The Annals in Its Fifties

Details

• Personal Author:
  Seixas, Noah S.
• Description:
  Having just celebrated my 60th birthday, I am intrigued by the opportunity to reflect on the importance of this arbitrary milestone as I think back upon the past decade. So it is that we greet Volume 60 of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene and have the opportunity to look back at the journal's past decade. It has been almost 10 years since my predecessor, Trevor Ogden wrote his 'tour de force' review of the first 50 volumes of the Annals, and in fact of the history of occupational hygiene sciences (Ogden, 2006), and which I highly recommend to those interested in understanding the changes in our field, and in scientific publishing over the past several decades. Over the decade, in Volumes 50-59, we've published almost 900 articles, including original research, reviews, commentaries, and editorials on the subject of occupational hygiene. Our journal impact factor (JIF) has steadily risen from just over one in 2005 to better than 2 over the past several years. But of more interest is the substance of the articles published in the Annals, and a consideration of the continuing relevance of these papers to the changing nature of the science and practice of occupational health prevention professions. An analysis of words contained within the abstracts of all papers published over the decade yielded the word cloud shown in Fig. 1. One word-exposure-dominates this picture and indeed expresses much of what the Annals is about: understanding the process with which agents potentially hazardous to health reach individuals, the means of measuring these agents, and the effectiveness of measures to reduce or eliminate the risks associated. Among the next tier of words appearing are worker, work, job, working, and workplace, also clearly tying our interests to the particular class of exposures that arise during the course of employment. Among the next most prevalent set of words are study, method, data, model, sample, measured, and estimate, demonstrating our focus on quantitative sciences. Finally, many words specific to subjects of interest to the field are represented. Among these are particle, dust, asbestos, aerosol, wood, heat, carbon, noise, fume, fiber, endotoxin, etc. The cloud thus clearly represents the nature of the work published in the annals and of central interest to occupational hygiene sciences over the past decade-a focus on exposures, occurring within the context of work, and of a variety of agents, especially aerosols, giving rise to risk in working populations. ... Emerging technologies for assessing exposures are expanding the tool kit for occupational hygienists. For instance, biomedical technologies such as metabolomics, proteomics and a wide range of exposure biomarkers are being developed, but need application in the occupational exposure realm. The use of distributed sensors, including cell phone-based apps both within occupational groups and across populations, is expanding the opportunities to collect large datasets on location, task, exposure, and health effects. Occupational hygienists need to stay on top of these trends and new technologies and the Annals of Occupational Hygiene needs to insure that we're effectively bringing these approaches to bear on the assessment and control of workplace threats to health. I suspect that when we do another 10-year word cloud in 2025, exposure will continue to appear prominently, but the words describing those exposures and the methods we use to understand them will have changed to reflect the evolving nature of work and risk. In turning 60, I have the opportunity to look back at my life, career, and various accomplishments with some pride and satisfaction. But I'm also confronted by a changing world, with new threats to health and existence (climate change, gun violence, governmental gridlock), new norms of culture and behavior (legalized marijuana in Washington State, gay marriage in US law), and technologies that either elude me (twitter, etc.) or offend me (violent video games). Simultaneously, I'm excited by new ways of understanding the role of work in the context of health and well-being and the new ways in which I, and occupational hygiene must adapt to remain relevant and effective. As we greet a new decade of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene, we can look back on our contributions with satisfaction, just as I am doing, while also working to meet the new challenges and assure the continued success of our journal. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Industrial Hygiene Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Worker Health Worker Safety
• ISSN:
  0003-4878
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-4
• Volume:
  60
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063769
• Citation:
  Ann Occup Hyg 2016 Jan; 60(1):1-4
• Contact Point Address:
  Noah S. Seixas, DEOHS, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
• Email:
  nseixas@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:50d6f7443e91b2a2c6f1670b9a0dd555f2c8deb196cd7df8ec1f99a2a9b3c272a43c65a69d8051379959b074a0b1f92be0da8b31cf4909915e8c7b6567cfb73b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222325/cdc_222325_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.13 MB ]