Sergio Iavicoli

INAIL Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro · Research Dpt. Of Occupational Health

Purpose A good psychosocial climate at work, including positive interpersonal relationships, is a protective factor for health, while social conflict imposes a considerable health risk. Occupational safety and health (OSH) services can help create a positive working environment. In the present study, we analysed trends in the awareness of OSH servi...

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) involve muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal discs. These conditions can be triggered by both the work environment and the type of work performed, factors that, in some cases, can also exacerbate pre-existing conditions. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of the impact...

Introduction Work is the main driver of international migration. In 2022 there were about 5 million foreign citizens living in Italy; working age were over 3 million and around 2 million were employed, mainly in agriculture, construction and personal services. Legislative Decree 81/08 calls for specific attention to “workers from other countries”,...

Introduction In the last decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the importance of risk communication as a key factor to achieve general compliance and improve community engagement to preparedness and response measures during public health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses of risk communication in a context...

Introduction Standardized exposure monitoring procedures and suitable biomarkers and biological matrices are needed to evaluate the potential health risk of occupational exposure to graphene-based nanomaterials. Methods We enrolled 5 workers of a graphene start up (mean age 39±13) and 5 controls (mean age 38±12). Harmonized OECD methodology was us...

Background Nearly half of patients diagnosed with cancer are in the middle of their traditional working age. The return to work after cancer entails challenges because of the cancer or treatments and associated with the workplace. The study aimed at providing more insight into the occupational outcomes encountered by workers with cancer and to prov...

Background: This study, conducted on a sample of Italian occupational physicians (OPs), aimed to gather data regarding professional activity and their needs in managing workers with multiple sclerosis. Methods: A convenience sample of OPs recruited by e-mail invitation to the list of Italian Society of Occupational Medicine members was considere...

Chronic low back pain (LBP) represents a leading cause of absenteeism from work. An accurate knowledge of complex interactions is essential in understanding the difficulties of return to work (RTW) experienced by workers affected by chronic LBP. This study aims to identify factors related to chronic LBP, the worker, and the psycho-social environmen...

The aim was to evaluate if rehabilitation procedures including occupational health (OH) and workplace participation increase return to work (RTW) rates among patients with subacute and chronic low back pain (LBP). A systematic review of randomized controlled trials was conducted using the PubMed and Cochrane databases. Main outcomes were RTW and da...

Background This study examines the relationship between functional disability and work ability in workers affected by low back pain (LBP) through an analysis of correlations between the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The role of personal and work factors on functional disability/work ability levels has also been studi...

Background. Starting from March 2020 until December 2021, different phases of Covid-19 pandemic have been identified in Italy, with several containing/lifting measures progressively enforced by the National government. In the present study we investigate the change in occupational risk during the subsequent pandemic phases and we propose an estimat...

Background It is acknowledged that legislation acts as a motivator for organizational action on psychosocial risks. Our study aims to provide evidence on the relationship between key occupational safety and health (OSH) policy principles and organizational action on work-related stress, and, in turn, with reported employee job demands and resources...

Cancer is a global major public health problem since it is a leading cause of death, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020 worldwide and the most recent epidemiological data suggested that its global impact is growing significantly. In this context, cancer survivors have to live for a long time often in a condition of disability due to th...

This study is aimed at evaluating whether the occupational exposure to TiO2 during the industrial production process is able to induce genotoxic, oxidative, and inflammatory effects on blood, biomonitoring the same workers that showed micronucleus induction in the exfoliated buccal cells, as previous published. The final aim was to find sensitive a...

Objective: To assess the effect of transitioning to remote working during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in a population of adults affected by chronic low back pain (cLBP). Methods: An online questionnaire was sent by email to teleworkers affected by cLBP. Demographic data, remote working features and tasks, and LBP burden were analyzed....

Through sustainable development goals 3 and 8 and other policies, countries have committed to protect and promote workers’ health by reducing the work-related burden of disease. To monitor progress on these commitments, indicators that capture the work-related burden of disease should be available for monitoring workers’ health and sustainable deve...

Graphene-based polymer composites are innovative materials which have recently found wide application in many industrial sectors thanks to the combination of their enhanced properties. The production of such materials at the nanoscale and their handling in combination with other materials introduce growing concerns regarding workers’ exposure to na...

Increased attention to psychosocial risks and their potential impacts on workers' mental and physical health has flourished due to the changes taking place in the world of work. The changes in the world of work and the recent worldwide events have exacerbated the existing psychosocial risks and brought out new psychosocial risks to be considered fo...

