Occupational Exposure and Multiple Myeloma Risk: An Updated Review of Meta-Analyses

The precise etiology of multiple myeloma remains elusive, but both genetic and environmental factors have been suggested to contribute to disease risk. Several occupational categories and toxic agents have been implicated as potentially causative, yet findings from the literature are inconsistent. The aim of this review was to summarize and critically comment on the accumulated epidemiological evidence, across published meta-analyses, about the association between occupational exposure and risk of multiple myeloma. Overall, results from eleven meta-epidemiological studies underscore a significantly increased risk for firefighters, hairdressers, and employees exposed to engine exhaust, whereas farming and methylene chloride exposure have been non-significantly correlated with the disease. Further epidemiological studies are of utmost importance whilst emphasis should be placed on occupational hazard surveillance, as such studies will obtain a more accurate picture of disease occurrence in working populations, and will enable both the implementation of preventive actions and the evaluation of their effectiveness.

Occupational medicine in Sibiu: the switch from historical diseases to the current and emergent ones

This study aimed to provide a brief historical overview of occupational medicine in Sibiu County combined with epidemiological evidence and trends in occupational diseases useful to design an agenda for future research and development of other components. Methods: to depict a model of circumstances, correlations, and trends, we applied to the local employee population a semi-structured narrative review method combined with the analysis of occupational diseases. The search strategy relied on literature and document review to create a timeline. We used a statistic chart histogram to highlight the most significant factors. Results: since 1950, concerning the industrial profile and the significant health effects on workers, we identified six stages of developing an occupational health network. The coverage was both for medical and hazard surveillance through a centralized system in the communist regime and recovery in the unique Sanatorium for occupational diseases established in the area. Occupational medicine private health services and the Faculty of Medicine from Sibiu appeared in the 1990s. Sibiu’s occupational disease model was a particular one in the 20th century, given the burden of lead poisoning from local industries. Infectious diseases in medical staff related to sporadic epidemics and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as an emergent professional risk pose new current challenges for occupational medicine. Conclusion: unique challenges increase the need for occupational epidemiologic research and the need for advances in other components of occupational health, but lessons from the past and traditional methods are well documented and still valuable.

Occupational and Environmental Health Surveillance

This chapter describes various approaches to occupational and environmental health surveillance. It begins by defining public health surveillance and the basic principles of surveillance, emphazing the critical link between data and action and the importance of using surveillance findings to improve worker and community health. It describes case-based surveillance, population-based surveillance, rate-based surveillance, and hazard surveillance. It describes surveillance systems, including those based on physician reporting and on laboratory reporting. The chapter provides a description of the major occupational health surveillance systems and environmental health surveillance activities in the United States, and includes examples of how data have been translated to action. It concludes in identifying some of the surveillance challenges and opportunities related to 21st century changes in the workplace, the ambient environment, and information technology.

Active animal health surveillance in European Union Member States: gaps and opportunities

SUMMARYAnimal health surveillance enables the detection and control of animal diseases including zoonoses. Under the EU-FP7 project RISKSUR, a survey was conducted in 11 EU Member States and Switzerland to describe active surveillance components in 2011 managed by the public or private sector and identify gaps and opportunities. Information was collected about hazard, target population, geographical focus, legal obligation, management, surveillance design, risk-based sampling, and multi-hazard surveillance. Two countries were excluded due to incompleteness of data. Most of the 664 components targeted cattle (26·7%), pigs (17·5%) or poultry (16·0%). The most common surveillance objectives were demonstrating freedom from disease (43·8%) and case detection (26·8%). Over half of components applied risk-based sampling (57·1%), but mainly focused on a single population stratum (targeted risk-based) rather than differentiating between risk levels of different strata (stratified risk-based). About a third of components were multi-hazard (37·3%). Both risk-based sampling and multi-hazard surveillance were used more frequently in privately funded components. The study identified several gaps (e.g. lack of systematic documentation, inconsistent application of terminology) and opportunities (e.g. stratified risk-based sampling). The greater flexibility provided by the new EU Animal Health Law means that systematic evaluation of surveillance alternatives will be required to optimize cost-effectiveness.

A conceptual framework for economic optimization of an animal health surveillance portfolio

SUMMARYDecision making on hazard surveillance in livestock product chains is a multi-hazard, multi-stakeholder, and multi-criteria process that includes a variety of decision alternatives. The multi-hazard aspect means that the allocation of the scarce resource for surveillance should be optimized from the point of view of a surveillance portfolio (SP) rather than a single hazard. In this paper, we present a novel conceptual approach for economic optimization of a SP to address the resource allocation problem for a surveillance organization from a theoretical perspective. This approach uses multi-criteria techniques to evaluate the performances of different settings of a SP, taking cost-benefit aspects of surveillance and stakeholders’ preferences into account. The credibility of the approach has also been checked for conceptual validity, data needs and operational validity; the application potentials of the approach are also discussed.

A custom acoustic emission monitoring system for harsh environments: application to freezing-induced damage in alpine rock walls

We present a custom acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system designed to perform long-term measurements on high-alpine rock walls. AE monitoring is a common technique for characterizing damage evolution in solid materials. The system is based on a two-channel AE sensor node (AE-node) integrated into a wireless sensor network (WSN) customized for operation in harsh environments. This wireless architecture offers flexibility in the deployment of AE-nodes at any position of the rock wall that needs to be monitored, within a range of a few hundred meters from a core station connected to the internet. The system achieves near real-time data delivery and allows the user to remotely control the AE detection threshold. In order to protect AE sensors and capture acoustic signals from specific depths of the rock wall, a special casing was developed. The monitoring system is completed by two probes that measure rock temperature and liquid water content, both probes being also integrated into the WSN. We report a first deployment of the monitoring system on a rock wall at Jungfraujoch, 3500 m a.s.l., Switzerland. While this first deployment of the monitoring system aims to support fundamental research on processes that damage rock under cold climate, the system could serve a number of other applications, including rock fall hazard surveillance or structural monitoring of concrete structures.

A custom acoustic emission monitoring system for harsh environments: application to freezing-induced damage in alpine rock-walls

We present a custom acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system designed to perform long-term measurements on high-alpine rock-walls. AE monitoring is a common technique for characterizing damage evolution in solid materials. The system is based on a two-channel AE sensor node (AE-node) integrated into a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) customized for operation in harsh environments. This wireless architecture offers flexibility in the deployment of AE-nodes at any position of the rock-wall that needs to be monitored, within a range of a few hundred meters from a core station connected to the internet. The system achieves near real-time data delivery and allows the user to remotely control the AE detection threshold. In order to protect AE sensors and capture acoustic signals from specific depths of the rock-wall, a special casing was developed. The monitoring system is completed by two probes that measure rock temperature and liquid water content, both probes being also integrated into the WSN. We report a first deployment of the monitoring system on a rock-wall at Jungfraujoch, 3500 m a.s.l., Switzerland. While this first deployment of the monitoring system aims to support fundamental research on processes that damage rock under cold climate, the system could serve a number of other applications, including rock-fall hazard surveillance or structural monitoring of concrete structures.