Relationships of Working Conditions and Individual Characteristics to Occupational Injuries: A Case‐Control Study in Coal Miners: Apurna Kumar Ghosh, et al. Department of Mining Engineering, National Institute of Technology, India—This study assessed the relationship of age, poor perception of working condition, poor safety environment, poor management and supervision, risk‐taking behavior, emotional instability, negative job involvement, job dissatisfaction, job stress, and poor safety performance of workers to occupational injuries. This case‐control study was conducted on 202 male coal miners with at least one occupational injury during a five‐year period and 202 male controls with no occupational injury, matched on the job. A standardized questionnaire administered by individual interviewers was used. Data were analysed by the logistic regression method. For all workers combined, the factors with significant adjusted odds ratios (ORs) found were: 30–45 and >45 yr age groups (OR vs. <30 yr age group: 1.80, 95% CI 1.02–3.17 and 2.59, 1.38–4.85 respectively), poor perception of working conditions (1.61, CI 1.00–3.18), emotional instability (2.33, 1.04–5.22), job stress (1.83, 1.00–3.46) and poor safety performance of workers (3.10, 1.45–6.63). No significant interaction was found between these risk factors and the job. It was concluded that older age, poor perception of work conditions, poor work environment, and human behavioral factors played significant roles in occupational injuries. This information would help in implementing preventive programs to improve working conditions and management quality and to help the workers to develop positive psychological traits, but workers with negative traits such as emotional instability and older workers should be employed in less demanding jobs.

Relationships of Job and Some Individual Characteristics to Occupational Injuries in Employed People: A Community‐Based Study: Ashis Bhattacherjee, et al. Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India—This study assessed the associations of job and some individual factors with occupational injuries among employed people from a general population in north‐eastern France; 2,562 workers were randomly selected from the working population. A mailed auto‐questionnaire was filled in by each subject. Statistical analysis was performed with loglinear models. The annual incidence rate of at least one occupational injury was 4.45%. Significant contributing factors for occupational injuries were job category (60.8%), sex (16.2%), regular psychotropic drug use (8.5%), age groups (7.5%), and presence of a disease (7.0%). The men had higher risk than the women (adjusted odds‐ratio 1.99, 95% CI 1.43.2.78). Compared to executives, intellectual professionals and teachers, labourers had the highest risk (6.40, 3.55. 11.52). They were followed by farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen (6.18, 2.86.13.08), technicians (3.14, 1.41. 6.70), employees (2.94, 1.59.5.48) and other subjects (3.87, 1.90.7.88). The young (.29 yr) showed an increased risk. Similar odds‐ratios were observed for regular psychotropic drug use (1.54, 1.16.2.05) and the presence of a disease (1.50, 1.11.2.02). Univariate analysis showed that smoking habit, overweight and excess alcohol use were also associated with injuries. The loglinear model results showed that there were associations between some of these independent factors. It was concluded that job, sex, young age, smoking habit, excess alcohol use, overweight, psychotropic drug use, and disease influenced the occupational injuries. Preventive measures concerning work conditions, risk assessment and job knowledge should be conducted in overall active population, especially in men, young workers, smokers, alcohol users, overweight workers and in individuals with a disease or psychosomatic disorders.

Background Ocular trauma is a worldwide cause of visual morbidity, a significant proportion of which occurs in the workplace. This is largely preventable with the use of protective eyewear and strict compliance.