Colophony is a resin, obtained from pine trees. It has many applications in industry as well as in products for everyday life and exposure is virtually impossible to avoid. In article, we concentrate ...on occupational exposure, which is frequent in workers in electronics, furniture and paper industry, production of adhesives, plastics, printing ink and synthetic rubber as well as in everyone, daily in contact with products, which contain colophony, or pine wood, like carpenters and woodworkers. Main allergens are oxidation products of abietic-type acids, but cross-reactivity with fragrances, wood resins, Balsam of Peru, wood tar and oil of turpentine is also possible. Exposure to colophony manifests itself on skin in allergic patients mainly as allergic contact dermatitis. The diagnosis is based on history of exposure, clinical presentation and epicutaneous testing. Although the only effective treatment is complete avoidance of exposure, it is difficult to avoid colophony. Consequently, prophylaxis is essential and concentrates on safe working practices, personal hygiene and protection.
Noise-induced hearing loss is an important public health issue, especially among musicians who are, more than any other occupation, dependent on their hearing. For them, hearing impairment is due to ...too loud music, the effect of which, if exceeding the limit depending on the individual sensitivity of one's ear, can be compared with theeffect of noise on the ear. Risk factors for its development are: the type of musical instrument and sound character, the way of playing, music genre or composition, duration of exposure to loud music, sound source and its distance from the ear, intervals of acoustic stimuli, individual factors and the musician's position in the orchestra. Hearing impairment is greater at higher frequencies; in pure tone audiogram it is shown as notches between 3000 and 6000 Hz and is most frequent in the wind and brass section. Hearing loss is greater among violinists and typically affects the left ear owing to the sound source proximity and their position in the orchestra. The most common health problems take the form of diplacusis, algiacusis and tinnitus, as exposure to the loud acoustic stimulus above 90 dB(A) cause damage to the inner ear, the so-called acoustic trauma. Use of personal protective equipment among musicians is low especially because of too much high-frequency attenuation and occlusion effect. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Occupational exposure to ionizing radiation for medical workers Background: Health workers in some diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation. Chronic ...exposure to low doses of radiation can have many negative consequences on the human health, such as cataracts and, among the most serious consequences, the increased risk of morbidity for certain types of cancer. Guidelines for the safety of working with radiation sources and the legislation aim to reduce workers' exposure to ionizing radiation to the lowest as reasonably achievable. This article focuses on the presentation and discussion of the effective annual doses for the period from 2006 to 2010 received by Slovenian health care workers exposed to the artificial sources of ionizing radiation. Methods: We obtained personal dosimetry data from 2006 to 2010 collected by the Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration (SRPA). Results: The effective annual dose limit in Slovenia is 20 mSv. The annual dose received by health workers did not exceed 9.99 mSv in any group and in most groups, more than 95 % of doses were in the dose area below 1 mSv (in nuclear medicine and brachytherapy, around 80 %). The average doses for the period from 2006 to 2010 are 0.47 mSv for nuclear medicine, 0.19 mSv for interventional radiology, 0.09 mSv for other radiology, 0.10 mSv for brachytherapy, 0.07 mSv for teleradiotherapy, 0.05 mSv for dental medicine and 0.02 mSv for other employees in medicine. Conclusions: In the last five years, health workers in Slovenia received some ten times less effective annual doses than the effective annual dose limit prescribed by law, which is comparable to the developed world. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The causes that lead to sickness absenteeism are numerous. Among the groups of the causes there is a set of factors tied to the individual or his/ her personality traits. The article focuses on the ...aspect of the correlation between sickness absenteeism and temperament and presents the results of the research carried out in the public administration in Slovenia. The results of the research (February 2015) show that on average the employees who were temporarily absent from work for the fewest days were those with dominant temperament choleric (8.6 days) or phlegmatic (8.7 days), who also account for the largest number of employees in the public administration; those with a sanguine temperament were temporarily absent for slightly more days (10.8 days), while melancholics were absent for the largest number of days (15.8 days). On the basis of the results of the research, we find that in the total number of days of sickness absence we are unable to confirm statistically significant differences between individual employees with regard to their temperament. We can, however, confirm a statistically significant correlation in the overall average number of frequencies of sickness absenteeism among employees with regard to their temperament.
Vzroki za nastanek zdravstvenega absentizma so številni in med eno od skupin vzrokov uvrščamo tudi skupino dejavnikov, ki so vezani na posameznika oziroma njegove osebnostne lastnosti. Članek se ...osredotoča na vidik povezanosti zdravstvenega absentizma s temperamentom in predstavlja rezultate raziskave v slovenski javni upravi. Rezultati raziskave (februar 2015) kažejo, da so bili v povprečju najmanj dni začasno odsotni z dela zaposleni, katerih prevladujoči temperament je kolerik (8,6 dni) in flegmatik (8,7 dni), ki jih je sicer tudi največ med zaposlenimi v javni upravi; nekoliko več dni so bili začasno odsotni zaposleni s temperamentom sangvinika (10,8 dni), največ pa melanholiki (15,8 dni). Na podlagi rezultatov raziskave ugotavljamo, da v skupnem številu dni zdravstvenega absentizma statistično značilnih razlik med posameznimi zaposlenimi glede na njihov temperament ne moremo potrditi. Lahko pa potrdimo statistično značilno povezanost v skupnem povprečnem številu pogostosti zdravstvenega absentizma med zaposlenimi glede na njihov temperament.The causes that lead to sickness absenteeism are numerous. Among the groups of the causes there is a set of factors tied to the individual or his/her personality traits. The article focuses on the aspect of the correlation between sickness absenteeism and temperament and presents the results of the research carried out in the public administration in Slovenia. The results of the research (February 2015) show that on average the employees who were temporarily absent from work for the fewest days were those with dominant temperament choleric (8.6 days) or phlegmatic (8.7 days), who also account for the largest number of employees in the public administration; those with a sanguine temperament were temporarily absent for slightly more days (10.8 days), while melancholics were absent for the largest number of days (15.8 days). On the basis of the results of the research, we find that in the total number of days of sickness absence we are unable to confirm statistically significant differences between individual employees with regard to their temperament. We can, however, confirm a statistically significant correlation in the overall average number of frequencies of sickness absenteeism among employees with regard to their temperament.
