Putus Tuula, Suominen Eetu, Atosuo Janne, Vilén Liisa
Department of Clinical Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Occupational Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Clinical Research Unit TROSSI, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Department of Clinical Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Occupational Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Clinical Research Unit TROSSI, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Biotechnology, The Laboratory of Immunochemistry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
J Voice. 2025 Jul;39(4):1134.e13-1134.e19. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.01.009. Epub 2023 Jan 28.
Police officers have many work-related risks. In Finland, hoarseness and other respiratory symptoms and related risk factors have not been investigated on a national level. In many of the work tasks carried out by the police, an excellent physical and mental condition is essential.
Our aim was to determine the prevalence of hoarseness and related respiratory symptoms and to investigate eventual occupational risk factors associated with hoarseness. We also compared different work tasks and remediation procedures in three police stations with indoor air problems.
In all, 767 persons completed a nation-wide e-mail survey. The study population is approximately 11% of the total police force in Finland. Half of the study population were men. In three cities, we evaluated the outcome of different type of remediation methods after the moisture damaged buildings were renovated. The prevalence of hoarseness was compared in different work tasks and the risk associated with indoor air, work-related stress, and background factors were estimated. Information on the remediation was obtained from the employer.
Altogether, 30.5% of the respondents had hoarseness and 15.5% had work-related stress. Almost 9% were smokers and 43% had pets at home. Of all the respondents, 13% had asthma. Hoarseness was not related to work-related stress. The strongest risk factors for hoarseness were asthma and exposure to mold odor, dusts and cold temperatures after adjusting for age, gender, smoking and pet-owning. When three renovation techniques were compared, the best results were found in the building with a thorough remediation and the removal of mold from the building.
We conclude that the exposure to irritant gases, fumes, and bioaerosols should be minimized whenever possible in order to avoid incident asthma and voice problems.
警察面临诸多与工作相关的风险。在芬兰，尚未在全国范围内对声音嘶哑及其他呼吸道症状及其相关风险因素进行调查。警察执行的许多工作任务都要求具备良好的身心状况。
我们的目的是确定声音嘶哑及相关呼吸道症状的患病率，并调查与声音嘶哑相关的潜在职业风险因素。我们还比较了三个存在室内空气问题的警察局的不同工作任务及补救措施。
共有767人完成了一项全国性电子邮件调查。研究人群约占芬兰警察总数的11%。研究人群中一半为男性。在三个城市，我们评估了受潮损坏建筑物翻新后不同类型补救方法的效果。比较了不同工作任务中声音嘶哑的患病率，并估计了与室内空气、工作相关压力和背景因素相关的风险。有关补救措施的信息从雇主处获取。
总计，30.5%的受访者有声音嘶哑症状，15.5%的受访者有工作相关压力。近9%的人吸烟，43%的人家里养宠物。所有受访者中，13%患有哮喘。声音嘶哑与工作相关压力无关。在对年龄、性别、吸烟和养宠物情况进行调整后，声音嘶哑的最强风险因素是哮喘以及接触霉菌气味、灰尘和低温。比较三种翻新技术时，在进行了彻底补救并清除建筑物内霉菌的建筑中取得了最佳效果。
我们得出结论，应尽可能减少接触刺激性气体、烟雾和生物气溶胶，以避免发生哮喘和嗓音问题。
