Among men, heavy lifting was associated with increased risk for IHD (hazard ratio (HR): 1.52, 95% Confidence interval (95% CI): 1.15, 2.02), while a decreased risk was associated with occupational (HR: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.68) and leisure time (HR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.95) physical activity.
Adjustment for education and occupational class (HRs given in Table 1) did not materially modify the results.
The median occupational PM2.5 8-hr time-weighted average was 0.44 mg/m3 (25th-75th percentile, 0.29-0.76).
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has found DWAs not comparable to the lapel sampling method used by OSHA to determine compliance with its permissible exposure limit (PEL) or other 8-hr occupational exposure limits (OELs) (Donaldson and Stringer 1976).
A previous study (Mannino et al. 1995) in adults known to be occupationally exposed to gasoline fumes and automotive exhaust found substantially higher correlations in nonsmokers between personal air measurements (5 8 hr integrated occupational samples) and blood concentrations for several VOCs (ethylbenzene, R = 0.82; toluene, R = 0.88; m-/ p-xylenes, R = 0.94; o-xylene, R = 0.90).
Symptoms of anxiety caseness increased the risk of disability pension in all the occupational groups, and the HRs were quite similar, with a range from 1.51 to 1.75.
In fact, previous investigations of boilermakers found that 4-hr mean occupational exposures to PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) are associated with changes in short-duration HRV, 5 min SDNN (Magari et al. 2001).
For instance, in Dutch adults, significantly increased hazard ratios (HRs) for occupational, home and sports injuries (registered as one group) in lower educational strata were reduced but remained statistically significant after adjustment for excessive alcohol consumption and other factors.
This association was slightly strengthened and remained significant after further adjustment for occupational status and educational level (HR 1.43, 95% 1.19-1.71) (Model 2), and additionally for physical work environment (HR 1.42, 95% 1.18-1.70) (Model 3).
The association between occupational noise exposure and 24-hr vascular parameters is summarized in Table 3.
This suggests that higher grade professionals had a higher HR than the other occupational groups in the stratified analyses because of their underlying low risk of disability pension.
