Under-Reporting of Accidents Involving Biological Material by Nursing Professionals at a Brazilian Emergency Hospital

Background. Pathogens can be transmitted to health professionals after contact with biological material. The exact number of infections deriving from these events is still unknown, due to the lack of systematic surveillance data and under-reporting. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out, involving 451 nursing professionals from a Brazilian tertiary emergency hospital between April and July 2009. Through an active search, cases of under-reporting of occupational accidents with biological material by the nursing team were identified by means of individual interviews. The Institutional Review Board approved the research project. Results. Over half of the professionals (237) had been victims of one or more accidents (425 in total) involving biological material, and 23.76% of the accidents had not been officially reported using an occupational accident report. Among the under-reported accidents, 53.47% were percutaneous and 67.33% were bloodborne. The main reason for nonreporting was that the accident had been considered low risk. Conclusions. The under-reporting rate (23.76%) was low in comparison with other studies, but most cases of exposure were high risk.     

基于文本挖掘的建筑工人不安全行为及其影响因素研究

人的不安全行为和物的不安全状态是引发建筑施工安全事故的直接原因,其中人的不安全行为占主导作用.识别工人不安全行为表现及其影响因素规律,是采取针对性安全管理措施的前提.基于文本挖掘技术和R语言,对334份建筑施工安全事故报告进行分词处理和特征项降维,识别出8项建筑工人不安全行为及其27项影响因素;通过构建共现网络和中心性...     

The greenhouse work environment: a modifier of occupational pesticide exposure?

Abstract

Greenhouses are enclosed structures which have various characteristics that enhance crop productivity, but the implications for workers’ pesticide exposure and uptake are not well understood. A narrative literature review was conducted to explore the mechanism/s of interactions between greenhouse characteristics and occupational pesticide exposure. Using a “work”, “worker” and “workplace” conceptual framework, the greenhouse environment (hot and humid microclimate, limited space and dense crop arrangements) combines with work characteristics (high work and pesticide use intensity, multi-tasking, predominantly manual spraying techniques and quick reentry to treated farms) to potentially increase occupational pesticide exposure, compared with open field farming. Greenhouse environments, are variable but have been shown to influence pesticide availability, route, pathways and frequency of exposure, deposition and distribution on a worker’s body as well as use and performance of exposure control methods. Training programs can emphasize the differences in exposure potential between greenhouse and open field farming. Development of tailored guidelines for exposure control strategies to better suit the level of uniqueness of greenhouse agriculture seems warranted.     

混凝/微滤工艺用于青草沙水源水厂的生产废水回用研究

本文通过混凝/微滤工艺对青草沙水源水水厂的生产废水开展了回用处理研究,分析了常规污染物、微量有机物、金属离子的去除规律和消毒副产物生成趋势.结果表明,混凝预处理可以有效减缓膜污染;组合工艺对悬浮态物质如颗粒物、细菌、大肠杆菌等有较好的去除效果,去除率均达85%以上;对溶解性成分,尤其是Al和微量有机物去除效果不佳,去除率均低于20%.生产废水膜过滤后相同的消毒剂浓度时消毒副产物的生成趋势高于砂滤池和炭滤池出水.研究认为,青草沙水源水厂的生产废水净化后回用的最佳回用点是砂滤池前或活性炭生物滤池前.     

焦炉工人PAHs空气日均暴露浓度分析

用个体采样器对100名受试者进行了可吸入颗粒物和气态样品的24h跟踪采集,并通过梯度洗脱一反相HPLC／可编程序荧光检测法定量分析了样品中14种多环芳烃。结果表明,不同受试人员多环芳烃空气日均暴露浓度存在很大差异,其中焦炉工人受多环芳烃中BaP空气日均暴露浓度为0．5μg／m^3～1．7μg／m^3,炼纲厂工作人员和清洁区办公人员的BaP空气日均暴露浓度分别为0．02μg／m^3和0．01μg／m^3。不同受试人员多环芳烃空气日均暴露在PM10及气相中的分配比例也略有不同,焦炉工人的BaP空气日均暴露浓度有近99％来自PM10,一般人群为93％左右。指出2环、3环多环芳烃主要以气态形式存在,4环至6环多环芳烃主要分布在PM10中。     

Employee representation and occupational health and safety: the significance of Europe

This paper considers the implementation and operation of provisions for employee representation in health and safety in a number of member states of the European Union. It describes the results of two studies undertaken in seven European countries, including the UK, between 1989 and 1993. These studies compared legislative provisions for employee representation in health and safety in different countries and analysed the information available on the implementation and operation of these provisions. With regard to the coverage and implementation of legislation, the research found a similar pattern in all of the countries studied, with Britain distinguished by a number of features, most notably the very specific rights on this subject given to trade unions. However, analysis of information on operation of the provisions in all of the countries studied pointed to the strong association between trade union workplace organization and support as a powerful influence and determinant of the effectiveness of employee representation in health and safety. Taking this finding into account, the paper discusses the present and future situation in Britain with special reference to the implications of the provisions on employee representation found in the CEC Framework Directive 89/391.     

