scholarly journals Rethinking the Paradigm and Practice of Occupational Health in a World Without Decent Work: A Perspective From East and Southern Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 104829112110171
Author(s):  
Rene Loewenson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Science Practice ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Precarious Labor ◽  
Work And Employment

The global political economy is generating new forms and growing shares of informal, insecure, and precarious labor, adding to histories of insecure work and an externalization of social costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the consequences of ignoring such signals in terms of the increased risk and vulnerability of insecure labor. This paper explores how such trends are generating intersecting adverse health outcomes for workers, communities, and environments and the implications for breaking siloes and building links between the paradigms, science, practice, and tools for occupational health, public health, and eco-health. Applying the principle of controlling hazards at the source is argued in this context to call for an understanding of the upstream production and socio-political factors that are jointly affecting the nature of work and employment and their impact on the health of workers, the public, and the planet.

Relaxing Regulatory Controls: Vendor Advocacy and Rights in Mobile Food Vending

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginette Wessel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Regulatory Controls

Beginning in 2008, city policymakers across the nation became increasingly involved in regulatory debates and policy revisions surrounding mobile food vending. Despite vendors’ abilities to reactivate neglected urban areas and increase food access for underserved neighborhoods, many issues related to unfair competition, public health and safety, and prejudices continue to dominate regulatory frameworks that limit vendors’ entrepreneurial freedoms and spatial opportunities. Using three regulatory conflicts between food vendors and policymakers, this chapter highlights the motivating factors that can guide regulatory decision-making and the ways vendors destabilize and shape formal mechanisms of regulatory control. Topics include public health, restaurant protectionism, and cultural injustice at both state and city levels. This research suggests that despite rigid regulatory policies and the variety of economic, social, and political factors that influence governments’ responses to mobile food vending, active municipal investment in the public realm combined with vendors’ grassroots efforts can generate just policies. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the significance of vendor advocacy and the supportive roles of food vending organizations across the United States to illustrate the ways vendors increase social justice in cities.

scholarly journals Nutritional and hematological factors associated with the progression of Alzheimer's disease: a cohort study

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizama de Gregório ◽  
Luan Henrique Patrzyk ◽  
Anne Karine Bosetto Fiebrantz ◽  
Juliana Sartori Bonini ◽  
Dayanna Hartmann Cambruzzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Drug Distribution ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Average Weight ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating ◽  
The Public ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Network Methods ◽  
Hematological Evaluation

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: We studied the users of the Specialized Drug Distribution Program of the public health network. METHODS: A prospective cohort examined the elderly at two intervals of three years and included 30 patients in phase I and 16 in phase II. The methodology was composed of home visits, anthropometric, nutritional and hematological evaluation. For the progression of AD, the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale was used. RESULTS: According to the CDR, the disease evolved, since in 2014 most of the patients were in CDR 3. In the analysis of the micronutrients, only the B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6) presented a significant reduction in 2014. The consumption of carbohydrates and lipids increased in the 2014 evaluation, and protein consumption decreased. As for the average weight of the elderly, there was an increase in 2014, 65.9 (± 15.6) Kg, with a BMI of 26.75 (± 4, 5), in 2011 the average weight was 62.44 kg (± 14, 36), BMI 24.64 (± 4.97). CONCLUSION: The hypothesis that patients are likely to be overweight or obese before the development of AD and that this may be associated with an increased risk of dementia is suggested.

scholarly journals Future of environmental research in the age of epigenomics and exposomics

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Holland
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Epigenetic Mechanisms ◽  
Multifactorial Diseases ◽  
Adverse Health Outcomes ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Susceptible Populations ◽  
Risk Of Cancer

Abstract Environmental research and public health in the 21st century face serious challenges such as increased air pollution and global warming, widespread use of potentially harmful chemicals including pesticides, plasticizers, and other endocrine disruptors, and radical changes in nutrition and lifestyle typical of modern societies. In particular, exposure to environmental and occupational toxicants may contribute to the occurrence of adverse birth outcomes, neurodevelopmental deficits, and increased risk of cancer and other multifactorial diseases such as diabetes and asthma. Rapidly evolving methodologies of exposure assessment and the conceptual framework of the Exposome, first introduced in 2005, are new frontiers of environmental research. Metabolomics and adductomics provide remarkable opportunities for a better understanding of exposure and prediction of potential adverse health outcomes. Metabolomics, the study of metabolism at whole-body level, involves assessment of the total repertoire of small molecules present in a biological sample, shedding light on interactions between gene expression, protein expression, and the environment. Advances in genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics are generating multidimensional structures of biomarkers of effect and susceptibility, increasingly important for the understanding of molecular mechanisms and the emergence of personalized medicine. Epigenetic mechanisms, particularly DNA methylation and miRNA expression, attract increasing attention as potential links between the genetic and environmental determinants of health and disease. Unlike genetics, epigenetic mechanisms could be reversible and an understanding of their role may lead to better protection of susceptible populations and improved public health.

