Long working hours and overweight and obesity in working adults

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified a link between gender and the various risk factors associated with obesity. We examined obesity risk factors in working adults to identify the effects of differences in body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) between women and men. METHODS: A total of 1,120 adults agreed to participate in the study. Data from 711 participants, including 411 women and 300 men, were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the effects of risk factors on obesity and being overweight. In addition, the least-squares (LS) means of both BMI and PBF were estimated by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in a generalized linear model.  RESULTS: Increases in BMI and PBF were significantly related to an age > 50 years and long working hours in women after compensating for confounding factors. Using the PBF criterion, the odds ratio (OR) of being overweight or obese in women > 50 years of age who worked for > 9 h a day was 3.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05–11.00). For BMI, women who were > 50 years of age and worked for > 9 h a day were 3.82 times (95% CI, 1.31–11.14) more likely to be overweight or obese than those who were 50 years of age and long working hours in women. Further studies are needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of this relationship and its potential implications for the prevention and management of excess weight and obesity.

BTEX Exposure and its Health Effects in Pregnant Women Following the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the health effects of exposure to BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene, o-Xylene) in the Taean area after the Hebei Spirit oil spill. METHODS: We used a questionnaire survey to look for health effects among 80 pregnant women 2 to 3 months following the Hebei Spirit oil spill. Their BTEX exposures were estimated using the CALPUFF method. We then used a multiple logistic regression analysis to evaluate the effects of BTEX exposure on the women's health effets. RESULTS: Pregnant women who lived near the accident site reported more symptoms of eye irritation and headache than those who lived farther from the site. There was a trend of decreasing symptoms with an increase in distance from the spill site. Pregnant women exposed to higher ambient cumulative levels of Xylene were significantly more likely to report symptoms of the skin (OR 8.01 95% CI=1.74-36.76) in the first day after the accident and significantly more likely to report abdominal pain (OR 3.86 95% CI=1.02-14.59 for Ethylbenzene, OR 6.70 95% CI=1.82-24.62 for Xylene) during the 1st through 4th days following the accident. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that exposure to BTEX from an oil spill is correlated with an increased risk of health effects among pregnant women. This implies the need to take proper measures, including the development of a national policy for environmental health emergencies and a plan for studying the short- and long-term chronic health effects associated with such spills.

Health Effects of Air Pollution on Fetus

In many previous studies for the relationship between air pollution and birth outcome, the exposure was based on the data for environmental monitoring site. We reviewed the epidemiologic studies that evaluated the health effects of air pollution on birth outcome such as low birth weight and preterm births. We identified the air pollution exposure during pregnancy was related with low birth weight and preterm birth, although there are differences between studies for the critical period of vulnerability. also suggests that the indoor and personal exposure to VOCs during pregnancy may contribute the adverse pregnancy outcomes. The biological mechanisms whereby air pollution might influence health of fetus are not clearly established. Controlling for potential confounders and valid assessment of exposure are the problem remained in these epidemiologic studies. In the future, more studies are need to investigate the effect of air pollution on preterm birth or stillbirths, considering the various exposure period, and the biological mechanism. also results should be taken into account for future advisories and evaluation of environmental policy .

Environmental Health Surveillance of Low Birth Weight in Seoul using Air Monitoring and Birth Data / 예방의학회지

OBJECTIVES: The principal objective of this study was to determine the relationship between maternal exposure to air pollution and low birth weight and to propose a possible environmental health surveillance system for low birth weight. METHODS: We acquired air monitoring data for Seoul from the Ministry of Environment, the meteorological data from the Korean Meteorological Administration, the exposure assessments from the National Institute of Environmental Research, and the birth data from the Korean National Statistical Office between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2003. The final birth data were limited to singletons within 37~44 weeks of gestational age. We defined the Low Birth Weight (LBW) group as infants with birth weights of less than 2500g and calculated the annual LBW rate by district. The air monitoring data were measured for CO, SO2, NO2, and PM10 concentrations at 27 monitoring stations in Seoul. We utilized two models to evaluate the effects of air pollution on low birth weight: the first was the relationship between the annual concentration of air pollution and low birth weight (LBW) by individual and district, and the second involved a GIS exposure model constructed by Arc View 3.1. RESULTS: LBW risk (by Gu, or district) was significantly increased to 1.113(95% CI=1.111~1.116) for CO, 1.004 (95% CI=1.003~1.005) for NO2, 1.202(95% CI=1.199~ 1.206) for SO2, and 1.077(95% CI=1.075~1.078) for PM10 with each interquartile range change. Personal LBW risk was significantly increased to 1.081(95% CI=1.002~1.166) for CO, 1.145(95% CI=1.036~1.267) for SO2, and 1.053(95% CI=1.002~1.108) for PM10 with each interquartile range change. Personal LBW risk was increased to 1.003(95% CI=0.954~1.055) for NO2, but this was not statistically significant. The air pollution concentrations predicted by GIS positively correlated with the numbers of low birth weights, particularly in highly polluted regions. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental health surveillance is a systemic, ongoing collection effort including the analysis of data correlated with environmentally-associated diseases and exposures. In addition, environmental health surveillance allows for a timely dissemination of information to those who require that information in order to take effective action. GIS modeling is crucially important for this purpose, and thus we attempted to develop a GIS-based environmental surveillance system for low birth weight.