such as work stress, can cause high blood pressure,” said Dean Baker, M.D., M.P.H., senior author of the study. “It has been suggested that there is an association between long work hours and the risk of hypertension in studies of Japanese workers. However, this association had not yet been examined in American workers.”
Baker with lead investigator Haiou Yang, Ph.D., and colleagues analyzed data from a 2001 survey of more than 55,000 households in California, asking people about work hours, whether they had hypertension and about other health, demographic and lifestyle factors that could affect their blood pressure. The survey identified 24,205 working people ages 18 to 64.
Click here for a PDF of the full article.
posted 8/29/06
Colleagues,
A number of our Mexican and Latin American colleagues are planning a conference for October 12, 13th and 14th in
I am interested in knowing who among you might be interested in relating to this group of researchers (or already is) and if one or more of you would be interested in attending the conference. I will be going and talking about both psychosocial factors and health as well as the role of the UCLA Fogarty Program in supporting these activities in the future.
Please contact me if you have any interest in these activities in any form. Thank you,
posted 8/28/06
CENTENNIAL DECLARATION of the INTERNATIONAL COMMISION ON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, MILAN, ITALY 2006
posted 8/17/06
New study findings confirm what some office managers, senior management officials and other white-collar workers have suspected for years: Working in highly stressful jobs can increase your blood pressure.
"We found that cumulative exposure to job strain resulted in significant increases in systolic blood pressure among male white-collar workers, especially those with low levels of social support at work," Dr. Chantal Guimont, of Laval University, in Quebec City, Quebec, and her colleagues write in this month's American Journal of Public Health.
Click here to see the news article at CNN.com.
posted 8/17/06
A new study by Chantal Guimont et al has been published this month in the American Journal of Public Health entitled "Effects of Job Strain on Blood Pressure: A Prospective Study of White-Collar Workers" (Am J Pub Health 2006;96(8):1436-1443). Guimont et al evaluated whether cumulative exposure to job strain increases blood pressure. Click here for a link to the pdf of the article.
posted 8/03/06
July 13, 2006 (foodconsumer.org) - Putting in long, hard hours of stressful work may prove detrimental to the health of women, a British study has found. Researchers at the
Additionally the extra hours caused women to smoke more and consume more caffeine. All these factors are considered unhealthy. Lead researcher Dr. Daryl O'Connor and colleagues studied 193 men and 229 women aged 40 years at an average.
They found that men and women responded differently to working long hours. "Women who work long hours eat more high fat and high sugar snacks, exercise less, drink more caffeine and, if smokers, smoke more than their male colleagues," said Dr O'Connor. "While for men, working longer hours has no negative impact on exercise, caffeine intake or smoking."
"Stress causes people to opt for unhealthy high fat and high sugar snacks in preference to healthier food choices. Also, people under stress eat less than usual in their main meals including their vegetable intake but shift their preference to high fat/high sugar snacks instead," Dr O'Connor explained.
posted 7/20/06
A free publication has just been released by the International Labour Office in Geneva: a 424-page state of the art review about what is known about the impacts of liberalization around the world on workers in public services, including health services, prisons, social care, etc.
Winners or Losers? Liberalizing Public Services
Edited by Ellen Rosskam
International Labour Office, Geneva 2006
You can request this book by emailing DISTR@ilo.org with your name and address, mentioning the book. Your feedback would be very much appreciated. A press conference and launch will be held in September at the University of Geneva, during the European Conference on Educational Research 2006.
posted 7/14/06
A new book of interest to the Job Stress Network will be published in September 2006 (Baywood Publishing): Excess Baggage: Leveling the Load and Changing the Workplace by Ellen Rosskam. Please follow this link to see the preview and for ordering information. Congratulations Ellen!
posted 7/14/06
After the successful Congresses held in Barcelona 1996, Rio de Janeiro 1999, Stockholm 2002 and New Delhi 2005, the Fifth Congress on Women, Work & Health will be held in Mexico in 2008. Researchers, practicioners, activists and policy makers from all around the world are invited to participate. Please be on the lookout for the first call by October of this year. For further information, please email Leonor Cedillo.
posted 7/02/06
Saturday, July 1st, 2006, London - Work stress could lead to a rise in blood pressure, particularly if you are a man and lack social support at work, reveals a new study to be published in the American Journal of Public Health, August, 2006.