The literature predominantly advocates subjective perception of disability and pain as an outcome measure for the functional evaluation of patients with low back pain (LBP). Physical outcome measurements are almost completely ignored. In this systematic review, we focused on physical functional measurements that can contribute to the prediction of...

Aim: Polycrystalline wools (PCW) are included with Refractory ceramic fibers (RCF) in the alumino-silicates family of High Temperature Insulation Wools (HTIW). IARC includes PCW in the ceramic fibers group and considers them as possible human carcinogens (GROUP 2B). Since PCW toxicity is not yet clear, our aim was to evaluate their toxic and inflam...

Starting from an analysis of communication in Italy during the COVID-19 emergency period (February–June 2020), this paper provides an overview of the main challenges and opportunities for communication during pandemics. The purpose of this study is to perform a literature review contributing to the identification of practical recommendations for th...

During nanomaterial (NM) production, workers could be exposed, particularly by inhalation, to NMs and other chemicals used in the synthesis process, so it is important to have suitable biomarkers to monitor potential toxic effects. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the introduction of exposure mitigation measures on workers uni...

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s working conditions worldwide and research suggests increases in work stressors. However, it is not known to what extent these changes differ by gender or parental status. In the present study, we investigate trends in work stressors and whether these differ by gender and parental status. Methods We us...

Silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs), due to their chemical-physical properties, are among the most widely produced nanomaterials (NMs) in the world, and therefore used in a wide range of industries. Such widespread use, however, draws attention to the health of workers during the production of such NMs and the need for techniques to assess occupational...

Healthcare workers (HCWs) played an essential role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority (INAIL) and the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) developed a retrospective study to analyze and understand trends and characteristics of infections among HCWs during the first wave of the pandemic. Between May...

Engineered nanoscale amorphous silica nanomaterials are widespread and used in many industrial sectors. Currently, some types of silicon-based nanozeolites (NZs) have been synthesized, showing potential advantages compared to the analogous micro-forms; otherwise, few studies are yet available regarding their potential toxicity. In this respect, the...

In March 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the COVID-19 pandemic as a global issue. To reduce the spread of this disease, health safety pathways were implemented worldwide. These extraordinary measures changed people’s lifestyles, e.g., by being forced to isolate, and in many cases, to work remotely from home. Low back pain (LBP)...

Objectives: Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Recession. To prepare for future crises and to preserve public health, we conduct an overview of systematic reviews to examine the evidence on the effect of the Great Recession on population health. Methods: We searched PubMed and Scopus for sys...

The IMPAcT-RLS2 survey is part of a larger context of INSuLa2 research program; its first edition was conducted in 2014 and targeted to all prevention professionals, investigating occupational health and safety (OSH) protection issues perceived by the various professionals’ point of view. The survey addressed to Health and Safety Representatives (H...

Background On the basis of its role for the development of occupational health research, information, good practices, the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) launched the present survey to collect information on public health and prevention policies put in place by the governments of the countries in the world to contain the pand...

Background: Formaldehyde, classified as a carcinogen in 2004, as of today is widely used in many work activities. From its classification, further studies were performed to evaluate its carcinogenicity. The aim of the systematic review is to update the evidence on occupational exposure to formaldehyde and cancer onset. Methods: The review, in ac...

Formaldehyde mainly emitted from wood adhesives, finishing materials, paint for furniture represents, together with wood dust, a potential carcinogenic risk for wood workers. Aims of this multidisciplinary study are to investigate the possibility of replacing urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesives in the wood industry with organic and/or inorganic-based...

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to analyze the effects of workplace interventions (WI) on clinical outcomes related to low back pain (LBP) in a worker population, and to assess socio-economic parameters as participants on sick leave, days of sick leave, and return to work following WI. A systematic literature search was performed to...

Objectives: to evaluate the patterns of occupational COVID-19 cases, based on compensation claims applied to the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (Inail). Design: descriptive analyses of daily time series of compensation claims applications, geographical distributions, and occupations involved. Multivariate anal...

The objectives of the systematic review were to: identify the work sectors at risk for exposure to formaldehyde; investigate the procedures applied to assess occupational exposure; evaluate the reported exposure levels among the different settings. An electronic search of Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and ToxNet was carried out for collecting all...

