Barbey Cassandra, Bonvallot Nathalie, Clerc Frédéric
Department of Pollutant Metrology, French Research and Safety Institute for the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (INRS), 54547 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
Univ Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail) - UMR_S 1085, F-35000 Rennes, France.
Saf Health Work. 2024 Dec;15(4):382-395. doi: 10.1016/j.shaw.2024.10.004. Epub 2024 Oct 28.
Individuals are constantly exposed to hazardous factors that can affect their health, the hazards encountered in the workplace can lead to the development of occupational diseases. Risk mitigation measures help to reduce the risks, but they are often designed without consideration of interactions between occupational exposures. Therefore, there is a need for research and it resulted in international research plans and programmes. The aim of this scoping review is to provide an overview of the scientific results related to the link between multiple occupational exposures and human health outcomes. Sixty-three articles were reviewed. Research articles were included only if they mentioned: several combined exposures, the direct characterisation of each exposure, and exposure/health outcome associations. Seven activity sectors were identified: 'extraction and energy production and distribution', 'health care', 'banks, public administration and defence', 'chemical production', 'manufacturing industry', 'agriculture and food industry' and 'transport and logistics'. Six multiple exposures scenarios were identified: chemical ( = 35), chemical/physical-biomechanical ( = 22), chemical/psychosocial-organisational ( = 6), physical-biomechanical ( = 9), physical-biomechanical/psychosocial-organisational ( = 13), and psychosocial-organisational ( = 12). The health problems identified concern nervous, mental, respiratory, musculoskeletal, auditory and other systems. Eighty-eight of 97 (91%) multiple exposure/health problem associations were reported to be statistically significant. Twenty studies (32%) provided specific risk prevention advice for multiple exposures. Prevention aimed at reducing risks to workers' health is still underdeveloped, further research is needed to improve prevention methods. No study was related to biological risk, and some other multiple exposures known to have health effects were not identified as well. This highlights the need for more multiple exposures research.
Saf Health Work. 2024-12
Ann Glob Health. 2023
Curr Environ Health Rep. 2021-12
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022-2-1
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021-5-29
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023-2-18
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2025-3
Ann Work Expo Health. 2024-7-8
Scand J Work Environ Health. 2024-5-1
Scand J Work Environ Health. 2023-10-1
Eur J Public Health. 2023-10-10
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2023-9