To examine the effects of prolonged visual display terminal (VDT) working hours and exercise frequency on VDT-related symptoms, we recruited 944 Chinese internet staff for the study. A self-administered questionnaire survey was used to obtain the hours of daily VDT work, exercise frequency, and the physical and mental health of the participants. The daily VDT working time of participants was 8.7 hours. Musculoskeletal pain and eye complaints were prevalent, and the participants had poor mental health status. When daily VDT operation time was more than 11 hours, VDT-related symptoms, including backache (odds ratios (OR) = 3.59), wrist pain (OR = 1.88), hip pain (OR = 2.42), dry eyes (OR = 2.22), and ocular soreness (OR = 2.16) were more likely to occur, and an increased risk of serious occupational stress (OR = 6.75) and job burnout (OR = 2.66) was found in internet workers. Compared with those who never exercised, appropriate exercise frequency (three times per week) was helpful to relieve pain in the shoulders (OR = 0.28), neck (OR = 0.45), back (OR = 0.30), lower back (OR = 0.25), and wrists (OR = 0.38), as well as to prevent vision loss (OR = 0.33) and job burnout (OR = 0.42). Therefore, avoiding excessive VDT exposure and performing moderate exercise could protect the physical and mental health of internet staff from the adverse effects of VDT.

ObjectiveDespite the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation over the past 30 years, agriculture is one of the largest economic sectors in China and the unregulated use of pesticides result in extensive pesticide poisoning. The objective of this study was to analyse pesticide poisoning cases registration received by Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China.DesignRegister-based study.SettingCases registered regarding pesticide poisoning. Data were obtained from the Occupational Disease Surveillance and Reporting Systems in Zhejiang province from 2006 to 2010, which contains anonymous records representing general population of Zhejiang province, China.ParticipantsAll cases registered as pesticide poisoning were identified.Primary outcomeMonthly and age-group pesticide poisoning death rates were calculated.ResultsA total of 20 097 pesticide poisoning cases with 1413 deaths were recorded during the study period. There were 10 513 male pesticide poisoning cases with 782 deaths, and 9584 females with 631 deaths. Pesticide poisoning occurred mostly in non-occupational exposure (79.86%), in which the majority (85.77%) of the cases was of intentional pesticide poisoning. The occupational exposure was most common in men during the farming season. The death rate increased stepwise with age, and the pesticide suicide rate was higher in the older age group.ConclusionsPesticide poisoning remains a major health problem in China, and further recommendations to reduce the pesticide poisoning are required.

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BackgroundPesticide poisoning in children has been a serious public health issue around the world, especially in the developing countries where agriculture is still one of the largest economic sectors. The purpose of this study was to analyze epidemiological characteristics of acute pesticide poisoning in children from Zhejiang province, China.MethodsThe pesticide poisoning cases for children were retrieved from Occupational Disease Surveillance and Reporting System, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China. The incident cases, deaths, and fatality rate of child pesticide poisoning from 2006 through 2015 were calculated.ResultsDuring the study period, totally 2952 children were poisoned by pesticides, with 66 deaths, resulting in a fatality rate of 2.24%. Among them, there were 1607 male cases with 28 deaths, and 1345 female cases with 38 deaths. Most of the cases occurred in preschool children (1349) and adolescent age group (1269). Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides were the cause of most poisonings (1130), leading to 34 deaths. The highest fatality rate (3.13%) was due to poisoning by herbicides and fungicides, causing 14 deaths out of 448 cases. Poisoning occurred mostly in rural areas (78%). And most pesticide poisoning occurred in the summer (896) and fall (811), while fewest poisoning cases in the winter (483) but with the highest fatality rate (3.52%).ConclusionsThis study shows that pesticide poisoning of children is a major health problem in Zhejiang, suggesting preventive strategies should be conducted to control childhood pesticide poisoning.

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