Establishment of the International Maritime Health Foundation: the next step in scientific publishing in maritime health.

The Bulletin of the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine (IMTM) was published first time in 1948 as a preliminary publication. Since then it has developed and from 1999 it is known as International Maritime Health (IMH). Initially it was published by the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine (IMTM) in Gdynia.

Fatal accidents and injuries among merchant seafarers worldwide.

Background: The British merchant fleet has expanded in recent years but it is not known whether this expansion has led to proportionate changes in mortality.

Aims: To investigate mortality from accidents and injuries in British merchant shipping, to determine whether this has increased in recent years, to compare fatal accident rates across British industries and to review fatal accident rates in merchant shipping worldwide over the last 70 years.

Methods: Examinations of marine accident investigation files, death registers and death inquiry files, national mortality statistics, worldwide surveys and review methodology.

Fatalities in recreational boating and sub-aqua diving.

Background And Aim: To establish the causes and circumstances of fatalities in recreational boating and sub-aqua diving inland or around the United Kingdom during the years 2006 and 2007, to comparefatal accident rates according to the type of boat, to identify causal patterns, and to discuss preventative measures to reduce the fatalities.

Materials And Methods: Examinations of marine accident files and reports from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and other sources, including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Association of Inland Navigation Authorities and the British Sub-Aqua Diving Club.

Results: There were 102 fatalities in recreational boating and 28 in sub-aqua diving with corresponding fatal accident rates of 12.

Polish system of education in maritime health care and medical assistance for seafarers.

The Polish public awareness of the crucial importance of the own maritime economy to the very existenceof the national state has its historical reasons. The Polish maritime involvement has seen several dramaticcrises, but the Polish nationals have become an established group in the global marine trade workforceand are entitled to the proper health care. In this paper the main maritime health issues are mentioned.

[Age and duration of employment of health care workers with occupational viral hepatitis B and C].

Background: In this paper we present the study of the incidence of hepatitis B and C among health care workers in the Pomorskie voivodeship in the years 1999-2009. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between the certified occupational HCV and HBV infections and the age and duration of employment of infected health care workers.

Material And Methods: To analyze the epidemiological situation of occupational hepatitis among health care workers in the Pomorskie voivodeship, the data 338 occupational disease certificates were obtained.

Actions for prevention and control of health threats related to maritime transport in European Union.

Background: Actions at European Union level for International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 implementation and maritime transport were focused on two European projects implemented between 2006 and 2011.

Method: Situation analysis and needs assessment were conducted, a Manual including European standards and best practice and training material was developed and training courses were delivered. Ship-to-port and port-to-port communication web-based network and database for recording IHR Ship Sanitation Certificates (SSC) were established.

[Occupational HBV and HCV infections among health care workers].

Background: Analysis of the number of reported occupational hepatitis cases in the years 1971-2009 reveals a clear upward trend in the late 1980's, followed by a downward trend that has continued to the present. The aim of this study was to determine the number of recorded occupational hepatitis B and C in the Pomorskie voivodeship in the years 1999-2009 by the type and location of health care institutions and workpost category.

Materials And Methods: To analyze the epidemiological situation of occupational hepatitis among health care workers in the Pomorskie voivodeship, the data from 338 occupational disease certificates were obtained.

Occupational hazards for fishermen in the workplace in Polish coastal and beach fishing--a point of view.

The work of marine fishermen is considered one of the most dangerous and life-threatening professions all over the world. There are some common features of the fishing occupation, such as: exposure to cold, wind, rough seas, substantial participation of physical effort, frequency of injuries during work, unpredictability and abruptness of threats, equipment failure, everyday psychological stress, and constant economic pressure. At the same time, the specificity and variety of hazards, depending significantly on geographical-climate and cultural factors, makes the dissimilarity of problems and solutions substantial in different sectors of fishing.

Sudden cardiac event on a sea-going ship and recognition of a work-related accident.

OBJECTIVES. Evaluation of the effect of selected work environment factors on a sea-going ship on the occurrence of a sudden cardiac event and its recognition as a work-related accident. BACKGROUND.

