In a case-control study using an assessment of occupational tasks by an industrial hygienist, the authors investigated whether women's occupational exposures increased risks of delivering infants with cleft palate (CP), cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP), conotruncal defects, or limb deficiencies. For CP and CLP, exposures were further considered in the presence/absence of infant gene...

The aim of this study was to ascertain the population prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in an area with past heavy industry and to establish the relative contributions of occupational and other risk factors. We investigated respiratory symptoms and the prevalence of spirometrically-defined COPD in a population-based study in North-East England (UK) between 2002 and 2004...

Outdoor ambient air pollutant exposures in communities are relevant to the acute exacerbation and possibly the onset of asthma. However, the complexity of pollutant mixtures and etiologic heterogeneity of asthma has made it difficult to identify causal components in those mixtures. Occupational exposures associated with asthma may yield clues to causal components in ambient air pollution becaus...

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing occupational and environmental health issue around the globe. E-waste recycling is a green industry of emerging importance, especially in low-and middle-income countries where much of this recycling work is performed, and where many people's livelihoods depend on this work. The occupational health hazards of e-waste recycling have not been adequately expl...

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated the independent effects of occupational exposures and smoking on chronic bronchitis and airflow obstruction. We assessed the association between lifetime occupational exposures and airflow obstruction in a cross-sectional survey in an urban-industrial area of Catalonia, Spain. METHODS We interviewed 576 subjects of both sexes aged 20-70 years (response...

Parental occupational exposures might affect childhood cancer in the offspring through genetic changes in the ovum or sperm or through transplacental carcinogenesis. The 24 published epidemiologic studies of this association have all used case-control designs, with controls generally selected from birth certificates or from general population sampling. Occupational exposures were inferred from ...

Background: Occupational exposures do have a negative impact on the male reproductive system, but sometimes it is difficult to isolate a single insult. Workers can be exposed to a number of harmful physical, chemical and psychological factors in their working environment. During recent years, the various diseases and disorders caused by these stressors have drawn the attention of a number of re...

BACKGROUND Occupational exposures are an important cause of adult-onset asthma but the population attributable risk percentage (PAR%) has been less frequently studied. OBJECTIVES To examine the distribution and determinants of adult asthma in six centres across Canada using data gathered in a community-based study. METHODS Data were gathered in a community survey of 2959 adults using the Eu...

This report describes a previously uncharacterized occupational health hazard: work crew exposures to respirable crystalline silica during hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing involves high pressure injection of large volumes of water and sand, and smaller quantities of well treatment chemicals, into a gas or oil well to fracture shale or other rock formations, allowing more efficient rec...

BACKGROUND The proportion of asthma in adults that is due to occupational exposures is not known. AIM To examine the contribution of workplace exposures to the development of asthma in adults in New South Wales (NSW) in a cross sectional, population-based study. METHODS A randomly selected population of 5,331 18- to 49-year olds completed and returned a mailed questionnaire (response rate 3...