Chantal Guimont and colleagues at Laval University, Quebec, Canada, studied 6,719 workers over more than seven years and found that job strain, particularly in workers with low social support at work, may contribute to increased blood pressure, reported the online edition of BBC News.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major risk factor for a number of serious medical illnesses, including strokes and heart attacks.
Other factors may have contributed to the high blood pressure found in the white-collar workers that they studied but high job demands, tight deadlines and low support in the workplace appeared to be triggers, particularly in men, said Guimont.
Studies are now under way to see if employers can alleviate the problem, the researchers said in the American Journal of Public Health. They suggested that employers might be able to help by giving workers more support and control over deadlines and tasks.
While stress is one cause of high blood pressure, there are a number of other things that can contribute like a poor diet, drinking excess alcohol, being overweight or obese, eating too much salt and not exercising enough.
posted 7/02/06
The INSITUTE FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL MEDICINE recently hosted the International Workshop "FROM HEALTHY WORK TO HEALTHY SOCIETY" in Stockholm, Sweden from May 31st - June 1st, 2006. It was very successful, and we thank the organizers, Tores Theorell and Bob Karasek. Please click on the link above to access more information and presentations from this stimulating and engaging discussion of the demand/control/support model.
posted 6/23/06
The responsibility for the 5th ICOH has been assumed by
Here is the 1st ANNOUNCEMENT for the conference
posted 6/16/06
Two ‘Stop Workplace Violence’ Bills Pass Both Houses of NYS Legislature, Await Delivery to Governor for Signing
The "Stop Workplace Violence" campaign of the Public Employees Federation (PEF) – aimed at NYS public sector workers -- is making great strides in the New York State legislature.
On May 17 the Assembly passed the Workplace Violence Prevention Bill, which would require public employers to assess their worksites for potential areas of violence, notify employees of potential threats and work with employees and employee organizations to develop corrective actions. The same bill had already passed the Senate, so it will become law if it is signed by Governor George Pataki. The bill (S6441/A9691) is sponsored by Senator Nicholas Spano (R-Westchester) and by Assemblymember Susan V. John (D-Monroe).
The bill also creates a complaint procedure that employees may use if they believe a potential for violence exists as well as a follow-up procedure with the Department of Labor if employers do not comply with this law. Language protecting employees from retaliatory action in the event a complaint is filed is also included. The Governor vetoed a similar bill last year on technical grounds. This year’s bill has been changed to address the Governor’s objections.
Jonathan Rosen, the safety and health director of the Public Employees Federation and one of the main organizers of the campaign to Stop Workplace Violence, expressed great hope that the Governor would sign both bills, and that the third bill would also pass into law. It’s hypocritical," Rosen said, "for politicians to talk about being tough on crime at the same time they ignore crime in the public workplace."
Previously, on May 3 the Assembly passed the Workplace Injury Disclosure and Accountability Bill, which had already passed the Senate. The bill (S6480/A9692) would amend the Civil Service Law to require that the state Department of Civil Service prepare an annual report about injury rates among state employees due to workplace injuries in state agencies and the costs incurred by the state as a result of those injuries.
The campaign is also giving strong support to the Judi Scanlon Bill, which would allow Office of Mental Health employees who are required to enter the residence of a person with serious mental illness to request to be accompanied by another employee for safety reasons. The bill is named after a nurse who was murdered by a mentally ill patient during a home visit in Buffalo. It would require the office to provide intensive case managers with annual training in safety and the prevention of violence, and provide them a mobile telephone. The bill (S207/A2570) would also require that the office have enough staff so that each intensive case manager would have a case load of no more than 12 patients.
