Environmental and occupational health
The environmental and occupational health research group includes:
- Pulmonologists;
- Immunoallergologists;
- Biologists;
- Toxicologists;
- Engineers;
- Occupational physicians;
- Ergonomists;
- Sociologists;
- Statisticians.
The main goal of these specialists is the identification and quantification of occupational and environmental hazards and its impact on the health / disease of citizens and workers.
The major focus includes:
- Respiratory health and quality of life impact of indoor air quality (IAQ) in persons attending elderly care centres (ECC);
- Impact in respiratory health of air quality in children attending day care centers;
- Impact of air pollution on school-age children with asthma;
- Multidisciplinary approach for air quality, exposure and population health impacts assessment, from the emission of industrial pollutants in industrialized urban areas;
- Musculoskeletal disorders, such as occupational acute and chronic low back pain and other work-related injuries;
- Chemical hazards like antineoplastic drugs or anticancer agents exposure and anesthetic agents like sevoflurane in wards and operating rooms;
- Psychosocial risk factors, like stressors, and its impact in health of workers’ health;
- Microbiological hazards namely healthcare associated infections, or infections acquired in health-care settings;
- Ionizing radiation exposure and its possible health effects, namely in eyes.
This research group is also addressing social and cognitive influences on risk perception and how to promote adequate risk communication.
In terms of methodology, research in Environmental and Occupational Health has been carried out through observational, cross-sectional and prospective studies in specific groups (children attending kindergartens or schools, users of residential structures for elderly people, factory workers). In these studies, information on health is collected (through questionnaires and the collection of biomarkers of disease) and air quality measurements are carried out in the different microenvironments frequented by the participants. Gathered information is analyzed using different types of methods, namely through generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and generalized estimating equations (GEE).