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Soil organic carbon (SOC) is in the focus of research due to its central role in regulating climate and maintaining fertility and resilience of soils. Methodologically, shifting from whole soil C measurements to specific SOC fractions increases possibility to detect small changes in the vast SOC storage, and enhances estimation of SOC stability. However, SOC fractionation schemes are numerous and variable. In this study, deionized water and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) were compared in soil dispersion by separating soils into coarse (0.25–2 mm), medium (0.063–0.25 mm) and fine (

Building up the organic matter content of coarse-textured soils with organic amendments seeks to ameliorate the productivity of these soils, which is limited by plant available water and nutrient supply. Wood fibre-based sludges from the pulp and paper industry have potential for soil conditioning. In this study, the effects of three different pulp and paper mill sludges at application rates of 10 and 20 vol-% on water retention, respiration, and nitrogen (N) dynamics were examined in a series of laboratory studies using coarse field soils. Water retention curves comprising 13 matric potentials revealed that the amendments increased total soil porosity and volumetric water content at matric potentials corresponding to macro- and mesopores size range with pore diameters of >30 μm and 30–0.2 μm, respectively. Volumetric water content at field capacity increased by c. 10–30%, depending on the type (fresh, lime-stabilised and fibre sludge) and application rate of the amendment, with no marked change in the water content at the permanent wilting point. This was reflected as a mean increase of 1.9–3.3 mm in the plant available water content relative to the non-amended soils (17 mm), which corresponds to 19–33 m3 per hectare. At most, an increase of 5.5 mm (55 m3 ha−1) in plant available water was achieved by the fibre sludge amendment at an application rate of 20 vol-%. During a 60-day laboratory incubation, c. 30–40% of the carbon (C) added to soil in the sludge materials was respired as carbon dioxide. Additional N accelerated decomposition without increasing total respired C. Decomposition of the amendments in the soil led to a net N immobilisation of roughly 5–10 mg min-N g−1 added C, which occurred mainly during the first two weeks after soil incorporation. Overall, pulp and paper mill sludge amendments may serve to alleviate water shortages during drought in coarse-textured soils, but may generate a transient plant-microbe competition in N uptake.

Biochars have potential to provide agricultural and environmental benefits such as increasing soil carbon sequestration, crop yield, and soil fertility while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nitrogen leaching. However, whether these effects will sustain for the long-term is still unknown. Moreover, these effects were observed mostly in highly weathered (sub-) tropical soils with low pH and soil organic carbon (SOC). The soils in northern colder boreal regions have typically higher SOC and undergo continuous freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, effects of biochars in these regions may be different from those observed in other climates. However, only a few biochar studies have been conducted in boreal regions. We aimed to assess the long-term effects of biochars on GHG emissions, yield-normalized non-CO2 GHG emissions (GHGI), and N dynamics in boreal soils. For this, we collected data from four existing Finnish biochar field experiments during 2018 growing season. The experiments were Jokioinen (Stagnosol), Qvidja (Cambisol), Viikki-1 (Stagnosol), and Viikki-2 (Umbrisol), where biochars were applied, 2, 2, 8, and 7 years before, respectively. The GHG emissions, crop yield, soil mineral N, and microbial biomass were measured from all fields, whereas, additional measurements of plant N contents and N leaching were conducted in Qvidja. Biochars increased CO2 efflux in Qvidja and Viikki-2, whereas, there were no statistically significant effects of biochars on the fluxes of N2O or CH4, but in Qvidja, biochars tended to reduce N2O fluxes at the peak emission points. The tendency of biochars to reduce N2O emissions seemed higher in soils with higher silt content and lower initial soil carbon. We demonstrated the long-term effects of biochar on increased crop yield by 65% and reduced GHGI by 43% in Viikki-2. In Qvidja, the significant increment of plant biomass, plant N uptake, nitrogen use efficiency, and crop yield, and reduction of NO3−–N leaching by the spruce biochar is attributed to its ability to retain NO3−–N, which could be linked to its significantly higher specific surface area. The ability of the spruce biochar to retain soil NO3−–N and hence to reduce N losses, has implications for sustainable management of N fertilization.

