A sample of 7008 women and men aged 20 to 79 years in a north-east region of Germany, 4900 expected participants. The sample was drawn in two steps: First, 32 communities in the region were selected. Second, within the communities a simple random sample was drawn from residence registries, stratified by gender and age. The data collection and instruments include four parts: oral health examination, medical examination, health-related interview, and a health- and risk-factor-related questionnaire. The oral health examination includes the teeth, periodontium, oral mucosa, craniomandibular system, and prosthodontics. The medical examination includes blood pressure measurements, electrocardiography, echocardiography, carotid, thyroid and liver ultrasounds, neurological screening, blood and urine sampling. The computer-aided health-related interview includes cardiovascular symptoms, utilisation of medical services, health-related behaviours, and socioeconomic variables. The self-administered questionnaire comprises housing conditions, social network, work conditions, subjective well-being and individual consequences from the German reunification.

Objectives To compare exposure to secondhand smoke and respiratory health in bar staff in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland before and after the introduction of legislation for smoke-free workplaces in the Republic. Design Comparisons before and after the legislation in intervention and control regions. Setting Public houses in three areas in the Republic (intervention) and one area in Northern Ireland (control). Participants 329 bar staff enrolled in baseline survey; 249 (76%) followed up one year later. Of these, 158 were non-smokers both at baseline and follow-up. Main outcome measures Salivary cotinine concentration, self reported exposure to secondhand smoke, and respiratory and sensory irritation symptoms. Results In bar staff in the Republic who did not themselves smoke, salivary cotinine concentrations dropped by 80% after the smoke-free law (from median 29.0 nmol/l (95% confidence interval 18.2 to 43.2 nmol/l)) to 5

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Data from a sample of urban transit operators showed an association between the number of domains of discrimination and some alcohol-related outcomes, but not others.

The authors used observational job analysis as a conceptually based technique to measure stress factors unbiased by worker appraisal with 81 transit driving tasks on 27 transit lines. Stressor dimensions included work barriers that interfere with task performance due to poor technical-organizational design, time pressure, time binding (autonomy over time management), and monotonous conditions. Line-specific average stressor values were assigned to 308 transit operators who mainly worked the particular line. Logistic regression analyses showed associations for high work barriers and sickness absences (odds ratio [OR] = 3.8, p = .05). There were elevated risks for work accidents for high time pressure operators (OR = 4.0, p = .04) and for the medium time-binding group (OR = 3.3, p = .04) and significant (alpha = .20) unadjusted interaction terms for barriers and time pressure in predicting accidents and absences, and barriers and time binding in predicting absences. Findings suggest guaranteed rest breaks and flexible timing for accident prevention and removal of work barriers for reducing absenteeism.