Arthur, We might consider too the effects on spouses and children, including school performance and the way in which the "social determinants of health" affect most heavily the disadvantaged and can cause further disadvantage. