Occupational Health and Safety (Including Accident Prevention)

Last update: 2 November 2009,
by Maureen Bell

I've divided this page into three sections. The first provides you with some tips on searching for material on Medline, the second describes additional databases of which you should be aware, while the third section provides links to web pages, reports, and other databases. This section is divided into Australian and overseas sources.

Searching Medline

Remember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts.

You will find material on this subject in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for the various topics.

MeSH - Accidents, Occupational

MeSH - Air Pollutants, Occu;pational

MeSH - Metals, Heavy

MeSH - Occupational Diseases

MeSH - Occupational Exposure

MeSH - Occupational Health

MeSH - Occupational Health Services

Many topics in MeSH have hierarchies of more specific subcategories or related terms. The indentations in the lists reflect the structure of the hierarchy, and the + signs at the end of terms indicate that there is a further hierarchy of terms not displayed here. Any of these terms can be searched individually, or you can "explode" terms to search sections of the list.

When you search for subjects using MeSH terms from the Medline thesaurus you will also have the option of appending subheadings to narrow the focus of your search.

For a list of the abbreviations used for subheadings in PubMed click here

Try using the search structure below for finding articles on occupational exposure and lead.

COMBINE

Occupational Exposure (MeSH Term)

AND

Lead (MeSH Term)

PubMed Search Formulation

This search strategy uses the headings occupational exposure and lead. The section in the square brackets includes majr - which focuses the search on articles where the subject is a major issue in the article. The search is then limited to articles which are in English or which have English abstracts.

PubMed's default setting is to "explode" all terms, and so this search will include all the subcategories of occupational exposure listed below

Maximum Allowable Concentration
Threshold Limit Values

Click here to see how it works. PubMed Search

Additional Databases Which You Should Use

Scopus
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database. It has the broadest coverage available of scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature, including 16,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 4,000 international publishers.

NIOSHTIC-2 (Free version)
A free bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and other communication products supported in whole or in part by the National Institute.

CISDOC (Free version)
CISDOC is the fruit of 30 years of screening the occupational safety and health literature of the world for interesting and useful books, articles and audiovisual materials that occupational safety and health specialists can use in their fight against workplace accidents and diseases. It already guides users to over 62,000 publications, and 2000 more references are added every year.

There is a PubMed Toxicology Subset the strategy for which can easily be appended to any search, and you should also be aware that the National Library of Medicine provides a Specialized Information Service ( Environmental Health and Toxicology SIS Specialized Information Services ) which allows access to a range of toxicology and environmental health databases. Of particular interest is Toxnet, a collection of databases on hazardous chemicals, toxic releases, and environmental health, for which there is a downloadable manual.

Australian Sources

CASR Road Safety Library
This is the specialist library of the Centre for Automotive Safety Research of the University of Adelaide.

Comcare Occupational Health and Safety
A collection of material from Comcare, including fact sheets and the full text of a number of handbooks.

Hazardous Substances Information System
From the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, the HSIS provides access to data sets for hazardous substance information and for exposure standard information. The data sets can be searched using a range of search criteria. Search results (including the full data sets) can be printed or saved electronically.

Occupational Health & Safety - australia.gov.au
A wide range of resources including standards and codes of practice.

Occupational Health in the Oil Industry: The Health Watch Study
Since 1980, the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) has commissioned the development and operation of an independent epidemiology program called Health Watch. The full text of recent reports is available on this page.

Publication List - Injuries(AIHW)
From the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Research Centre for Injury Studies. Index of Resources On Line
The Research Centre for Injury Studies (incorporating the AIHW National Injury Surveillance Unit) is located at Flinders University There is a large selection of documents and data sets in full text available at this site.

Safe Work Australia - Publications

WorkCover Corporation of South Australia Documents A-Z

Overseas Sources

Asbestos: Selected Cancers
Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practices, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press, 2006.

A-Z index of key pages and documents on the HSE website
From each topic, you can access all of the important documents available on the Health & Safety Executive website in the U.K.

eCMAJ -- Collected Resources : Occupational Health

eLCOSH - Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety and Health
The Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety and Health was developed by the Center to Protect Workers' Rights (CPWR) with support from grant CCU317202 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This site provides a wide range of materials on construction safety and health. The goal is to improve safety and health for construction workers by making such information easier to obtain than in the past.

European Office for Safety and Health at Work. Publications
Free full text of a wide range of reports and factsheets.

Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers
David H. Wegman and James P. McGee, Editors, Committee on the Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, National Research Council. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press, 2004.

The Health Hazard Evaluation Program at NIOSH
Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Committee to Review the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Program, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press, 2009.

Household Products Database: Health and Safety Information on Household Products
A useful site from the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine in the United States. There is information about products, ingredients, and material safety data sheets.

IPCS INCHEM
Produced through cooperation between the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), IPCS INCHEM offers quick and easy electronic access to thousands of searchable full-text documents on chemical risks and the sound management of chemicals.

NASD: National Ag Safety Database
NASD is a U.S. national central repository of agricultural health, safety, and injury prevention materials for the agricultural community and especially for agricultural safety specialists.

National Academies Press: Topic : Workplace and Occupational Health
The full text of a range of books on occupational health subjects from the National Academies Press in the United States.

NIOSH / Publications
NIOSH is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the United States.

OSH Answers
This free information service is provided by the Inquiries Service at the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety.

OSHA Publications
From the Occupational Safety & Health Administration in the United States. Many of the publications are available online.

OSH.NET Occupational Safety and Health Net
OSH.NET is made available by Occupational Safety and Health Resources. Its goal is to be one of the most comprehensive resources for Occupational Safety and Health information available on the internet.

OSHWEB
OshWeb provides links to, reviews of and comments on websites in the Occupational Safety and Health sector.

SafetyLine Institute
The SafetyLine Institute falls within the province of the Department of Consumer and Employment Protection (DOCEP) in Western Australia, and provides learning guides and associated readings and resources to help learners at workplaces develop competencies in key units of the new national occupational health and safety qualifications. Enrolling in the Institute for general inerest study is free, and there are self assessment tests with each lecture.

Science.gov topic Occupational Health and Safety
Science.gov provides wide public access and a unified search of the U.S. government’s vast stores of scientific and technical information. It is an interagency initiative of a number of U.S. government science organizations.

Where to find MSDS on the Internet
An extensive and well organised list of links to material safety data sheets.

Whitehall II
This is the second Whitehall Study (also referred to as The Stress and Health Study). The Whitehall II study has taken a particular interest in the role of stress on health and the extent to which this might be involved in the social inequalities in health – like the differences with employment grades in the Civil Service. It looks at both stress at work, for example having low control over your work & how it is organised, and psychosocial factors at home such as support from family & friends and social activities.

Work Related Stress
Resources from the Health and Safety Executive in the U.K.