The decision making process on public health measures related to passenger ships: the example of influenza pandemic 2009.

Background: Public health measures at sea ports have posed a challenge for public health competent authorities, especially in the context of the influenza pandemic of 2009. This paper discusses the response of authorities to notifications of infectious diseases on passenger ships and the importance of assessing the risks related to cases of influenza. It further provides options for health measures and considerations for decision making during a pandemic such as the influenza pandemic of 2009.

Assessment of the European Guide for Risk Prevention in Small Fishing Vessels. Guide applicability in Polish coastal fishing.

The European Commission--The Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities is going to publish the European Guide for Risk Prevention in Small Fishing Vessels. The legislative basis was the Report COM (2009) 599 on the practical implementation of Health and Safety at Work Directives 93/103/EC (fishing vessels) and 92/29/EEC (medical treatment on board vessels), which recommended the drawing up of a non-binding guide for vessels under 15 m in length. The Guide draft was produced directly by Labour Asociados, SSL, Spain.

Human and fishing vessel losses in sea accidents in the UK fishing industry from 1948 to 2008.

Objective: To investigate long-term trends in mortality rates for accidents to fishing vessels in the UK fishing industry from 1948 to 2008; to investigate the circumstances and causes of these fishing vessel accidents and trends in fishing vessel losses.

Material And Methods: Examination of paper death inquiry files, death registers, marine accident investigative files, annual casualty and death returns.

Results: Of 1039 fatalities from accidents to UK fishing vessels from 1948 to 2008, most (65%) resulted from vessels that foundered (or capsized or disappeared), followed by vessels grounding (21%), collisions (7%), and fires and explosions (5%).

Cardiovascular disease mortality in British merchant shipping and among British seafarers ashore in Britain.

Background: The objective was to investigate trends in work-related mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) among seafarers employed in British merchant shipping from 1919 to 2005, to compare CVD mortality among British seafarers at work in British shipping - and ashore in Britain - with that in the general British population, and to investigate work-related CVD mortality in British shipping during recent years according to factors such as rank, nationality, location, and type of ship.

Material And Methods: A longitudinal study based on examination of death inquiry files and death registers, official death returns, and information from occupational mortality decennial supplements. The main outcome measures were population-based mortality rates and standardised mortality ratios.

State of the art: public health and passenger ships.

Background: The purpose of this report is to describe issues relevant to public health and to review all passenger ship associated diseases and outbreaks. Moreover, legislation and practices on sanitation and diseases surveillance related to ships internationally were also reviewed. Some relevant historical information about infections on merchant ships is provided as well.

[Evaluation of occupational medicine service tasks in the context of the Occupational Medicine Service Act, article 12, on the basis of statistical indicators in the Pomorskie voivodship].

Background: Occupational health service is based on legal regulations. We have made an attempt to estimate the implementation of the tasks resulting from article 12 of the Occupational Medicine Service Act introduced in 1998.

Materials And Methods: In this paper we analyzed statistical data concerning the number of prophylactic health contracts, economic entities and health insurance payers.

Work-related stress at sea. Possibilities of research and measures of stress.

The present concept of stress is related with the necessity of triangulation in research. Triangulation means collecting evidence of stress from at least three sources: (a) precursors--perception and feeling (moderating factors), (b) direct consequences, (c) state of health. Is it possible to implement triangulation in the investigations of work-related stress at sea? In the present paper, possibilities of collecting data on the work at sea are analyzed as regards individual aspects--stages of triangulation.

Strategies, means and models of health care in the Polish maritime industry, 1945-2007: summary of the presentation made at the time of the First International Congress of Maritime, Tropical, and Hyperbaric Medicine held on 4-6 June 2009 in Gdynia, Poland.

Aim: To define, characterize, and explain the main goals and tools used for the functioning of health care in the Polish maritime industry.

Background: The Polish merchant and fishing fleet grew significantly after 1945, and the number of the national seamen and deep-sea fishermen reached about 50,000 in the 1970s. But in the last two decades the number of Polish merchant ships and fishing boats has gradually decreased, and fewer crewmembers are employed on them.