Occupational Health

Firefighters are exposed not only to predictable fire effluents and fuels released during combustion, but also to novel man-made chemicals intentionally added to consumer products. In this paper, policies, processes and regulations adopted to recognize the diseases created by these hazards within the UK and internationally are examined and the problems and solutions illustrated. Diseases include but are not restricted to occupational cancers. Many diseases remain unrecognized in the UK industrial disease prescription system and may not have been detected because of a lack of health surveillance and screening. Hence, assessing the impact of firefighters’ exposures requires active surveillance for the expected and the unexpected. Comprehensive health monitoring and health surveillance with a preventive focus is needed. The broadest range of available tools should be considered to better establish exposures and their consequences, including risks to both male and female firefighters. The paper identifies some recent positive global approaches to firefighter health surveillance, monitoring and disease recognition that could and should be adopted in the UK.

Workplace weight stigma is a form of discrimination affecting equality, health, and careers, yet occupational research remains fragmented. This gender-sensitive systematic review synthesizes evidence on workplace weight stigma among adult workers and job applicants since 2000. Following PRISMA procedures, we searched psychological, medical, sociological, and economic databases, identifying 25 included studies examining work outcomes. The corpus includes experimental vignette and correspondence studies, surveys, and qualitative designs, predominantly from high-income Western countries. Higher body weight is consistently associated with disadvantages across the employment life cycle: reduced callbacks and hiring, lower wages and wage growth, fewer promotions, and negative performance evaluations. Penalties are systematically stronger for women; intersectional analyses remain rare. Weight-based teasing, unfair treatment, and stereotype threat are linked to poorer self-rated health, psychological distress, burnout, reduced work ability, lower job satisfaction and commitment, and stronger turnover intentions. Organizational-level evidence is indirect but suggests detrimental effects on engagement and citizenship behaviors. Findings support conceptualizing workplace weight stigma as both a psychosocial hazard and a structural driver of labor-market inequality, underscoring the need for size-inclusive HR practices, leadership, and occupational risk-prevention policies.

This study examines how Empowering (EL), Responsible (RL), and Ethical Leadership (EtL) relate to employees’ perceptions of Decent Work (DW) in a Portuguese public university, using the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework. DW, defined by dignity, equity, and security, was assessed across seven dimensions. A total of 226 faculty, researchers, and staff completed validated measures of EL, RL, EtL, and DW. Results showed moderate to strong positive correlations between leadership styles and DW, especially for Fundamental Principles and Values at Work (DW1), Fulfilling and Productive Work (DW3), and Health and Safety (DW7). EL displayed the strongest associations with fairness, inclusion, and psychological safety, while RL and EtL were more closely linked to accountability and ethical climate. Analyses by role and education revealed systematic asymmetries, with leaders and highly educated employees reporting more favorable experiences. High intercorrelations among leadership styles (r ≈ 0.87–0.90) suggest an integrated values-based leadership pattern. In contrast, weaker associations with structural dimensions such as workload and social protection highlight the limits of leadership influence on DW. These findings advance research on DW in higher education and underscore leadership development as a lever for institutional justice and well-being.