In this issue of Occupational Medicine
Honorary Editor
In this issue, Philip Sawney and Nick Niven-Jenkins [1] make an appeal for increased awareness among those responsible for medical education to ensure that doctors understand the relationship between work and maintaining or restoring good health. Their plea comes at a time when the benefits of work on health are better understood than ever before but is the message getting through? This journal has already published a number of papers and editorials lamenting the withering of undergraduate and postgraduate education in occupational medicine. We might be shouting to the converted but the shouting should continue until someone listens. To play our part, we are pleased to welcome Steve Forman as the new specialist registrar representative on the editorial team. We previously identified the need for Occupational Medicine to have relevance for occupational medicine specialists in training, hence the appointment, and in this issue Steve reviews the British Occupational Health Research Foundation Web site [2].
A recently appointed member of our new advisory panel, Bente Moen [3] examines the unusual concept of occupational illness in the children of workers. Akin to vicarious liability, occupational physicians may find themselves entering the unfamiliar arena of paediatrics in the future. Her editorial comments on the work of Ahmed and Jaakkola [4] who examined the birth weight of two and a half thousand newborns in Finland and found significantly lower birth weight in the offspring of mothers working in factories, mining and construction compared to housewives. In addition, pre-term delivery was more likely in mothers working in farming and forestry. They speculate about the possible causes of these findings—exposure to heavy metals, solvents, radiation or manual handling—but suggest that this is an area we need to understand in greater depth.
How would armed forces personnel deal with a colleague who was demonstrating distress or deliberate self-harm? An unusual and perhaps surprising question to ask but Henderson et al. [5] did just that in 142 Royal Navy personnel. They found that most would deal with distressed colleagues in an appropriate and positive manner and furthermore they felt that this would not necessarily have a negative career impact, although junior ranks were less certain of this. The authors conclude that peer-led support may be an acceptable and effective way of initial management of distressed employees in ‘resilient organizations’.
Pieceworking, or being paid by what you do, is classically regarded as a risk factor for certain occupational diseases such as work-related upper limb disorder but little actual evidence or research underlies this concept. Lacey et al. [6] researched the health of 200 pieceworkers in North Staffordshire. While piecework was associated with poorer health and more reported pain, this was explained by socioeconomic status and workplace psychosocial factors. They conclude that modification of the working environment may be the key to reducing adverse health consequences in pieceworkers.
Wood dust exposure is recognized by International Agency for Research into Cancer as being a cause of sinonasal cancer but the link with leather exposure is less certain. Bonneterre et al. [7] carried out a review of the literature and identified an excess risk in those exposed to leather dust while shining, finishing and repairing shoes. They argue that similar control measures to those successfully implemented in the woodworking industry should now be considered in the shoe industry.
Elsewhere in the journal, we publish research examining fatigue and long working hours in Japanese workers [8], the reasons for requesting emergency medical care on board US ships [9] and a case report of bilateral thumb osteoarthritis in a door panel worker [10]. Finally, Morris Cooke [11], who has played a significant part in the education of many currently practicing occupational physicians, recounts how he became an occupational physician as a result of personal ill-health preventing him from working as a dermatologist in Palestine.
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 Top References |
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- Sawney P, Niven-Jenkins N. Medical education—the need for change. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:395–396.
- Forman S. British Occupational Health Research Foundation. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:462.
- Moen BE. Our work and its effects on our children. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:393–395.
- Ahmed P, Jaakkola JJK. Maternal occupation and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a Finnish population-based study. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:417–423.
- Greenberg N, Henderson A, Langston V, Iversen A, Wessely S. Peer responses to perceived stress in the Royal Navy. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:424–429.
- Lacey RJ, Lewis M, Sim J. Piecework, musculoskeletal pain and the impact of workplace psychosocial factors. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:430–437.
- Bonneterre V, Deschamps E, Persooons R, et al. Sino-nasal cancer and exposure to leather dust. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:438–443.
- Nagashima S, Suwazono Y, Okubo Y, et al. Working hours and mental and physical fatigue in Japanese workers. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:449–452.
- McKay MP. Maritime health emergencies. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:453–455.
- Jensen JC, Sherson D. Work-related bilateral osteoarthritis of the first carpometacarpal joints. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:456–460.
- Cooke M. Why I became an occupational physician. Occup Med (Lond) (2007) 57:460.
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