As part of the statewide Stop Workplace Violence campaign, NYCOSH is cosponsoring a workshop in Manhattan on May 24 on Union Strategies for Preventing Workplace Violence – Getting punched, kicked, spit-on, or yelled at is not part of anyone’s job. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
The text of the Workplace Violence Prevention Bill is on the Internet at http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09691&sh=t
The Workplace Injury Disclosure and Accountability Bill: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09692&sh=t
The Judy Scanlon Bill: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A02570&sh=t
Thank you to Jonathan Bennett of NYCOSH for this information
posted 5/26/06
Postdoctoral Fellowship
I am seeking a postdoctoral fellow to participate in a research program investigating the effects of work organization on employee health and well-being, especially within vulnerable employee groups. Experience conducting field research is required; intervention research experience is desirable but not necessary. This position will provide the opportunity to participate in on-going research projects, as well as continue the development of the fellow’s own research program. Applicants should have a doctoral degree in the behavioral and social sciences, epidemiology, or an occupational health discipline.
Funds are available to support this position for 2 years, starting Fall 2007.
Interested applicants should send inquiries and/or application materials (CV, a letter describing research interests, and the names of 2 potential referees) to:
Dr. Cathy Heaney
Department of Psychology and
posted 5/12/06
Latest Press Releases ACOEM: Federal Monitoring System Underestimates Work-Related Injury and Illness
The current national surveillance system may miss two-thirds of the total number of occupational injuries and illnesses, suggests a study in the April Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Dr. Kenneth D. Rosenman and colleagues of Michigan State University, East Lansing, combined four data bases to identify work-related injuries and illnesses (resulting in more than 7 missed work days) occurring in Michigan from 1999 through 2001. The results were carefully matched to data from the national surveillance system for occupational injuries and illnesses, maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
A total of 79,400 occupational injuries and illnesses were identified by the four combined data bases. In contrast, the BLS data base estimated that approximately 30,800 injuries and illnesses occurred during the three-year study period. Thus the BLS system failed to account for 61 percent of work-related injuries and illnesses.
An additional "capture-recapture" analysis-performed to identify cases missed by the combined data bases-suggested that the true total was 868,200 injuries and illnesses. Based on this figure, 68 percent of occupational injuries and illnesses were missed by the BLS system. The BLS data base performed somewhat better in identifying occupational injuries, as opposed to illnesses. The accuracy of estimates varied by industry-the BLS data base captured 94 percent of injuries and illnesses for agriculture, compared with 45 percent in the transportation, communications, and electrical services industries.
The BLS is responsible for compiling accurate statistics on all "disabling, serious or significant" occupational injuries and illnesses. Previous studies have suggested that the current surveillance system-which uses a sampling strategy, rather than a census approach-misses some percentage of cases. In response to a 1987 study showing an undercount of work-related deaths, the BLS instituted a census system to gather more accurate data on occupational fatalities.
"Based on the results of our analysis we estimate that the number of work-related injuries and illnesses inMichigan is three times greater than the official estimate derived from the BLS annual survey," Dr. Rosenman and colleagues report. Whereas BLS statistics suggest that work-related injuries affect 1 in 15 Michiganworkers per year, the new results suggest that the true rate is closer to 1 in 5. Several factors likely contribute to the undercount-the BLS system excludes government workers and the self-employed, and employers and employees may perceive disincentives to reporting. A census approach, like that used to monitor work-related deaths, could improve reporting of injuries and illnesses as well. The investigators conclude, "A more comprehensive surveillance system for work-related injuries and illnesses would be useful to inform decision making on the allocation of public health resources to occupational health and safety.and to prioritize, target and evaluate both public health and enforcement activity to reduce work-related injuries and illnesses.
ACOEM, an international society of more than 5,000 occupational physicians and other health care professionals, provides leader