BACKGROUND: Zinc fever is well described in medical literature, particularly in workers after handling zinc-containing materials at high temperatures e.g., in the welding of hot-dip galvanized steel sheets. It is not known whether zinc fever also occurs at low temperatures.
METHODS: We present the case of a 33-year-old Caucasian atopic painter and varnisher with work-related dyspnea, sweating, as well as multiple occurrences of fever. He was sent to Institute for Prevention and Occupational medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (IPA) for the evaluation of isocyanate asthma, but an inhalative challenge with hexamethylene diisocyanate was negative. Since symptoms were closely related to the use of zinc coatings at room temperature without adequate protective measures, the diagnosis of zinc fever was made. After exposure cessation the worker immediately became symptom-free. The work as painter and varnisher may be associated with various exposures to hazardous substances. Besides solvents, epoxy compounds and isocyanates, which can cause obstructive respiratory diseases; additionally, zinc-containing agents should be considered as health hazards.
CONCLUSIONS: This case demonstrates that zinc fever may occur also after application of zinc coatings by spray painting at low temperatures.

BACKGROUND: Preventing occupational accidents is a major global challenge, and employee safety practices play a crucial role in accident prevention. Although perceived organizational support (POS) is related to safety practices, there is currently insufficient evidence supporting a relationship between POS and occupational accidents. We investigated the relationships between POS and both occupational accidents and near-miss events that can lead to accidents in the following year among workers in various industries in Japan.
METHODS: This prospective cohort study was conducted from March 2022 to March 2023 using a questionnaire survey. In total, 9916 participants who completed the follow-up survey and met our inclusion criteria were analyzed. The follow-up survey asked participants about both occupational accidents and near-miss events experienced in the year following the baseline assessment. POS was evaluated at baseline using the eight-item version of the Survey of Perceived Organizational Support. Odds ratios (ORs) for the relationships between POS and occupational accidents and near-miss events were estimated using multilevel logistic regression analyses nested by industries.
RESULTS: The ORs for self-reported occupational accidents were significantly higher for the moderate (OR = 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10-1.82), low (OR = 1.49, 95%CI: 1.18-1.89), and very low (OR = 2.03, 95%CI: 1.61-2.56) POS groups compared with the very high group. The ORs for self-reported near-miss events were also significantly higher for the moderate (OR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.03-1.43), low (OR = 1.20, 95%CI: 1.03-1.40), and very low (OR = 1.56, 95%CI: 1.34-1.82) groups than the very high group.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest lower POS is related to a higher occurrence of occupational accidents and near-miss events in the following year. Organizations should consider enhancing employees\' POS to reduce occupational accidents and near-miss events.
CONCLUSIONS: To enhance employees\' POS, organizations should address identified antecedents of POS (e.g., fairness, supervisor support, rewards, favorable job conditions, and human resource practices).

Forestry provides a wide range of employment opportunities worldwide and is seen as one of the high-risk industries in terms of occupational accidents.
The submitted study analyzed the injury rate in the Military Forests and Estates of the Slovak Republic (62.6 thousand ha) between 2013 and 2022.
The data analyses included regression and correlation analyses, χ2 tests to analyze the relationships between studied variables, and incidence rates.
During the observed period, employees suffered 26 occupational accidents, of which 19.2% were light, 57.7% were registered, 23.1% were severe, and 0% were fatal. For every 1 million m3 of harvested timber, 7.7 accidents occurred. The incidence rate during the observed period was 672.1/100,000 employees. The highest proportion of accidents was in the age group 51-60  years and in employees with the lowest length of work experience <5  years. Regarding time, the highest proportion of occupational accidents occurred between 8:01 and 10:00  AM (53.8%) and day-wise on Thursdays (46.2%). The highest proportion of accidents occurred among forest workers (65.3%) during pruning and silviculture activities (42.3%). The most common injury site was forest stands (65.3%). Superficial injuries (34.6%) were the most common, mainly affecting the lower limbs (50%). The most frequent material agents causing the accidents were work and transport areas as sources of worker fall (38.5%), and the most frequent reason for an accident to occur was the lack of personal requirements for proper work performance (92.4%), whereas only (3.8%) of accidents occurred due to the use of forbidden or hazardous working procedures.
The presented study identified the most vulnerable worker groups and provided an overview of the overall injury rate at the state forest company in Slovakia. The documentation can be incorporated into the safety strategies of forest enterprises.

