The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Occupational Health Surveillance Part 2: Region 7 OHI Data, Lead, Fatalities, May 21, 2014

A power point made by the IDPH on promoting and protecting the health of Iowans in the workplace.

Engaging students in an e-learning experience : how to manage information resources through wikis and web blogs

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collaboration between librarians and scholars, from a virtual university, in order to facilitate collaborative learning on how to manage information resources. The personal information behaviour of e-learning students when managing information resources for academic, professional and daily life purposes was studied from 24 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results of the content analysis of the interview' transcriptions, highlighted that in the workplace and daily life contexts, competent information behaviour is always linked to a proactive attitude, that is to say, that participants seek for information without some extrinsic reward or avoiding punishment. In the academic context, it was observed a low level of information literacy and it seems to be related with a prevalent uninvolved attitude.

De què vas, tio?

My study is based on an ethnography of two groups of young people from working-class neighbourhoods in Barcelona. I was interested in researching the impact of Catalan language policies on the identities of young people of Spanish-speaking immigrant families. I sought to go beyond the constraints of traditional structuralist approaches in Sociolinguistics in order to make my analysis relevant to people working for gender equality, the promotion of the Catalan language, or other social causes. I combine ideas from Bakhtin, Bourdieu, Fairclough, Foucault and Goffman to build a dialectical, historical, process-centred perspective that conceptualises practices in terms of social and political struggles.I analyse young people's peer-group activities in terms of their significance for the construction of gender identities. I propose a variety of forms of masculinity and femininity according to the various ways in which members organised their gender displays in face-to-face interaction.I also show how their use of argot and dialectal Spanish was part of the processes whereby members defined their relationships, constructed particular subject positions in interaction and struggled to legitimate their own values.I explore the meanings constructed through Catalan and Spanish by looking into the code-switching practices of my participants. I analysed their talk in terms of narratives that present particular sequential dramatisations of events for conversational audiences. These narratives follow the expressive intention of the author, and are populated with multiple voices of animated characters. I argue that, in the groups I studied, Catalan was generally not used to animate the voices that were central to the identities of the peer-group, and particularly to masculine identities.In order to contextualise these practices within the wider society, I also look into the processes of language choice in face-to-face encounters. I argue that existing conventions made it difficult for people to find opportunities to speak Catalan. I also pointed to the difficulties that my participants had to find employment, which were particularly acute amongst the more politically aware individuals. I conclude that these young working-class people had little possibilities of investing in more egalitarian forms of identity given their lack of resources and opportunities to develop their identities in other social spaces, such as the workplace.

Estimating the contribution of occupational solar ultraviolet exposure to skin cancer

BACKGROUND: Exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) light is the main causative factor for skin cancer. Outdoor workers are at particular risk because they spend long working hours outside, may have little shade available and be bound to take their lunch at their workplace. Despite epidemiological evidence of a doubling in risk of squamous cell carcinoma in outdoor workers, the recognition of skin cancer as an occupational disease remains scarce. OBJECTIVE: To assess occupational solar UV doses and its contribution to skin cancer risk. METHODS: A numerical model (SimUVEx) was used to assess occupational and lunch break exposures, characterize exposure patterns and anatomical distribution. Risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was estimated from an existing epidemiological model. RESULTS: Horizontal body locations received 2.0-2.5 times more UV than vertical locations. Dose associated to lunch outdoor every day was similar to outdoor work one day per week but only half of a seasonal worker. Outdoor workers are associated with an increased risk of SCC but also of frequent acute episodes. CONCLUSION: Occupational solar exposure contributes largely to the overall lifetime UV dose, resulting in an excess risk of SCC. The magnitude of the estimated excess in risk supports the recognition of SCC as an occupational disease.

