Workplace Health

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In recognition of November as National Diabetes Month, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is providing tools and resources to help employers identify and respond to the impact of diabetes on worker health and productivity.

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased in all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico between 1995 and 2010, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In many ways, our memories shape who we are. They make up our internal biographies — the stories we tell ourselves about what we've done with our lives. They tell us who we're connected to, who we've touched during our lives, and who has touched us. In short, our memories are crucial to the essence of who we are as human beings.

Lung cancer takes more lives than any other cancer. This year it will kill an estimated 160,340 Americans – more than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. Yet while lung cancer remains largely a death sentence — just 15.9 percent of those diagnosed are alive five years later — the federal government funds far less research on the disease than on other common cancers.

For more than three decades, women working in the plastic automotive parts factories in Windsor, Ontario have complained of dreadful conditions in many of this city’s plants: Pungent fumes and dust that caused nosebleeds, headaches, nausea and dizziness.

Americans are suffering from too much of a good thing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has designated this as “Get Smart about Antibiotics Week.”

While repairing water mains in 2011, workers in Houston were not informed that the pipes they were dealing with were composed of 35 percent asbestos. They were not provided with personal protective equipment needed for handling asbestos.

Work and lifestyle factors affecting the risk of disability due to low back disorders tend to be shared among family members, reports a study in the November Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

Leisure-time physical activity is associated with longer life expectancy, even at relatively low levels of activity and regardless of body weight, according to a study by a team of researchers led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.