UNASSIGNED: Caregivers assist patients in treatment based on their care needs and living activities. Very few studies have been conducted specifically on the occupational health and safety of hospital caregivers.
UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of excessive workload and low back pain among hospital caregivers and to identify potential associated factors.
UNASSIGNED: This cross-sectional study included caregivers working at Gazi University Hospital. Socio-demographic and working-life characteristics were assessed. The Role Overload Scale was used to determine excessive workload and the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire was used to evaluate low back pain.
UNASSIGNED: The study included 528 participants. A total of 18.7% had work accidents in their department. 49.0% had sharp injuries. 68.9% of the participants performed tasks such as positioning, turning, lifting, or helping patients to walk. 72.2% stood for a long time during the workday. 52.8% thought that they worked under stress. 57.6% had low back pain in the last year and 38.6% in the last month, Significant differences exist in low back pain according to gender, body-mass index, standing for a long time and working under stress. Those who worked at night, had a work accident, positioned patients, stood for a long time, and worked under stress had higher mean scores on the Role Overload Scale.
UNASSIGNED: Tools should be used to lift and transport patients. In addition to occupational health and safety training, awareness of musculoskeletal risks should be increased. Employee well-being can be improved through exercise and stress reduction techniques.

Near misses are referred to in literature as precursors of occupational accidents. These events, and their relationships with occupational accidents in various economic sectors have been the subject of research in several countries around the world. In Poland, there has not been a lot of research with regards to near misses in the construction industry, and the published materials are of a very general nature. This article aims to fill the existing research gap regarding the relationship between near misses and occupational accidents in the Polish construction industry. The aim of the research presented in the article was to identify the qualitative and quantitative structure of hazardous events in the construction industry, and to estimate the a posteriori probability of the occurrence of such events. The research was carried out on the basis of information obtained from the hazardous event registration system from a large Polish enterprise that carried out construction works in Poland in the years 2015-2022. Identified dangerous events in the construction industry were divided into two generic groups, i.e. occupational accidents and near misses. Within each group, eight categories of hazardous events were identified, and subcategories were defined within each category. The power of each set and subset of events was then calculated. The posterior probability of the occurrence of events classified into individual sets was estimated using Bayes\' theorem. Cross-validation of the obtained results was performed. Conclusions resulting from the conducted analyzes were formulated. The most common category of the analyzed dangerous events in the construction industry is \"being hit by objects\"; \"being run over/falling over\" and \"work environment\". Knowledge of the most common causes of near misses will allow actions that aim to reduce the number of occupational accidents to be determined.

UNASSIGNED: An occupational accident involving exposure to biological material is characterized by worker\'s contact with organic fluids during the working day and in Brazil it is considered a condition of compulsory declaration.
UNASSIGNED: To analyze the profile of victims of occupational accident involving exposure to biological material in the city of Palmas, state of Tocantins, from 2010 to 2020.
UNASSIGNED: Descriptive cross-sectional study using the Notifiable Diseases Information System.
UNASSIGNED: During the study period, there were 1,173 notifications, most of which were female (80.10%), aged from 20 to 49 years (90.20%), and worked as statutory civil servants (44.50%). Percutaneous exposure was the most common type of accident, and blood was the main route of contamination (81.59%). Most victims evolved with discharge without serological conversion (66.92%), and 18.5% withdrew follow-up. The most frequent circumstance was improper disposal on the floor (12.45%). Health care professionals were the most involved in occupational accidents with biological material (79.02%) compared with professionals from other areas, with a predominance of nursing professionals (60.35%).
UNASSIGNED: The findings of this study reiterate training in the prevention of occupational accidents involving exposure to biological material is necessary for all jobs involving exposure to this type of material, regardless of the area, as well as changes in work organization so as to reduce the presence of risk factors for this type of injury.
UNASSIGNED: O acidente de trabalho com exposição a material biológico caracteriza-se pelo contato do trabalhador com fluidos orgânicos durante a jornada laboral, sendo no Brasil considerado um agravo de notificação compulsória.
UNASSIGNED: Analisar o perfil das vítimas de acidente de trabalho com exposição a material biológico no município de Palmas, estado do Tocantins, entre os anos de 2010 e 2020.
UNASSIGNED: Estudo descritivo de caráter transversal realizado utilizando dados do Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação.
UNASSIGNED: Nesse período houve 1.173 notificações, sendo a maioria das vítimas do sexo feminino (80,10%), com idade entre 20 e 49 anos (90,20%), e grande parte servidores públicos estatutários (44,50%). O acidente com exposição percutânea foi o tipo mais comum, sendo o sangue a principal via de contaminação (81,59%). A maioria das vítimas evoluíram com alta sem conversão sorológica (66,92%), e 18,5% abandonaram o acompanhamento da evolução. A circunstância mais frequente foi o descarte inadequado no chão (12,45%). Os profissionais de saúde foram os mais acometidos por acidentes de trabalho com material biológico (79,02%) em comparação com profissionais de outras áreas, com predomínio da categoria da enfermagem (60,35%).
UNASSIGNED: Os achados do presente estudo reiteram que a capacitação para a prevenção de acidentes de trabalho com exposição a material biológico se faz necessária a todas as funções com exposição a tal material, independentemente da área, bem como mudanças na organização do trabalho no intuito de reduzir a presença de fatores de risco para esse tipo de agravo.

