Search

Issues: The surrounding social and commercial context, including alcohol advertising, heavily influences alcohol consumption. Alcohol use is a major risk factor for both fatal and non-fatal drowning, particularly for young people. Approach: We conducted a scoping review to explore the peer-reviewed literature on the use of alcohol by young people (aged 15–34 years) in the context of aquatic environments. Five electronic academic databases were searched for English-language studies conducted in high-income countries and published in the last 15 years (since 2008). The MetaQAT framework was used to assess methodological quality of included studies. Key Findings: The review included a total of 24 studies, including those addressing the prevalence of and/or risk factors for alcohol use in aquatic environments among young people (n = 13); the epidemiology of alcohol-related unintentional drowning in young people (n = 9); and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm around water (n = 3). Findings suggest that young people commonly consume alcohol around water, particularly young men. We found multiple influences on this behaviour, including the perception of risk, location of aquatic activity and presence of others, particularly peers. Implications: Understanding the literature addressing alcohol use around water among young people will assist in identifying and setting priorities for drowning prevention, including the need to mitigate the effects of alcohol advertising which promotes drinking in and around water. Conclusion: There is a clear imperative to address the use of alcohol by young people in aquatic environments. These findings have key implications for public health policy, advocacy and practice.

E-cigarettes are promoted extensively on TikTok and other social media platforms. Platform policies to restrict e-cigarette promotion seem insufficient and are poorly enforced. This paper aims to understand how e-cigarettes are being promoted on TikTok and provide insights into the effectiveness of current TikTok policies. Seven popular hashtag-based keywords were used to identify TikTok accounts and associated videos related to e-cigarettes. Posts were independently coded by two trained coders. Collectively, the 264 videos received 2,470,373 views, 166,462 likes and 3426 comments. The overwhelming majority of videos (97.7%) portrayed e-cigarettes positively, and these posts received 98.7% of the total views and 98.2% of the total likes. A total of 69 posts (26.1%) clearly violated TikTok’s own content policy. The findings of the current study suggest that a variety of predominantly pro-vaping content is available on TikTok. Current policies and moderation processes appear to be insufficient in restricting the spread of pro-e-cigarette content on TikTok, putting predominantly young users at potential risk of e-cigarette use.

Background: Many cancers are caused by exposure to lifestyle, environmental, and occupational factors. Earlier studies have estimated the number of cancers occurring in a single year which are attributable to past exposures to these factors. However, there is now increasing appreciation that estimates of the future burden of cancer may be more useful for policy and prevention. We aimed to calculate the future number of cancers expected to arise as a result of exposure to 23 modifiable risk factors. Methods: We used the future excess fraction (FEF) method to estimate the lifetime burden of cancer (2016–2098) among Australian adults who were exposed to modifiable lifestyle, environmental, and occupational risk factors in 2016. Calculations were conducted for 26 cancer sites and 78 cancer-risk factor pairings. Results: The cohort of 18.8 million adult Australians in 2016 will develop an estimated 7.6 million cancers during their lifetime, of which 1.8 million (24%) will be attributable to exposure to modifiable risk factors. Cancer sites with the highest number of future attributable cancers were colon and rectum (n = 717,700), lung (n = 380,400), and liver (n = 103,200). The highest number of future cancers will be attributable to exposure to tobacco smoke (n = 583,500), followed by overweight/obesity (n = 333,100) and alcohol consumption (n = 249,700). Conclusion: A significant proportion of future cancers will result from recent levels of exposure to modifiable risk factors. Our results provide direct, pertinent information to help determine where preventive measures could best be targeted.

Asbestos exposure is associated with many adverse health conditions including malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer as well as production of autoantibodies. Autoantibodies may serve as biomarkers for asbestos exposure in patients with cancer, and autoimmune dysfunction has been linked to increased rates of various cancers. The aim of this study was to examine the hypothesis that autoantibodies are more frequent in asbestos-exposed individuals with either lung cancer or mesothelioma than those without these conditions. Asbestos-exposed individuals from Western Australia who had lung cancer (n = 24), malignant mesothelioma (n = 24), or no malignancy (n = 51) were tested for antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA) using indirect immunofluorescence and specific extractable nuclear autoantibodies (ENA) employing a multiplexed addressable laser bead immunoassay. Contrary to the hypothesis, data demonstrated that individuals without malignancy were more likely to be positive for ANA compared to those with cancer. However, autoantibodies to histone and Ro-60 were found to be associated with lung cancer. These results support a possible predictive value for specific autoantibodies in the early detection of lung cancer and/or in our understanding of the role of autoimmune processes in cancer. However, further studies are needed to identify specific target antigens for the antibodies.

Disparities in exposure to workplace hazards exist between Māori and non-Māori workers in New Zealand, with Māori workers generally incurring poorer conditions. This study aimed to determine if these ethnic disparities are similar after migration to Australia. A national cross-sectional telephone survey asked participants what tasks they undertook in their job to assess exposure to carcinogens as well as whether they experienced ethnic discrimination, bullying, job precariousness, or job strain. A total of 389 New Zealand Caucasians and 152 Māori/Pasifika workers were recruited. After adjustment, 79% of Māori/Pasifika compared with 67% of New Zealand Caucasian workers were assessed as being exposed to at least one carcinogen at work. Māori/Pasifika workers were also more likely to report ethnic discrimination and fair or poor current health than New Zealand Caucasians. Some ethnic disparities in exposure to workplace hazards in New Zealand are apparent after migration to Australia.

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. OBJECTIVES: Workers can be exposed to a range of different carcinogenic agents in the workplace. However, previous studies have often focused on prevalence of exposure to a single carcinogen, resulting in substantial knowledge gaps regarding the extent of multiple exposures in the workplace. This study aims to investigate the current prevalence of occupational exposure to multiple carcinogens among exposed workers in Australia. METHODS: The data for this study come from the Australian Work Exposures Study, a nationwide cross-sectional telephone survey of Australian workers aged between 18 and 65. Information was collected about the respondents' current employment and numerous demographic factors using a web-based application (Occupational Integrated Database Exposure Assessment System) to conduct the interview, with predefined algorithms used to automatically assign exposures to carcinogens based on the respondents' job tasks. RESULTS: The majority (81%) of exposed respondents were assessed as being probably exposed to more than one carcinogen, and 26% reported exposure to five or more carcinogens. We found that after adjusting for occupation, exposure to multiple carcinogens was more likely among male respondents, while older workers (aged between 55 and 65) were less likely to be exposed to multiple carcinogens. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides information on the prevalence of exposure to multiple carcinogens in the general population that has not previously been reported. This information could be useful for the intervention and control of occupational exposures to the prioritised carcinogens identified in this study.