Ammattiosaamisennäytöt ja työssäoppiminen toisen asteen koulutuksessa

Opetusviranomaiset ovat pohtineet keinoja nuorisoasteen (toisen asteen) ammatillisen koulutuksen laadun varmistamiseksi, kehittämiseksi ja kilpailukyvyn parantamiseksi. Yhtenä tällaisena keinona on tuotettu työssä oppimisjärjestelmä ja siihen on liitetty elokuusta 2006 alkaen ammattiosaamisen näytöt. Näyttöjen perustana on laki ammatillisesta koulutuksesta. Opiskelija osoittaa ammattiosaamistaan näytöissä opiskelusuunnitelmaan sisältyviä työtehtäviä tehden. Kolmivuotiseen (120 ov) perustutkinnon koulutukseen sisältyy työssäoppimista vähintään 20 ov. Näytöt pyritään järjestämään työssäoppimisen yhteydesssä opiskelijoiden työssäoppimispaikoilla. Arvioinnin ja palautteen osuus on tärkeä ja siinä mukana opiskelija, työpaikkaohjaaja ja opettaja. Tässä työssä on tuotettu yleinen toimintamalli näyttöjen toteuttamiseksityössäoppimisen yhteydessä. Toisena on tuotettu alueellinen vastaava toimintamalli oppilaitostasolle kone- ja metallialalle. Mallissa on huomioitu alueen teollisuuden erityispiirteet. Edellisten lisäksi on myös tuotettu toimintamalli oppilaitoskohtaisesta soveltamisesta näyttöjen toteuttamiseen kone- ja metallialalla yksilötasolle saakka. Järjestelmän käyttöönotto eri toimijoiden kesken on käynnistynyt. Sen onnistunut toteutus vaatii jatkuvaa innovatiivisuutta ja taloudellisia resursseja jokaisen siihen osallistuvan tahon osalta. Tällöin on saavutettavissa uudistuksen tarkoitus: koulutuksen laadun konkreettinen varmistaminen ja kehittäminen.

Challenge of transition in the socio-professional insertion of youngsters with neurodisabilities.

Objective: To evaluate the activities of patients with neurodisabilities and assess their insertion problems in the professional world. Methods: It is based on medical records of 267 patients (224 with neurodevelopmental diseases and 43 with neuromuscular diseases), aged 16-25 years, followed in the transition clinic of young adults in the neurorehabilitation services of a tertiary center. Results: Nearly half of them (46.8%) were in a protected environment, 37.08% studied and only 3.4% worked. Their studies are much longer and they are less in university than Swiss people of same age. The competitiveness criteria are no mental retardation and to be completely independent. Finally, 29.2% reported work problems, the foremost being the lack of adaptation in the workplace. Conclusion: These results highlight the need to increase the integration of young adults with neuromotor disorders in the labor market.

La flexibilité du temps de travail: entre autonomie et contraintes. Une étude de cas en Suisse.

Flexitime : between autonomy and constraints. A case study in SwitzerlandBy looking at how a new regulation is translated into everyday practices, this dissertation explores through a specific case study the degree of autonomy gained by wage-earners with the introduction of flexible working schedules. The guiding hypothesis is that by introducing procedural rules, flexitime opens the space for more daily negotiations, therefore reinforcing the effects of power relations inherent to employment relationships. The goal is to understand, through a sociological approach, how employees experience a form of working time that transfers responsibility for time management to them, and howthey integrate work-related constraints with their life outside the workplace. The first part of the dissertation sets up the context of the case study. It offers a definition of flexibility by situating it in the broader history of work time, as well as in relation to various organizational forms and cultural transformations. An international literature review and a focus on the Swiss case are offered. In the second part, the focus is narrowed to a specificSwiss firm specialized in mail-order, where a system of individualized management of annual work time has been introduced. By combining a quantitative and qualitative approach, it is possible to analyze determinants of the practices internal to the firm anddeterminants related to employees themselves, as well as the way in which employees articulate these two orders of constraints. The results show that the implementation of flexible working time is not affecting daily negotiation practices so much as it is creating a set of informal rules. The autonomy ofwage-earners is expressed first and foremost through their capacity to produce, negotiate, and legitimate these rules. The intraindividual level has proven to be central for the social regulation of flexible working time. It is not so much a question of legitimation, but rather the process of institutionalization nurtured by the energy invested by wage-earners in their personal quest for a compromise between their various roles, identities, and aspirations. It is this individualized regulation that is ensuring the success of the system under study.

Monipuolinen tietotyö tilitoimistossa - kiinnostava vaihtoehto valmistuvalle?

