Cumulative Risks from Stressor Exposures and Personal Risk Factors in the Workplace: Examples from a Scoping Review

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dotson, G. Scott ; Fox MA ; Hudson N ; Niemeier, R. Todd ; Siegel MR
• Description:
  Protecting worker and public health involves an understanding of multiple determinants, including exposures to biological, chemical, or physical agents or stressors in combination with other determinants including type of employment, health status, and individual behaviors. This has been illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic by increased exposure and health risks for essential workers and those with pre-existing conditions, and mask-wearing behavior. Health risk assessment practices for environmental and occupational health typically do not incorporate multiple stressors in combination with personal risk factors. While conceptual developments in cumulative risk assessment to inform a more holistic approach to these real-life conditions have progressed, gaps remain, and practical methods and applications are rare. This scoping review characterizes existing evidence of combined stressor exposures and personal factors and risk to foster methods for occupational cumulative risk assessment. The review found examples from many workplaces, such as manufacturing, offices, and health care; exposures to chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors combined with modifiable and unmodifiable determinants of health; and outcomes including respiratory function and disease, cancers, cardio-metabolic diseases, and hearing loss, as well as increased fertility, menstrual dysfunction and worsened mental health. To protect workers, workplace exposures and modifiable and unmodifiable characteristics should be considered in risk assessment and management. Data on combination exposures can improve assessments and risk estimates and inform protective exposure limits and management strategies. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Public Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Cumulative Risk Assessment Combined Exposure Exposure Assessment Health Effects Health Protection Mixed Exposures Multiple Determinants Of Health Occupational Health Public Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Systematic Reviews Workplace

  More +
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Interagency Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director ; DSI - Division of Science Integration ; DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062813
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 Jun; 18(11):5850
• Contact Point Address:
  Mary A. Fox, Department of Health Policy and Management, Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
• Email:
  mfox9@jhu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e33b396043736c1e9259f816f5b04b18198843de932911b04f629080f1212ca89de0a62194753aca9c467807da432624123b0bee9b35efc9ac62b36c9b5ca813
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225995/cdc_225995_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 463.47 KB ]