The pyroligneous acids (PAs) of woody biomass produced by torrefaction have pesticidal properties. Thus, PAs are potential alternatives to synthetic plant protection chemicals. Although woody biomass is a renewable feedstock, its use must be efficient. The efficiency of biomass utilization can be improved by applying a cascading use principle. This study is novel because we evaluate for the first time the pesticidal potential of PAs derived from the bark of hybrid aspen (Populus tremula L. × Populus tremuloides Michx.) and examine simultaneously how the production of the PAs can be interlinked with the cascade processing of hybrid aspen biomass. Hybrid aspen bark contains valuable extractives that can be separated before the hemicellulose is thermochemically converted into plant protection chemicals. We developed a cascade processing scheme, where these extractives were first extracted from the bark with hot water (HWE) or with hot water and alkaline alcohol (HWE+AAE) prior to their conversion into PAs by torrefaction. The herbicidal performance of PAs was tested using Brassica rapa as the test species, and the fungicidal performance was proven using Fusarium culmorum. The pesticidal activities were compared to those of the PAs of debarked wood and of commercial pesticides. According to the results, extractives can be separated from the bark without overtly diminishing the weed and fungal growth inhibitor performance of the produced PAs. The HWE of the bark before its conversion into PAs appeared to have an enhancing effect on the herbicidal activity. In contrast, HWE+AAE lowered the growth inhibition performance of PAs against both the weeds and fungi. This study shows that hybrid aspen is a viable feedstock for the production of herbicidal and fungicidal active chemicals, and it is possible to utilize biomass according to the cascading use principle.

We applied gypsum (CaSO4×2 H2O) amendments to 100 m2 plots within two clay-textured fields, one under shallow cultivation to 10 cm depth and the other ploughed to 20 cm depth. Unamended plots and plots subjected to a CaCO3 (finely ground limestone) application served as controls. Separate soil monoliths (30 cm in diameter, 40 cm in depth) were collected for laboratory rainfall simulations from all plots 7, 19 and 31 months after the initial application of the amendments. Water passed through the monoliths during these simulations was analysed for turbidity, dissolved and particulate phosphorus (DRP and PP), nitrogen species, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), as well as dissolved Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ and S, pH, and electrical conductivity (EC). Over the three-year monitoring period, gypsum amended soils exhibited substantial decreases in turbidity (45%), PP (70%), DRP (50%) and DOC (35%) relative to control samples. The effects gradually decreased with time, and after 31 months gypsum effects on P species were detectible, but no longer statistically significant. We consider gypsum amendments as a potential tool for slowing P loss from agricultural areas with high P loss potential.

Abstract Aim To examine how work community factors are related to occupational well‐being and work ability, and how occupational well‐being is related to work ability. Design A cross‐sectional study was conducted among home care workers in one municipality in Finland. Methods A self‐administered survey on work and well‐being was filled out by 167 employees working two shifts in 2019. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the association between work community factors, occupational well‐being and work ability. Results The only work community factor directly affecting Occupational well‐being was Information and work organization; the effect of the other two factors, Social support and Influence on work shifts, was indirect. All work community factors indirectly affected Work ability. Home care should emphasize information provision and work organization with optimal time use. This requires social support, a well‐functioning work atmosphere and providing employees with opportunities for influence and participation.

OBJECTIVES: There is evidence that occupational healthcare (OHC) may improve employees’ work ability. This research was designed to study whether common quality improvement (QI) activities in the OHC quality network (OQN) – a voluntary collaborative forum – can reduce the need for disability pensions. METHODS: The study population comprised employees under the care of 19 OHC units in Finland affiliated with the OQN. The association of 12 QI activities with new disability pensions during the years 2011–2017 was analyzed by Bayesian mixed effects modelling. RESULTS: Patients of OHC units affiliated with the OQN have fewer full permanent disability pensions [odds ratio (OR) 0.77, 95% credible interval (CI) 0.60–0.98] and full provisional disability pensions (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.53–0.87) than patients of unaffiliated units. Of the studied QI activities, the measurements of intervening in excessive use of alcohol had the strongest association with the incidence of all disability pensions (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.41–0.68). Participation in the focus of work measurements and quality facilitator training was also associated with the reduced incidence of disability pensions (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.71–0.98, and OR 0.92, 95 CI 0.84–0.99, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Affiliation with a quality network seemed to improve outcomes by reducing full disability pensions or replacing them by partial disability pensions. Some QI activities in the OQN were associated with a reduction of disability pensions.

