Ill health and early retirement among school principals in Bavaria.

Objectives: School principals play an important role in maintaining the performance and health of teachers but often feel over-burdened themselves and suffer illnesses, which not only impairs their health-promoting function but also leads to limitations in their fitness for the occupation. The aim of our study was, therefore, using objective parameters and larger numbers of cases, to obtain a differentiated insight into the morbidity and the health-related early retirement of school principals.

Methods: In a prospective total assessment (the whole of Bavaria, a state in southern Germany) in the period from 1997 to 1999 all medical examinations of school principals performed to decide the question of early retirement were evaluated.

["They'll never come back...""--Expectations and reality of occupational reintegration of teachers unfit for service].

Aim Of The Study: The reactivation of teachers with experience of both life and the profession who have become unfit for work is regarded by politicians not only as a suitable measure against the imminent lack of teaching staff, but also as a promising strategy for reducing the cost of health care. The aim of our study was to gather new evidence- based information on the occupational reintegration of teachers who took early retirement and to investigate to what extent official medical reactivation examinations are an effective instrument of tertiary prevention. DATABASE AND METHODS: In a prospective total assessment (the entire state of Bavaria) over the period of 1997 - 1999 all official medical examinations in the public health centres (Gesundheitsamter und Medizinische Untersuchungsstellen der Bezirksregierungen) were evaluated with regard to the reactivation of teachers unfit for work.

[School principals--too ill for healthy schools?].

Aim Of The Study: School principals on the one hand play an important role in maintaining the performance and health of teachers, but on the other hand often feel over-burdened themselves and suffer from illnesses which not only impair their health-promoting function, but also lead to limitations in their fitness for the occupation. The aim of our study was therefore, using objective parameters and larger numbers of cases, to obtain a differentiated insight into the type and extent of morbidity spectrum and the health-related early retirement of school principals.

Methods: In a prospective total assessment (the whole of Bavaria in the period 1997-1999), all the reports about the premature unfitness for work of school directors were evaluated.

Pulmonary risk of intraoral surface conditioning using crystalline silica.

Purpose: This study evaluated the pulmonary risk caused by possible respirable dust of Al2O3 and SiO(x) resulting from chairside tribochemical sandblasting procedures in a dental office.

Materials And Methods: Dust was collected using a trap near the working field, and quantitative morphologic determination and identification were performed with SEM and EDAX. Forty blasting processes (total time 20 minutes) were aimed at a dummy to obtain maximum pollution of the workplace.

[Evaluation of the premature unfitness for work among civil servants career--groups and morbidity].

Out of the data obtained in a prospective study over 11,528 assessments concerning premature unfitness for work among civil servant over a period of four years the collective groups of those assessed unfit for work (n = 6,861, 2,723 women i. e. 39.