OEM. Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Ovarian function might be affected by non-daytime shifts and heavy lifting at work, a study published by Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) reveals. While occupational hazards have been shown to reduce fecundity, this is the first time biomarkers of fecundity were directly measured in women who have physically demanding jobs or work evening/night/rotating shifts. They were undergoing IVF treatment at a fertility centre, in an analysis conducted over a decade. In this podcast, Deputy Editor of OEM, Lesley Rushton, talks to Audrey Gaskins, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA, about the effects of the occupational exposures on the production of fewer eggs and decreased fertility. Dr Gaskins is one of the senior authors of the study ‘Occupational factors and markers of ovarian reserve and response among women at a fertility centre’. More details can be found on the OEM website: https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103953.

In this first Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) podcast, we explore a study that “helped put European occupational disease statistics back on the map”. Malcolm Sim, OEM Editor-in-Chief, interviews Jill Stocks, the corresponding author of the EPICOH 2015 Best Paper winner, “Trends in incidence of occupational asthma, contact dermatitis, noise-induced hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in European countries from 2000 to 2012”. According to Dr Stocks, a Research Fellow of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Manchester, UK, the main success of this research was “sharing data in a very open manner” between ten countries. The study also reinforces the idea that routinely collected data can be used, despite the fact that harmonised and consistent data must remain the ultimate goal. The paper was published in the OEM April 2015 issue and is available online for free here: oem.bmj.com/content/72/4/294.long.