Introduction The current health and safety management system under the Occupational Health and Safety Act has avoided agriculture in Korea. It is important to consider the various safety systems used in agricultural health and safety to develop effective regulations. Objective The aims were to classify and review the items from various checklists using safety systems, such as design, training, etc., ultimately aimed at proposing directions for improving the health and safety of farmers. Material and methods Among the retrieved checklists with Google, four were chosen for this study, based on criteria such as the Checklist developed by an international organization, as well as others. Each item on the checklist was categorized using criteria concerning safety systems, developed based on previous studies. Results The total number of analyzed items was 573, which is 36 more than the actual number of checklist items (537). The proportion of items belonging to the training/procedures system was the highest (32.5%); the second-highest was for the mitigation system – 18.2%.; the third-largest proportion of items was maintenance/inspection – with 14.3%. Items related to the design and human factor systems were 8.2% and 5.6%, respectively. The safety system with the lowest proportion was the warning/notification system – 4.2% of the total items. The proportion of items that could not be classified into safety systems was found to be 16.1%. Conclusions A large number of items belonging to the training/procedures system reported as occasionally not effective in prevention of injury were found in the checklists. It appears important to develop checklist items proposing the supplementation of various safety systems, rather than presenting items that are biased towards certain safety systems.

Abstract  Vegetated buffer zones (BZs) between a cultivated field and a watercourse reduce erosion and load of particle-bound phosphorus (P), but decay of abundant vegetation increases the potential of BZs to act as a source of readily algal-available P. To quantify temporal variations in P and nitrogen (N) contents of the grassy vegetation of BZs on a clay soil (Vertic Cambisol) in south-western Finland, plant samples were collected six times between May 2005 and April 2006 from natural BZs, BZs grazed by cattle and BZs harvested by cutting and removal of the yield. The total dry weight biomass peaked in early August at 2,130–2,360 and 5,500–6,270 kg ha−1 for the grazed and the other BZs, respectively. In August, 3,840–4,830 kg ha−1 were removed from the harvested BZs while the entire biomass of the non-harvested BZs remained in the field. In October, total P and N contents varied from 2.4–10.2 to 19–72 kg ha−1, respectively, the lowest amounts being for the young harvested BZ and the highest for the non-harvested BZs. A considerable decrease of P and N contents occurred in the biomass up to 6.1 and almost 30 kg ha−1, respectively, after the first frosts. Harvesting of BZs is recommended to decrease the amount of P and N in the BZs and reduce the risk of P and N leaching outside the growing season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The incidence of type 1 diabetes is increasing worldwide. Since so little is known about work life of individuals with type 1 diabetes, we examined incidence and prevalence trends of type 1 diabetes among working-aged Finns. We also investigated the employment rate and how workers with type 1 diabetes perceive their health and work ability, and their intended retirement age. Methods We analyzed changes in the incidence, prevalence, and employment rate using nationwide multi-register-based FinDM data, and estimated a Self-Rated Health, Work Ability Score, and inquired about retirement intentions of 767 working individuals with type 1 diabetes in a cross-sectional survey. All estimates were compared to the corresponding data of the Finnish general population. Results The average annual age-standardized incidence rate of type 1 diabetes among men aged 18–39 was 29 per 100,000/year; the incidence rate has increased by 33% from 1992 to 2007. Among women, the incidence remained at 16 per 100,000/year. Among working-aged (18–64) people, the age-standardized prevalence of type 1 diabetes increased by 39% among women and 33% among men. Two out of every three working aged individuals with type 1 diabetes were in the labor force; this is about 10% lower than in the Finnish population. The average age-standardized employment rate among those individuals with type 1 diabetes belonging to the labor force was 82%, compared to 84% in the general population. Working individuals with type 1 diabetes rated their health and work ability as being slightly lower than the general working population, but nonetheless, there were no significant differences in retirement intentions. Conclusions Between 1992 and 2007, the number of working-aged people and workers with type 1 diabetes increased by 35%. Most workers with type 1 diabetes manage as well at work as the general population. Special attention should be paid to workers with type 1 diabetes when they are diagnosed and/or report moderate or poor work ability.

Supervisor support alleviates burnout, but little is known about supervisors’ activities in supporting employees with burnout. This study discerned supervisors’ category-bound activities during the absence management and return-to-work (RTW) process of employees with burnout, and activities where the supervisors need support and guidance, from the perspective of occupational physicians and RTW coordinators in Finland. Data from semi-structured interviews and essays were analyzed with membership categorization analysis (MCA). First, occupational physicians and RTW coordinators saw supervisors as key actors in managing sickness absence and supporting RTW of employees with burnout. The large number of supervisors’ category-bound activities was discerned before the prolonged sickness absence, during the sickness absence, at work resumption, and after recovery from burnout. Second, supervisors were seen by occupational physicians and RTW coordinators as requiring support in implementing organizational absence management and RTW policies and procedures and communicating about burnout-related matters. The results of this study challenge occupational health services and employers to develop education for supervisors to improve their management practices as well as education for supervisors and employees to improve mutual communication to prevent and reduce burnout-related absenteeism and disability pensions. Further research of supervisors’ activities is needed from the perspectives of supervisors and the employees with burnout.