Stress is a complex psychoneuroendocrinological and immune response of an individual to a stressogenic factor. The most important contemporary stressogenic factors are mental, psychosocial and ...socio-economic stressors. This especially holds true for occupational stress. Many symptoms, signs and diseases are associated with chronic occupational stress. This article describes dierent stressogenic factors that lead to occupational stress and two conceptual models of occupational stress (Karaseks Demand/Control Model and Siegrists Eort-Reward Imbalance Model). Reaction to stress can be measured in various ways. This article summarizes the physiology of heart beat regulation and presents heart rate variability as a measurable parameter of stress reaction. Measuring heart rate variability gives us an insight into autonomic modulation of the heart and functioning of the entire autonomic nervous system.
Brief description of the article: This article considers heart rate variability as a measurable parameter of stress reaction and present recent studies that examined the impact of occupational stress ...on heart rate variability and thus autonomic nervous system.ABSTRACT Stress is a complex psychoneuroendocrinological and immune response of an individual to stressogenic factor. The most important contemporary stressogenic factors are mental, psycho-social and socio-economic stressors. This especially holds true for occupational stress. Many symptoms and signs of disease are associated with chronic occupational stress. Among those are cardiovascular diseases, metabolic and psychiatric disorders.This article describes different stressogenic factors that lead to occupational stress and two conceptual models of occupational stress (Karasek’s Demand/Control Model and Siegrist’s Effort-Reward Imbalance Model). Reaction to stress can be measured in various ways. This article summarizes the physiology of heart beat regulation and presents heart rate variability as a measurable parameter of stress reaction. Heart rate variability gives us an insight into autonomic modulation of the heart and functioning of the entire autonomic nervous system. This article presents the latest results of larger studies that examined the impact of occupational stress on heart rate variability and various mechanisms that lead to end-organ damage due to changes in autonomic nervous system as a result of work stress. Subjects exposed to chronic stress have significantly lower heart rate variability compared with subjects unaffected by stress. Researches have shown that reduced heart rate variability reliably predicts mortality among health adults, as well as morbidity and mortality in patients after acute myocardial infarction, in patients with chronic heart failure and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Occupational stress and heart rate variability Martin Rauber; Marjan Bilban; Radovan Starc
Zdravniški vestnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia : 1992),
03/2015, Volume:
84, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Brief description of the article: This article considers heart rate variability as a measurable parameter of stress reaction and present recent studies that examined the impact of occupational stress ...on heart rate variability and thus autonomic nervous system.ABSTRACT Stress is a complex psychoneuroendocrinological and immune response of an individual to stressogenic factor. The most important contemporary stressogenic factors are mental, psycho-social and socio-economic stressors. This especially holds true for occupational stress. Many symptoms and signs of disease are associated with chronic occupational stress. Among those are cardiovascular diseases, metabolic and psychiatric disorders.This article describes different stressogenic factors that lead to occupational stress and two conceptual models of occupational stress (Karasek’s Demand/Control Model and Siegrist’s Effort-Reward Imbalance Model). Reaction to stress can be measured in various ways. This article summarizes the physiology of heart beat regulation and presents heart rate variability as a measurable parameter of stress reaction. Heart rate variability gives us an insight into autonomic modulation of the heart and functioning of the entire autonomic nervous system. This article presents the latest results of larger studies that examined the impact of occupational stress on heart rate variability and various mechanisms that lead to end-organ damage due to changes in autonomic nervous system as a result of work stress. Subjects exposed to chronic stress have significantly lower heart rate variability compared with subjects unaffected by stress. Researches have shown that reduced heart rate variability reliably predicts mortality among health adults, as well as morbidity and mortality in patients after acute myocardial infarction, in patients with chronic heart failure and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Cycling and erectile dysfunction Ina Šibli; Marjan Bilban; Bojan Tršinar
Zdravniški vestnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia : 1992),
01/2015, Volume:
83, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
For many years medical studies have implicated bicycle riding is causing erectile dysfunction (ED) in association with higher perineal pressure. This review focuses upon epidemiological studies ...assesing the impact of cycling on ED, pathogenesis of ED in cyclists as well as on research considering changes of perineal pressure, hemodynamics, and nerve conduction when cycling. Investigestors were also interested in different saddle sizes, materials and geometry and also in the impact of saddle and riders position on changes to the perineum. Research on female cyclists is very limited but indicates similar genitourinary disorders as in male cyclists. We also review research on preventative and therapeutic options regarding bicycle riding and ED.
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