Ethics in occupational health research

Challenges to and facilitators of occupational epidemiology research in the UK

This study investigated the challenges and facilitators of occupational epidemiology (OE) research in the UK, and evaluated the impact of these challenges. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with leading UK-based OE researchers, and a survey of UK-based OE researchers were conducted. Seven leading researchers were interviewed, and there were 54 survey respondents. Key reported challenges for OE were diminishing resources during recent decades, influenced by social, economic and political drivers, and changing fashions in research policy. Consequently, the community is getting smaller and less influential. These challenges may have negatively affected OE research, causing it to fail to keep pace with recent methodological development and impacting its output of high-quality research. Better communication with, and support from other researchers and relevant policy and funding stakeholders was identified as the main facilitators to OE research. Many diseases were initially discovered in workplaces, as these make exceptionally good study populations to accurately assess exposures. Due to the decline of manufacturing industry, there is a perception that occupational diseases are now a thing of the past. Nevertheless, new occupational exposures remain under-evaluated and the UK has become reliant on overseas epidemiology. This has been exacerbated by the decline in the academic occupational medicine base. Maintaining UK-based OE research is hence necessary for the future development of occupational health services and policies for the UK workforce.

[Ethical aspects of workplace health management]

Ethical issues have always been part of the debate around work and its relation to people. In the context of workplace health management, however, ethical considerations have received little attention to date. This paper discusses some examples of the ethical questions arising in the pursuit of workplace health management, such as issues around the organization of work procedures, double loyalties, the significance of occupational screening examinations or how people in precarious working conditions are being dealt with. Subsequently, two ethical codes commonly used in the field of work and health in German-speaking countries are introduced. They originate from the field of occupational medicine, but have meanwhile been opened to other professions in the field of work and health. Finally, some perspectives for further discussion are put forward.