Database

Tackling work-related stress: a managers’ guide to improving and maintaining employee health and well-being. The new guide provides seven broad categories of management that could influence a person’s sense of well being. These are: • culture, • demands, • control, • interpersonal relationships, • change, • role clarity, and • individual factors such as training/skills/previous episodes. Evidence from: HSG 218. Comments While it may be that stress itself is the adverse outcome HSE seeks to address, stress is not in fact an injury. In short, standards for prevention of stress may have only a tenuous link with prevention of injury and as such would arguably be of little relevance to liability assessment. The experience of stress cannot be objectively measured, nor can it be precisely related to injury outcomes. The Radar report identifies several opportunities for defence should these guidance notes be used in evidence in claims. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#6 6 HSE

Diagnosis of pain problems depends very much on whether there is or ever has been tissue damage. Diagnostic methods will depend on causation assumptions and in turn, knowledge about causation depends on diagnostic method. the potential for circularity is apparent. In this setting, researchers attempt to identify diagnosis and causation. Evidence from: M Bennet. Pain. May (2001) Vol.92 #1-2 p 147 The diagnostic method in which variables were combined was found to have a sensitivity of 83% and specificity 87% with a corresponding positive predictive value of 86% and a negative predictive value of 84%. The test would tend to be used as evidence of tissue damage in RSI and back pain cases. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#5 2 Evidence from: C Meng et al. Journal of Rheumatology. June (2001) Vol. 28 #6 p 1271. Blood flow may be a response to or a cause of muscle pain. Either way its variation with MSD risk factor exposure would be of interest. This proof-of-principle study

Causation of mental breakdown has been accepted in some circumstances. Researchers usually study lower degrees of distress, and assume that causation would translate to the more serious outcomes. Causal direction and correction for personality traits is usually unclear. Even so, this is the research used by policy makers to define duty of care standards and  performance targets. Evidence from: J deJonge et al. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology. Mar (2001) Vol.74 #1 p.29. The most interesting result is that emotional exhaustion predicted high, perceived job-demand and not the reverse. Emotional exhaustion could be anticipated to play a role in the development of psychological ill health. But this study seems to show that perceived job demands were not causal. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#3 6 Evidence from: A Tsutsumi et al. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. Apr (2001) Vol.27 #2 p 146. The authors conclude that job strain and

Duty of care standards apply to primary prevention and response to failure of primary prevention. Mitigation is regarded as a matter for the claimant. This may be more effective if done with the assistance of the tortfeasor/insurer. Evidence from: STalo et al. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research. March (2001) Vol.24 #1 p25. Pain management programmes have variable success in chronic pain cases. The study was designed to test whether cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would work, and for whom. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#3 2   Evidence from: JB Prins et al. The Lancet. March (2001) Vol. 357 #9259 p.841. This study provides convincing evidence that training in CBT can be effectively provided to non-specialists and that CBT can make significant improvements in functional activity. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#3 3   Evidence from: C Marhold et al. Pain. March (2001) Vol.91 #1-2 p.155. CBT treatment worked to a statistical

Although simple in principle, there are many opportunities for uncertainty in the development and deployment of GMOs. Environmental liability will be connected with professional indemnity and D&O. Contractual liabilities based on failure to perform and contamination of product are foreseeable. Evidence from: Meza TJ, et al. Transgenic Res., (2001) Vol.10,  p 53-67. Modified plants, when grown in stressful conditions may behave in undexpected ways. “Failure to sfafety” would seem to be a good principle to adopt. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#2 13 Evidence from: PL Bhalla et al. Int. Arch. Allergy & Immunology. 124(2001) Vol.1-3, p51-4. Pollen sensitisation could be addressed if the allergenic property of pollen was engineered out. This research tested the removal of allergen and whether the pollen remained viable. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#4 5 Evidence from: Crawley MJ, et al. Nature,  (2001) Vol. 409 6821, p 682-3 Escape

Regulation inevitably affects liability exposure, not least because it should lead to reduced risks but also because the required standard is made more explicit and breach of duty easier to define. Evidence from: Proposed revisions to EU Directive 90/220 on deliberate releases of GMOs into the environment. Points of contention: the lack of provision for environmental liability, export from the EU to non-EU countries is less strict than import, the continued use of antibiotic resistance marker genes. The Radar report is available to subscribers: SK 1#2 10   Evidence from: Speech by David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, 10 February 2001 Mr. Byrne discussed the EU approach to engendering public acceptance of GM technology. Proceeding on the assumption that “trust can only come through transparency”, the EU approach would be to introduce “strong” regulation aimed at “giving consumers confidence” and to “promote