Introduction Agriculture is known to be a dangerous industry in Korea, as well as in other countries. According to earlier studies, the root cause of occupational injury can be identified with errors in the various systems of safety, and such identification is helpful for the prevention of occupational injury. Objective The aims of this study were to examine the root causes of cases of agricultural injury in Korea, based on insurance claims and identification of errors in systems of safety. Material and Methods Using the Korean Mutual Aid Insurance’s injury claim database, 277 injury cases were identified, of which 68 were contacted. Root causes were categorized, using the logic tree diagramming method and the systems of safety described in the literature. Results Seventy-five percent of all injuries were attributable to falls, strangulation, amputation and collision from flying and falling objects. 194 root causes were found for all injuries. The percentages of errors in all the systems of safety for each root cause were 24.7% – training/procedure, 20.3% – design, 11.9% – mitigation, 9.3% – human factor, 6.2% – maintenance/inspection, and 1.0% – warning/notification. The percentage of root causes which could not be categorized due to a shortage of information was 18.6%. Conclusions It was found that most agricultural injuries were caused by a complex layer of root causes which were classified as errors in the systems of safety. This result indicates that not only training and personal protective equipment, but also regulation of safety design, mitigation devices, inspection/maintenance of workplaces, and other factors play an important role in preventing agricultural injuries. The identification of errors will help farmers to implement easily an effective prevention programme.