Despite Italy banning use and production of asbestos in 1992, it continues to represent a risk to human health due to its permanence in the places where it was located. The aim of this work is to estimate how many schools in Rome (Italy) have asbestos containing materials (ACM), and to assess whether the location, condition and nature of ACM can in...

The global spread of COVID-19 pandemic forced the scientific community to identify new ways of exchanging and transferring the scientific knowledge, also considering that the measures taken to combat the pandemic, such as travel restrictions, closed borders and gathering bans, led to cancellations of many conferences, meetings and workshops. The en...

To counter the second COVID-19 wave in autumn 2020, the Italian government introduced a system of physical distancing measures organized in progressively restrictive tiers (coded as yellow, orange, and red) imposed on a regional basis according to real-time epidemiological risk assessments. We leverage the data from the Italian COVID-19 integrated...

This article reviews the latest global and country numbers of occupational accidents and work-related illnesses and related economic costs in selected countries and regions, compared to the numbers for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine the types of occupations most at risk of infection and provide examples of COVID-19 experience fr...

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are developing the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury (WHO/ILO Joint Estimates), supported by a large number of individual experts. Evidence from previous reviews suggests that exposure to long working hours may caus...

Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is an impacting challenge for the occupational medicine and epidemiology. The identification of occupational groups most at risk of exposure is critical in contrasting and preventing the epidemic diffusion. Objective: To analyse the compensation claim applications collected by the Italian Workers' Compensati...

Low back pain (LBP) is currently the leading cause of disability worldwide and the most common reason for workers’ compensation (WC) claims. Studies have demonstrated that receiving WC is associated with a negative prognosis following treatment for a vast range of health conditions. However, the impact of WC on outcomes after spine surgery is still...

Objectives Naturally occurring asbestos from ophiolitic outcrops can pose a health risk to the resident population. Some studies have documented this risk of exposure in many areas around the world. The aim of the study is to estimate the possible impact on health caused by asbestos outcrops present in some areas of Calabria, a region of southern I...

Exposure to ultrafine particles (UFPs size < 100 nm) in life and work environments can contribute to adverse health effects also in terms of health burden of related diseases over time. The choice of parameters which better characterize UFPs is challenging, due to their physical-chemical properties and their variable size. It is also strictly relat...

The aim of this study is to map the coverage of occupational safety and health (OSH) rules and provisions and their enforcement at a country level worldwide. Members' participation in the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) activities was also investigated. We used a questionnaire-based survey to collect data. An online questionn...

This study aimed to identify sensitive and noninvasive biomarkers of early cyto-genotoxic, oxidative and inflammatory effects for exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in shipyard painters. On 17 (11 spray and 6 roller) painters (previously characterized for VOCs exposure to toluene, xylenes, ethylbenzene, ethyl acetate) and on 18 controls,...

Background: Starting from February 2020, in Italy most organizations have had a forced transition to flexible working practice - called "smart working in emergency" - due to the Covid-19 epidemic outbreak. This allowed to continue work activities and services and contributed to contain the risk of infection in different sectors, particularly in th...

Backround Working condition suvey are widely recognized as useful tools for monitoring the quality of working life and the improvements introduced by health and safety policy framework at European and national level.The Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL) carried out a national survey (Insula) to investigate the employer's perceptions r...

The development and enhancement of occupational health services (OHS) at the national level is central to ensuring the sustainable health, well-being and work engagement of the working population. However, due to differences in national health, social security and occupational safety and health systems, the content, capacity, coverage and provision...

The aim of the study is to investigate exposures to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) at workplace in Italy and the related burden of diseases. Measurements data was collected from a nation-wide occupational exposure registry (SIREP, 1996-2016). Potentially exposed workers were estimated for some industrial sectors. Concurrent exposures were investigate...

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, with considerable public health and socio-economic impacts that are seriously affecting health and safety of workers, as well as their employment stability. Italy was the first of many other western countries to implement extended containment measures. Health workers and others employed in essential secto...

results of a retrospective study on COVID-19 cases among health workers in seven Italian regions until 30th April 2020

Objectives We aimed to evaluate whether TiO2 production process induce genotoxic and cytotoxic effects on the first target organ of inhalable particles by a sensitive and non‐invasive biomarker of effect. Final aim was to find a useful and suitable tool to assess and manage the risk of TiO2 occupational exposure. Methods We enrolled 40 workers emp...

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are developing joint estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury (WHO/ILO Joint Estimates), with contributions from a large number of individual experts. Evidence from mechanistic data suggests that occupational exposure to noise may caus...