Tutkimuksen tarkoitus on tuottaa ajantasaista tietoutta siitä, millainen käsitys laskenta-alan tradenomi- ja maisteriopiskelijoilla on tämän päivän tilitoimistotyöstä ja koetaanko tilitoimisto kiinnostavana työpaikkana. Asiaa tarkasteltiin tietotyön monipuolisuuden ja motivaation näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osuus toteutettiin nettikyselynä, joka kohdistettiin viimeisen vuoden taloushallinnon tai laskentatoimen pääainetta Suomessa opiskeleville tradenomi- ja maisteriopiskelijoille. Vastauksia saatiin 182, joista 162 oli tradenomi- ja 20 kauppatieteiden maisteriopiskelijoilta. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvantitatiivisena. Vastaajista 55 prosenttia pititilitoimistoa kiinnostavana ja 25 prosenttia melko kiinnostavana työpaikkana. Tulokset osoittavat, että tilitoimistotyö on kiinnostava vaihtoehto henkilöille, jotka kokevat työn itseään sisäisesti motivoivaksi. Sisäistä motivaatiota voidaan parantaa ulkoiseen motivaatioon vaikuttavia, kuten rahallisia ja sosiaalisia palkkioita, lisäämällä. Myös asiakaslähtöiset työtehtävät ja verkostomainen toimintatapa vaikuttavat sisäiseen motivaatioon. Työntekijän vaikutusmahdollisuudet omaan työhönsä lisäävät puolestaan ulkoista motivaatiota. Tieto- ja viestintätekniikan monipuolinen hyödyntäminen selittää ulkoisesta motivaatiosta pienen osan. Tietotyön ulottuvuuksista ainoastaan koulutus- ja kehittämismahdollisuudet eivätvaikuta motivaatioon eivätkä tilitoimiston kiinnostavuuteen työpaikkana. Tulokset osoittavat tilitoimistotyön olevan tulevien tietotyöntekijöiden näkemyksen mukaan monipuolista tietotyötä. Tilitoimistotyössä hyödynnetääntieto- ja viestintätekniikkaa monipuolisesti, ja se sisältää omaa suunnittelua vaativia työtehtäviä. Työ vaatii tekijältään korkeaa ja laaja-alaista osaamista sekä jatkuvaa itsensä kehittämistä. Tilitoimistot toimivat sekä sisäisissä että ulkoisissa verkostoissa, joten työntekijät tarvitsevat myös sosiaalisia taitoja.Tilitoimistot tarjoavat työntekijöille melko hyvät vaikutusmahdollisuudet omaantyöhönsä. Tilitoimistotyön arvioitiin tarjoavan muuta tietotyötä paremmat koulutus- ja itsensä kehittämismahdollisuudet. Huolimatta monipuolisuudesta tietotyönnäkökulmasta, tilitoimistotyötä pidettiin yleensä liian säännöllisenä rutiinityönä.

How Social Dominance Orientation affects union participation: The role of union identification and perceived union instrumentality

Bridging social dominance theory and labour studies, this field study investigated the mechanisms underpinning the relationship between rejection of group-based domination and participation in union activities. Respondents (N = 135) were members of a public sector union in California, that is, a hierarchy-attenuating institution. Results revealed that union identification mediated the negative relationship between social dominance orientation and active union participation. Moreover, the mediational effect of union identification was moderated by perceived union instrumentality (i.e. outcome- and process-based benefits afforded by the union), indicating that the relationship between union identification and participation was stronger among those union members who consider that the union affects workplace justice. The findings reveal the importance of both identity-based and instrumental motivations underlying union participation. The novelty of applying social dominance theory to union behaviour is underscored.

Research and development, where people are exposed to nanomaterials

OBJECTIVES: Many nanomaterials (materials with structures smaller than 100 nm) have chemical, physical and bioactive characteristics of interest for novel applications. Considerable research efforts have been launched in this field. This study aimed to study exposure scenarios commonly encountered in research settings. METHODS: We studied one of the leading Swiss universities and first identified all research units dealing with nanomaterials. After a preliminary evaluation of quantities and process types used, a detailed analysis was conducted in units where more than a few micrograms were used per week. RESULTS: In the investigated laboratories, background levels were usually low and in the range of a few thousand particles per cubic centimeter. Powder applications resulted in concentrations of 10,000 to 100,000 particles/cm(3) when measured inside fume hoods, but there were no or mostly minimal increases in the breathing zone of researchers. Mostly low exposures were observed for activities involving liquid applications. However, centrifugation and lyophilization of nanoparticle-containing solutions resulted in high particle number levels (up to 300,000 particles/cm(3)) in work spaces where researchers did not always wear respiratory protection. No significant increases were found for processes involving nanoparticles bound to surfaces, nor were they found in laboratories that were visualizing properties and structure of small amounts of nanomaterials. CONCLUSIONS: Research activities in modern laboratories equipped with control techniques were associated with minimal releases of nanomaterials into the working space. However, the focus should not only be on processes involving nanopowders but should also be on processes involving nanoparticle-containing liquids, especially if the work involves physical agitation, aerosolization or drying of the liquids.