Prematurity (5 days per week) in the causal pathway of premature delivery (6). Long working hours and heavy lifting are alleged to be associated with preterm delivery (7). Whilst some studies conclude there is a causal link between heavy lifting and preterm birth, another study concluded that, regardless of the exposure periods and the frequency of lifting, there is no significant association between heavy lifting and preterm birth (8). In a recent National Birth Cohort in Denmark, researchers published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health concluded that occupational lifting of medium-to-heavy loads can lead to pelvic pain during pregnancy (9) whilst pelvic pain is a common signal of labor initiation. Interventions, such as health education, maternity leave, or reassignment to a less-physical task, are already in place in most Western countries to prevent exposure to heavy lifting at work among pregnant women. However, it is unclear which intervention produces better pregnancy outcomes. A systematic review (10) on the effects of bed rest as a preventive measure of preterm birth compared to no intervention among high-risk singleton pregnant women found no evidence to support this preventive measure. No other reviews on the comparative effectiveness of preventive measures for heavy lifting in preventing preterm birth were found. We therefore performed a systematic review of the published literature to locate evaluation studies of interventions to prevent heavy lifting during pregnancy. We searched for randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials (RCT/quasi RCT) comprising pregnant employees exposed to lifting tasks, which evaluated an intervention aimed at decreasing lifting exposure and the effects on the incidence of prematurity. Based on these inclusion criteria we developed a search strategy and searched the databases Medline (via PubMed), Scopus, and CINAHL up to 28 June 2012 (see appendix for full search strategy). Two authors independently scrutinized the references for eligible trials but none fulfilled our inclusion criteria. A further search of reference lists of potentially relevant studies also failed to identify any RCT. Thus, the hypothesis that an intervention that decreases heavy lifting exposure among pregnant woman may have a positive impact on pregnancy outcomes could be not proven either right or wrong. We went strictly for RCT because of the quality in terms of study design (11) as rigorous procedures are carried out to establish the cause and effect relationship between an outcome and intervention (12). Nevertheless, our search did yield five observational studies that did not fit the inclusion criteria (RCT, pregnant employees as subjects, exposure to heavy-lifting tasks, and an intervention aiming at decreasing lifting exposure). Three of the studies investigated a causal association between preterm birth and heavy lifting whilst two were intervention studies. The three exposure studies (6, 13, 14) indicated a negative impact of occupational exposure to strenuous physical activities on gestational age. One literature review suggested that exercise could be beneficial and an observational evaluation study concluded that current legislation in Germany sufficiently protects pregnant women against preterm birth (15, 16). However, their lack of validity and greater margins of errors associated with the studies’ designs make it difficult to rely on these observational studies. Existing systematic reviews of exposure are inconclusive on the subject matter. A meta-analysis indicated a statistically significant association between preterm birth and physically demanding work (5). Similarly, a systematic review (17) suggested a possible association between lifting and prematurity. In contradiction to these results, a third systematic review (18) refuted an association between lifting, especially during the first trimester, and premature delivery. This review was recently updated and came to similar conclusions (19). In spite of this, another Scand J Work Environ Health systematic review of the risk of miscarriage due to exposure to lifting during pregnancy cautions against lifting high loads during pregnancy (20). A phenomenon that characterized the identified primary studies was misclassification of exposure. The flaws in the estimation of especially the exposure severely hamper the drawing of strong conclusions in these studies and reviews. In almost all the studies, women self-reported their lifting exposure retrospectively or prospectively. It is unsure if the subjective measurement of exposure leads to non-differential misclassification. It has been argued that differential misclassification usually leads to an underestimation of the relation between exposure and outcome if there is any, but this is surrounded by uncertainty especially when exposure is on a continuous scale (21). It could be that misclassification is differential in case–control studies. Among cases, lifting exposure could be better remembered and reported as a result of recall bias. Therefore, there is a need for a high quality evaluation study in which a group of pregnant women with heavy lifting exposure are subjected to an intervention that decreases the exposure while a second group of unexposed women serves as a control. Such a study would provide reliable evidence for both an effect of the intervention and a causal relation (22). There are several possible explanations for the absence of high quality studies to support practice. To start, financial support is a major factor in every research. A substantial amount of money is required to conduct a high quality study. In low- and middle-income countries, where strenuous physical activity and premature birth are common occurrences (3, 6), access to finance to conduct research is always a challenge as evidenced by the “10/90 gap”, which indicates only 10% of global resources are earmarked for health research addressing 90% of global disease burden (23). Secondly, ethical considerations can also be a limiting factor. Human lives are involved and there may be ethical issues as to who should and should not be advised to avoid heavy lifting given the current uncertainty about the evidence necessitating precautionary measures (5). Thirdly, an RCT requires recruitment of participants from the first trimester to determine the consequences of varied exposure to strenuous work during the three different trimesters, however, the chances of attrition can be high due to the length of the study. Finally, in high income countries where health research is more common, there already exists legislation on maternity leave that protects pregnant women and therefore researchers may not have enough motivation to carry out such studies. Education to decrease physical activity during pregnancy has been shown to be effective for improving patients’ outcome and the prevention of unwanted occurrences such as prematurity (24). However, there is currently no evidence to support or refute its implementation for women who are exposed to lifting during pregnancy. Due to the aforementioned inconclusive nature and the methodological flaws in available studies, an RCT is needed to fill the gap. Such an ideal future RCT would hypothesize a reduction in the incidence of preterm birth among pregnant women who receive an intervention to avoid heavy lifting. The intervention could consist of health education pointing out the possibilities to avoid heavy lifting during pregnancy. The study should be a prospective two-arm RCT that is parallel and pragmatic to ascertain the effectiveness of the intervention. Looking at the global trends of premature birth, the appropriate trial must be centered within Asia or Africa because these continents have the highest proportions of preterm birth of 54% and 31%, respectively, in the world (3). Recruitment of participants could be done with the assistance of staff of antenatal clinics. Eligibility criteria for participants could be: women whose pregnancy has not gone beyond 12 weeks, singleton pregnancy, and women who are exposed to heavy lifting (≥10 kg) either at home or at work ≥10 times per day. Eligible participants would be assigned to either the experimental or control group at different antenatal clinics using an appropriate randomization method. Proper randomization will generate two groups that are equal in known and unknown extraneous variables with the exception of the intervention. To prevent contamination of the control group with the treatment of the intervention group when they are both attending the same clinic, randomization of antenatal clinics with their patients to either the intervention or the control group in a cluster randomized design would be desirable. Again, it will be difficult to realize randomization at the individual level in developing countries as a result of high cost and the complex nature of data collection (25). A sufficiently varied intensity of the health education intervention should be given to the treatment group during antenatal sessions with the content focusing on the meaning of heavy lifting, the possible implications of heavy lifting during pregnancy, encouragement of avoidance of lifting, and means to avoid lifting. The intervention could be elaborated further to ensure that this advice can also be implemented into practice. On the other hand, the control group should receive routine health education during their antenatal sessions. It would be important to monitor the level of exposure to heavy lifting in both groups to be able to show that the intervention had indeed been effective in the intervention group. For the outcome, the future study should measure the length of pregnancy according to the four subgroups of gestational age described by Goldenberg et al (26): births that occur at