Responding to Bioterror Concerns by Increasing Milk Pasteurization Temperature Would Increase Estimated Annual Deaths from Listeriosis

2014 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 696-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHEW J. STASIEWICZ ◽  
NICOLE MARTIN ◽  
SHELLEY LAUE ◽  
YRJO T. GRÖHN ◽  
KATHRYN J. BOOR ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
High Temperature ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Temperature Short Time ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Fluid Milk

In a 2005 analysis of a potential bioterror attack on the food supply involving a botulinum toxin release into the milk supply, the authors recommended adopting a toxin inactivation step during milk processing. In response, some dairy processors increased the times and temperatures of pasteurization well above the legal minimum for high temperature, short time pasteurization (72°C for 15 s), with unknown implications for public health. The present study was conducted to determine whether an increase in high temperature, short time pasteurization temperature would affect the growth of Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially lethal foodborne pathogen normally eliminated with proper pasteurization but of concern when milk is contaminated postpasteurization. L. monocytogenes growth during refrigerated storage was higher in milk pasteurized at 82°C than in milk pasteurized at 72°C. Specifically, the time lag before exponential growth was decreased and the maximum population density was increased. The public health impact of this change in pasteurization was evaluated using a quantitative microbial risk assessment of deaths from listeriosis attributable to consumption of pasteurized fluid milk that was contaminated postprocessing. Conservative estimates of the effect of pasteurizing all fluid milk at 82°C rather than 72°C are that annual listeriosis deaths from consumption of this milk would increase from 18 to 670, a 38-fold increase (8.7- to 96-fold increase, 5th and 95th percentiles). These results exemplify a situation in which response to a rare bioterror threat may have the unintended consequence of putting the public at increased risk of a known, yet severe harm and illustrate the need for a paradigm shift toward multioutcome risk benefit analyses when proposing changes to established food safety practices.

Long overdue remarriage for better physical activity advice for all: bringing together the public health and occupational health agendas

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (23) ◽  
pp. 1377-1378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Holtermann ◽  
Leon Straker ◽  
I-Min Lee ◽  
Allard J van der Beek ◽  
Emmanuel Stamatakis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Physical Activity Advice

scholarly journals What can public health do for the welfare state? Occupational health could be an answer

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 1141-1144
Author(s):  
Fernando G Benavides ◽  
Consol Serra ◽  
George L Delclos
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
The Welfare State

BackgroundThe welfare state has a long history of uncertain future. Nonetheless, health indicators of people living in countries with a more universal and generous welfare state remain better than those living under less generous and more individualist welfare regimes. In this essay, we reflect on how occupational health, as part of public health, can contribute to the sustainability of the welfare state.MethodsOver the course of the political and social transformations of the State, from single guarantor of security to assuming civil and social rights, the practice of public health has added, to its original objectives related to the control of epidemics of contagious diseases, the promotion of health and the reduction of inequalities in health. In the context of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals, there is a great opportunity to expand the welfare state through public health policies.ResultsOn the other hand, the welfare state is only possible when persons are employed in the formal sector. Through their taxes, workers and employers support the welfare state. Occupational health, by preventing injury and illness, and promoting the health of working people, can contribute significantly to the existence of decent work and a quality labour market.ConclusionThe mission of occupational health is to help people enjoy a healthy and prolonged working life, as a critical component of human well-being.

New forms of employment and workers' health

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 936-950
Author(s):  
Eduard I. Denisov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Program Goal ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Home Work ◽  
The Future

Globalization and digitalization give rise to a complex of problems of economics, sociology, and occupational health. The prevalence of precarious employment (PE) is growing. In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis, employment and social well-being have become acute. The study aims to review literature and essays on PE as a problem of occupational health and a new social determinant of workers' health. The author has made the analysis of documents from WHO, ILO, European Union, etc., scientific literature and essays on the problem of PE and its impact on somatic (including reproductive) health, mental health, and workers' social well-being. The legal bases of labor and health protection are considered. The informal economy, the terminology of forms of PE, and the ILO Convention No. 175 on part-time work and the Convention No. 177 on home work and the Decent Work Initiative were analyzed. The characteristics and prevalence of PE, examples of forms of work organization, affected groups of the population, and sectors of the economy are considered. Vulnerable groups are women (especially pregnant women), young and elderly workers, migrants, and the most unfavorable situation is in construction, agriculture, catering, tourism, etc., and much better in the public sector. PE and its impact on health are an essential topic in social epidemiology, and affective health problems are almost as severe as unemployment. PE is often associated with poor working conditions, physically demanding work and an increased risk of accidents, with young workers more often affected. The lack of confidence in keeping a job negatively affects mental health - the odds ratio is over 1.5. PE is associated with impaired reproductive behavior and reproductive health and the birth of children with low body weight. The features of home work, its pros, and cons are given. An analysis of employment from the standpoint of occupational health revealed the relationship between forms of employment and indicators of health and quality of life and made it possible to complete some generalizations and formulate the principles of work and health. The future of labor, new occupations, knowledge, and skills are considered. In the United Nations Development Program, Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, is to achieve full employment and decent work for all by 2030. PE is becoming more frequent; therefore, further data collection and research into its effects among new groups of workers is necessary. Soon, the digitalization of the economy and society will cause a paradigm shift in occupational health: the future of occupational health is the prevention of occupational diseases and work-related disorders.

scholarly journals Alcohol and the Asian flush reaction

SURG Journal ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
Lisa Ye
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Adverse Reactions ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Facial Flushing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
Increased Risk

A substantial proportion of Asian populations suffer from the ‘Asian flush reaction’, which is characterized by adverse reactions upon the consumption of alcohol. Common symptoms include heart facial flushing, heart palpitations, and nausea. These negative reactions are caused by a genetically polymorphic aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme that is deficient and fails to break down acetaldehyde, causing an inability to metabolize standard alcohol. The accumulated acetaldehyde in the human body results in serious health consequences for Asian American populations. This targeted population faces an increased risk of developing disease including colorectal cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and markedly head and neck cancers. Western social and cultural trends in alcohol use among Asian American youths demonstrate a great influence by social pressures to consume alcohol. Due to severity of the public health implications, it is important to educate and raise awareness of this health risk and explore a harm reducing method in order to facilitate safe alcohol consumption for affected individuals.

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