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In the face of a serious occupational disease prevention and control situation, the lack of efficient supervision and regulation methods has become a prominent contradiction. This paper reviewed the progress and application of occupational health grading and classification supervision methods for employers in China in recent years, and analyzed the characteristics and limitations of selected methods. The grading and classification supervision methods have gradually developed from considering only inherent health risk of occupational disease hazards, to considering both inherent attributes of occupational disease hazards and exposure duration. Some regional authorities introduced trial measures for grading and classification of occupational health supervision by embracing exposure level of an occupational disease hazard of interest, associated outcome severity, and occupational health management situation of targeted employers. In October 2022, the National Disease Control and Prevention Bureau issued the Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work of Occupational Health Classification Supervision and Law Enforcement, which further promoted the establishment of a differentiated occupational health supervision model. Grading and classification of occupational health supervision can improve the supervision efficiency of public health administration departments and promote employers to fulfill the main responsibility of occupational disease prevention and control.
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The phenomenon of workers working beyond standard working hours is called long working hours. In recent years, more and more relevant studies at home and abroad have shown the association between long working hours and adverse health effects of occupational populations, such as increased risks of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and various psychological conditions such as depression and occupational stress. However, the current research has not yet reached a consistent conclusion. The main reason is that the physiological and psychological effects of exposure to long working hours need to be explored in depth. Therefore, based on the relevant research progress at home and abroad, this article introduced the health effects of long working hours from both physical and psychological aspects, including hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, depression, and job burnout, expounded related mechanisms involved, and indicated deficiencies in current research on long working hours and the next research directions.
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Background Occupational hearing loss associated with noise is becoming more and more serious, and occupational noise-induced deafness has become the second most frequently reported occupational disease in China. Objective To characterize occupational hearing loss in Zhejiang Province so as to provide a basis for the formulation of hearing protection strategies and measures. Methods Through the occupational diseases reporting system, the data of new cases of occupational noise-induced deafness in Zhejiang Province from 2006 to 2020 and the audiometry results of laborers who were exposed to occupational noise and participated in physical examinations from 2015 to 2020 were collected. The distribution of new cases of occupational noise-induced deafness were described in categories of region, year, industry, enterprise scale, age, onset age, and length of work, as well as the detection of increased high-frequency hearing threshold of workers who ordered occupational health examination in each year. Results A total of 575 cases of occupational noise-induced deafness were reported in Zhejiang Province from 2006 to 2020, of which 526 cases were male and 49 were female. The mean onset age of patients with noise-induced deafness was (44.8±8.0) years. There was a significant difference in mean onset age between male and female (t=3.420, Ρ=0.001). The median length of work [M (P25, P75)] at the time of onset was 9.0 (5.5, 13.2) years. The number of cases of noise-induced deafness and its proportion to the total number of occupational diseases in a year showed an increasing trend from 2006 to 2020 and the average annual growth rate was 22.11%. The patients were mainly distributed in the Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Jiaxing, and the number of cases were 194, 140, and 112, respectively, accounting for 77.5% of the total cases in Zhejiang Province. Manufacturing industry was dominant one in terms of the number of cases, which accounted for 89.6% (515 cases). Private economic enterprise, in terms of economic type, accounted for 57.4% (330 cases). There were significant differences in the length of work at the time of onset among different economic types of enterprises (H=29.081, Ρ<0.001). There were 215 cases in the medium-sized enterprises and 265 in the small- and micro-sized enterprises, respectively, accounting for 83.5% of the the total number of cases. Conclusions From 2006 to 2020, the cases of occupational noise-induced deafness in Zhejiang Province present an increasing trend, with a relatively short length of work at the time of onset, and regional and industrial agglomeration.
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Objective@#To study the effect of p-phenylenediamine (PPD) on liver and kidney function in occupational exposed workers.@*Methods@#Workers in a hair dye production enterprise which used p-phenylenediamine as a raw material for production were selected as the main research population. Then we conducted a questionnaire survey on the basic conditions of workers and conducted occupational health checkups on general health status, liver and kidney function. Occupational health examination assessment results were tested in Taizhou Cancer Hospital. All data was built using EpiData 3.1 software, and statistical analysis was performed using software SPSS 20.0.@*Results@#The liver function indicators including direct bilirubin, prealbumin, total protein, and white protein, globulin, aspartate aminotransferase, glutamyl transpeptidase, and total bilirubin in the workers exposed to high concentration of PPD were at high normal values, and these indicators were significantly different from low PPD concentration group (P<0.05) . The serum creatinine and serum uric acid in the renal function index were significantly higher in workers exposed to PPD than in workers exposed to low concentrations and in the control group (P<0.05) .@*Conclusion@#Occupational exposed to PPD may have a hazard to the workers’ liver and kidney function. Long-term occupational exposure to PPD may lead to increased cumulative exposure of workers, which may cause potential chronic liver and kidney damage in occupationally exposed populations.
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Objective@#To study the effects p-phenylenediamine (PPD) on lung function and health-related quality of life of occupational exposed workers.@*Methods@#This study was based on data from a company that produce hair dye containing PPD in China. Workers who exposed to PPD were selected as the study group, and workers un-exposed to PPD were selected as the control group. Questionnaires on health-related quality of life of workers using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) . Occupational health examination assessment results were tested in Taizhou Cancer Hospital. The lung function test includes forced vital capacity (FVC) , forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1.0) , and ratio of FEV1.0 to FVC (FEV1.0/FVC) .@*Results@#The difference in systolic blood pressure between the PPD exposed group and the control group was statistically significant (P<0.05) . FVC, FEV1.0, and FEV1.0/FVC of the lung function indexes in the exposed group were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05) . In the health-related quality of life, body pain (P=0.002) , general health (P=0.029) , vitality (P=0.038) , and mental health (P=0.003) were lower in the exposed group than in the control group.@*Conclusion@#Occupational exposed to PPD may induce hazard to the workers’lung function and may cause detrimental effect on workers’ health-related quality of life.
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Objective@#To investigate the quality of life of the visual display terminal (VDT) operators in Hangzhou Internet enterprises and to analyze its influencing factors. @*Methods@#Through cluster sampling,, 944 employees were investigated by demographic and general health questions and the MOS 36-Item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire from October to November in 2016 and carried out statistical analysis. @*Results@#VDT operators’ physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, mental health, physical component summary and mental component summary scores were (86.3±17.0) , (82.5±30.3) , (80.6±16.1) , (56.8±18.6) , (53.7±15.6) , (78.5±17.8) , (81.2±31.9) , (48.8±19.3) , (51.1±8.9) , (43.8±9.1) . Except physical functioning, role-physical and physical component summary scores, the scores of other scales and mental component summary were lower than the norm (P<0.05) . Multivariable logistic regression showed that vegetable intake, sleeping and physical exercise had an impact on the physical component summary score. The influential factors of mental component summary score included marital status, education, neck pain and health concerns. @*Conclusion@#We should pay attention to the quality of life of VDT operators in Internet enterprises, especially their mental health.