UNASSIGNED: Analysis of occupational injuries is essential for developing preventive strategies. However, few studies have evaluated severe occupational injuries in migrant workers from the perspective of gender. Therefore, using a new analytical method, this study was performed to identify gender-specific characteristics associated with fatal occupational injuries among migrant workers; the interactions between these factors, were also analyzed. In addition, we compared the utility of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) with logistic regression (LR) and discuss caveats regarding its use.
UNASSIGNED: We analyzed national statistics for occupational injuries among migrant workers (n = 67,576) in South Korea between January 1, 2007, and September 30, 2018. We applied an extreme gradient boosting model and developed SHAP and LR models for comparison.
UNASSIGNED: We found clear gender differences in fatal occupational injuries among migrant workers, with males in the same occupation having a higher risk of death than females. These gender differences suggest the need for gender-specific occupational injury prevention interventions for migrant workers to reduce the mortality rate. Occupation was a significant predictor of death among female migrant workers only, with care jobs having the highest fatality risk. The occupational fatality risk of female workers would not have been identified without the performance of detailed job-specific analyses stratified by gender. The major advantages of SHAP identified in the present study were the automatic identification and analysis of interactions, ability to determine the relative contributions of each feature, and high overall performance. The major caveat when using SHAP is that causality cannot be established.
UNASSIGNED: Detailed job-specific analyses stratified by gender, and interventions considering the gender of migrant workers, are necessary to reduce occupational fatality rates. The XAI approach should be considered as a complementary analytical method for epidemiological studies, as it overcomes the limitations of traditional statistical analyses.

UNASSIGNED: Road accidents are the leading type of work-related fatalities, but the impact of work-related travel on overall traffic safety has been scarcely studied.
UNASSIGNED: The main objective of the present study was to assess drivers\' relative road accident risk between work-related and personal journeys.
UNASSIGNED: A responsible/non-responsible case-control study was performed on a sample of 7,051 road accidents in France from the VOIESUR project. Logistic regression determined odds-ratios according to work-related versus personal travel, and identified risk factors for responsibility, specific to each of the two sub-groups.
UNASSIGNED: Drivers traveling on duty or commuting home were significantly less often responsible for accidents than drivers on personal journeys: OR = 0.75 [0.63; 0.89] and 0.65 [0.53; 0.80] respectively. Responsibility was significantly more frequent in commuting to versus from work: OR = 1.38 [1.06; 1.78]. Among on-duty drivers, professional passenger-transport drivers had the lowest risk of responsibility (OR = 0.25 [0.11; 0.58]), while those on temporary or work/study contracts and professional light goods vehicle drivers had the highest risk (OR = 11.64 [2.15; 62.94] and OR = 29.83 [5.19; 171.38] respectively). When driving under the influence of alcohol, risk of responsibility was higher in commuting home than in personal journeys.
UNASSIGNED: On-duty drivers showed lower risk of responsibility for an accident than other drivers. However, on-duty drivers on temporary or work/study contracts, who are usually not subject to specific regulations, showed higher risk, and should be the subject of particular attention regarding occupational risk prevention.

The aim of this paper is to understand the causes of occupational accidents in Spain\'s mining sector in order to propose action plans and improve future accident rates.
This research analyzed a pool of data on 15,032 accidents occurring in the mining sector and reported to authorities between 2013 and 2018. Accidents are divided into three levels of severity: light, serious, and fatal. We study the influence of 12 variables on the accident severity rate in our sample.
The results show that accident severity is related to age, gender, nationality, length of service, economic activity, company size, accident location, days of injury leave, day of the week, deviation, injury, and specific Spanish region. This sector produces a high rate of serious accidents compared to all other sectors; has a male-dominated, older and experienced workforce; and employs mainly Spanish workers. Its activity is concentrated in larger companies and the work involves the use of heavy machinery and dangerous materials. We offer conclusions and future lines of research to help regulators, companies and workers to improve worker safety.

Health, safety, and environment (HSE) are critical aspects of any industry, particularly in high-risk environments, such as the oil and gas industry. Continuous accident reports indicate the requirement for the effective implementation of safety rules, regulations, and practices. This systematic literature review examines the relationship between safety communication and safety commitment in high-risk workplaces, specifically focusing on the oil and gas industry. The review comprises 1,439 articles from 2004 to 2023, retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases following the PRISMA comprehensive guidelines. This study considers safety communication, communication climate, and communication satisfaction to evaluate their influence on safety commitment under occupational health and safety. This study identifies safety commitment issues and their underlying factors, discussing measures for preventing and reducing accidents and incidents and highlighting preventive measures for future research. It also signifies the variables influencing accident and incident rates. The research underscores the importance of communication dimensions and the need for workers to possess adequate skills, knowledge, and attitudes regarding occupational safety and health procedures. Moreover, the study contributes to the industrial and academic domains by improving organizational safety commitment, promoting a safety culture, and developing effective communication strategies. Furthermore, practitioners may benefit from this comprehensive overview in developing, evaluating, and enhancing occupational safety.