Noise in workplace ‘worse than discos’

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 9

Noise in workplace ‘worse than discos’

From the Royal N.Z. College of General Practitioners

(From the Royal N.Z. College of General Practitioners) According to a British Medical Research Council report, the damage that loud music can cause has been greatly exaggerated. Noise at work is a much greater threat to hearing than the music of discos and rock concerts. Also there is not much evidence that cassette players can do much harm. Rock musicians and disc jockeys do run risks, and probably these risks are much the same as in any other noisy industry. The noise from guns, arcade games, fireworks, toys, cars, motorcycles, aeroplanes, motorboats, and even children (deafening though they may seem) are even less of a problem than amplified music. Leather workers The “British Medical Journal” suggests that women employed in certain industries may be at risk for miscarriage. Authors from Leicestershire examined the medical records of women who had had perinatal deaths (stillbirth or death within a week of birth), and interviewed more than 1000 of them. When they looked at maternal occupation, they found that leather workers were at greater risk of having a perinatal death, mostly from congenital abnormalities, and long-dead stillbirths. This was true of every town in the county that had leather workers. The exact cause is yet unknown, and clearly further testing of the chemicals and materials used in the industry needs to be undertaken. Meanwhile, pregnant women working with leather should be warned. Disaster studies Studies of the Mount St. Helens survivors in the United States, and of survivors of floods in Bristol in the United Kingdom have shown marked increases in death rates

even 12 months after the event The victims visited their general practitioners more often, and were referred to hospital and specialists more often than other people. On one day in 1983, three separate areas of South Australia were struck by severe bushfires, with the loss of 28 lives and loss or damage of 385 homes. A year after the disaster, the victims of the Ash Wednesday bush fires were surveyed to assess their psychosocial problems. The results are reported in the ■Medical Journal of Australia,” and indicate a significant increase in stressrelated conditions, including high blood pressure, gut problems, diabetes and mental illness. Health problems increased during the 12 months after the bush fires and decreased towards the end of that time, but a lot of illness remained. Certain disaster experiences were more related to consequent problems than others. Toothpicks In the United States (where such statistics seem remarkably often reported) there are on average 3.6 toothpick injuries per 100,000 persons a year. The injuries happen most often to children aged five to 14, and only 2 per cent happened to the elderly. About half of the injuries that happened to children under five years were serious. Puncture wounds of the eye and ear were most common in this group, although injury from swallowing toothpicks was more common in the 24 to 44 age range. Death from toothpick injury occurred primarily in adults. The message is to keep toothpicks out of the reach of small children, and if you are an adult who wears dentures, or if you have reduced sensation in your mouth, take great care when using toothpicks not to swallow them. Travel problems Twenty to 80 per cent of travellers from developed countries get diarrhoea when they travel in high-risk countries such as Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia. The condition lasts from three to five days. You can prevent some cases by careful attention to diet and hygiene, but not all. Early treatment with medication brought from home may shorten the duration of travellers’ diarrhoea to less than 30 hours in most people, according to a

report from a panel of experts convened by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. New Zealand travellers to such countries should carry with them two kinds of medications: an antimicrobial drug and an anti-spasmodic, to slow the gut motility. They should be obtained from the family doctor before leaving New Zealand, so that potentially dangerous over-the-counter drugs bought in under-devel-oped countries can be avoided. Mild diarrhoea should be treated promptly with anti-motility drugs such as diphenoxylate (Diastop, Lomotil), or loperamide (Imodium). Worse diarrhoea (three or more stools in eight hours) with nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal cramps, or blood in the motions, should be treated with anti-microbial drugs. The panel suggests cotrimoxazole (Bactrim, Septrin), or trimethoprim (Triprim). Doxycycline (Vibratabs) is also effective. Anti-microbials may prevent more than half of the cases of travellers’ diarrhoea, but the potential risk of side effects and super-infections makes the preventative use of the drugs unwise. Likewise, the use of other preventative drugs is deemed inadvisable, because of side and toxic effects. Those who have travellers’ diarrhoea should avoid caffeine, alcohol, and dairy products. Fruit juices, soft drinks and salt biscuits should be taken freely to keep up fluids and electrolytes. Diet sweets The sorbitol in diet sweets and candies may cause diarrhoea in children, and in adults. Eight young playmates, aged five to 13, in an American town, developed what appeared to be an outbreak of infective diarrhoea. They had all eaten three to 16 pieces of dietetic candy. The sickness developed after half an hour. The children characteristically experienced abdominal cramps, urgency and loose bowel motions. They all recovered. Sorbitol acts as a laxative. Each piece of this candy contained three grams of it.

Volunteer adults took 10 grams and most experienced bloating and wind; 20 grams caused cramps and diarrhoea. Tonic overdose Even the so-called harmless tonic can cause illness in children if taken in overdose, according to a paragraph in the “American Family Physician.” The Regional Poison Control Centre in Chicago reports the marketing of iron-vitamin pills in the shape of cartoon characters, with great attractiveness for children. In fact, some children have been seduced into taking as many as 20 or 30 tablets at a time, with resulting iron toxicity. Lethargy, restlessness and abdominal pain lead on to bloody diarrhoea, apparent recovery, then shock, fever, and later, in severe cases, jaundice.

The child who takes an overdose of vitamin-min-eral pills should be made to vomit promptly and effectively, and should be taken to the doctor.

Family Doctor