企业职工安全教育培训内容和方法的研究

阐述了企业职工安全教育培训的重要意义,同时对培训的内容和方法进行了深入的分析和研究,总结了森工企业职工安全教育培训工作的一些经验和做法,有针对性地提出了职工安全教育培训工作中应该注意的问题,对进一步做好企业职工安全教育培训工作,提出有价值的建议。     

Pollen foraging: learning a complex motor skill by bumblebees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Bombus terrestris</Emphasis>)

To investigate how bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) learn the complex motor skills involved in pollen foraging, we observed naïve workers foraging on arrays of nectarless poppy flowers (Papaver rhoeas) in a greenhouse. Foraging skills were quantified by measuring the pollen load collected during each foraging bout and relating this to the number of flowers visited and bout duration on two consecutive days. The pollen standing crop (PSC) in each flower decreased drastically from 0530 to 0900 hours. Therefore, we related foraging performance to the changing levels of pollen available (per flower) and found that collection rate increased over the course of four consecutive foraging bouts (comprising between 277 and 354 individual flower visits), suggesting that learning to forage for pollen represents a substantial time investment for individual foragers. The pollen collection rate and size of pollen loads collected at the start of day 2 were markedly lower than at the end of day 1, suggesting that components of pollen foraging behaviour could be subject to imperfect overnight retention. Our results suggest that learning the necessary motor skills to collect pollen effectively from morphologically simple flowers takes three times as many visits as learning how to handle the most morphologically complex flowers to extract nectar, potentially explaining why bees are more specialised in their choice of pollen flowers.     

Small queens and big-headed workers in a monomorphic ponerine ant

Evolution of caste is a central issue in the biology of social insects. Comparative studies on their morphology so far suggest the following three patterns: (1) a positive correlation between queen–worker size dimorphism and the divergence in reproductive ability between castes, (2) a negative correlation among workers between morphological diversity and reproductive ability, and (3) a positive correlation between queen–worker body shape difference and the diversity in worker morphology. We conducted morphological comparisons between castes in Pachycondyla luteipes, workers of which are monomorphic and lack their reproductive ability. Although the size distribution broadly overlapped, mean head width, head length, and scape length were significantly different between queens and workers. Conversely, in eye length, petiole width, and Weber’s length, the size differences were reversed. The allometries (head length/head width, scape length/head width, and Weber’s length/head width) were also significantly different between queens and workers. Morphological examinations showed that the body shape was different between queens and workers, and the head part of workers was disproportionately larger than that of queens. This pattern of queen–worker dimorphism is novel in ants with monomorphic workers and a clear exception to the last pattern. This study suggests that it is possible that the loss of individual-level selection, the lack of reproductive ability, influences morphological modification in ants.     

Degeneration of sperm reservoir and the loss of mating ability in worker ants

Workers never mate in the large majority of ants, and they have usually lost the spermatheca, an organ specialized for long-term storage of sperm. Such ‘non-sexual’ workers are restricted to laying unfertilized eggs that give rise to males, and they cannot compete with the queens for the production of female offspring. In sharp contrast, workers in 200–300 species from phylogenetically basal subfamilies can reproduce sexually (‘gamergates’) because they retain a functional spermatheca like the queens. Importantly, ‘non-sexual’ workers in closely related species have a vestigial spermatheca. In this study, we compared the reservoir epithelium of ‘sexual’ workers to that of congeneric queens and ‘non-sexual’ workers using 21 species of Amblyoponinae, Ponerinae and Ectatomminae. We show that a pronounced thickening of the epithelium near the opening of the sperm duct is strictly associated with sexual reproduction in both castes. This is unlike ‘non-sexual’ workers in which this epithelium is always very thin, with few organelles; but all other structures remain intact. We discuss this evolutionary degeneration of the spermatheca and how it relates to behavioural or physiological modifications linked to mating. Our results help understand the loss of sexual reproduction by ant workers, a critical step in the extreme specialization of their phenotype.