摘要:

The Occupational Medicine Forum presents questions of general interest received by the ACOEM Committee on Occupational Medical Practice. Answers usually are prepared by the Committee, representing the composite best judgment of its members. Such replies do not necessarily represent an official position of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. In some cases, the responses will be prepared at the Committee's request by consultants with special qualifications in specific fields. Questioners are not named. Readers who wish to submit questions to the Committee should address inquiries to: Committee on Occupational Medical Practice, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 55 W. Seegers Rd, Arlington Heights, IL 60005.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The Occupational Medicine Forum presents questions of general interest received by the ACOEM Committee on Occupational Medical Practice. Answers usually are prepared by the Committee, representing the composite best judgment of its members. Such replies do not necessarily represent an official position of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. In some cases, the responses will be prepared at the Committee's request by consultants with special qualifications in specific fields. Questioners are not named. Readers who wish to submit questions to the Committee should address inquiries to: Committee on Occupational Medical Practice, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 55 W. Seegers Rd, Arlington Heights, IL 60005.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employment title affects a broad range of employment-related health care activities including medical data collection from applicants and employees, drug screening, decisions arising from health and safety concerns, accommodation review, and confidentiality of medical records. The ADA also expands the rights afforded disabled persons under the Rehabilitation Act by codifying disparate impact analysis and the employer's duty to provide reasonable accommodation. This article reviews those provisions of the act's employment title, implementing regulations, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's interpretive comment that either expand the rights of the disabled or are of particular relevance to the practice of occupational medicine.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), although developed in the context of civil rights legislation, is likely to have notable impact on the practice of occupational medicine. The ADA contains provisions limiting the use of preplacement examinations to determinations of the capability to perform the essential functions of the job and of direct threat to the health and safety of the job applicant or others. The Title I employment provisions of the ADA establish definitions and requirements similar to those found in section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; leading cases that have been litigated under the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, are described. The limitations of available scientific and medical information related to determinations of job capability and direct threat and ramifications of the ADA on the practice of occupational medicine are discussed.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Many jobs leading to a risk of cumulative trauma do not have highly stereotyped motions. This study developed and employed a novel method of ergonomic characterization to describe quantitatively the actions associated with grocery checking. Fifty workers were videotaped for three 15-minute segments each. Eight object types were selected to represent the variety of items in a supermarket. Nine types of motion were coded for each of the eight objects for 10 replications for each subject. The motions coded were: grip type (power versus pinch), wrist flexion, wrist extension, radial deviation, ulnar deviation, supination, pronation, body (lumbar) flexion, and drag versus lift. The results were then weighted according to relative frequency of the object type. In this manner, an ergonomic risk index can be assigned to each specific object type. This method permits identification of objects presenting the greatest risk. It also allows specificity of preventive interventions (object redesign, work practice change) as well as providing a quantitative measure to evaluate work station redesign. Furthermore, it has the potential of quantitatively describing the risk of each individual worker.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

An increasing number of patients have been presenting with multiple symptoms they attribute to low-level chemical exposures, ie, multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). Although some studies have evaluated such patients, the selection criteria has not been rigorously defined. The present study is the first to use a relatively rigorous definition of MCS to select patients for study. Comprehensive evaluation of medical, psychiatric, neuropsychological, and immunological status of a series of MCS patients is presented. In contrast to previous studies, patients in this study did not have a history of psychiatric disorder. However, some patients were currently depressed. Neuropsychological assessment did not reveal any abnormalities with the exception of one test of verbal memory for which performance was consistently poor relative to the normative sample. No significant immunological abnormalities were noted.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

In this study, the findings of a 25dB hearing level Welch Allyn Audioscope® test at 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz were compared with the standard of conventional pure-tone audiometry in 228 newly hired construction workers. The sensitivity for all frequency-specific comparisons combined was found to be lower than in previous studies done in a nonoccupational setting. After correction for sampling bias, the specificity for all frequencies combined was well within the range reported in other studies. Only 1.9% of ears (1/53) that were able to hear all four audioscope frequencies were found by conventional audiometry to have clinically important hearing loss defined as a 25 dB hearing level averaged over the speech frequencies. Hence, the audioscope can be used as a rapid initial test in workers who otherwise would not have access to hearing screening.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID

摘要:

Does placement of impenetrable sharps disposal systems in hospitals reduce needle-stick injury? To study this question, annual health questionnaires were distributed on a quarterly basis to all 8000 employees in an academic medical center in a large eastern US metropolitan city asking each employee whether he or she had experienced a needle-stick injury since the last questionnaire. Questionnaires from active floor nurses were separated and hand tallied in 1987, 1989, and 1990, the latter 2 years being after impenetrable sharps disposal systems had been placed at nursing stations and in individual patient rooms. Total needle sticks in staff nurses reported during the 3 years (20.5%, 23.2%, 21.8%, not significant) did not decrease in the last 2 years. Simultaneously, hospital purchases of needle-containing devices increased 13.5%. Thus a constant reported needle-stick incidence rate may paradoxically represent a modest preventive effect of a hospital sharps-disposal system.

ISSN:0096-1736    

出版商:OVID    

年代:1992

数据来源: OVID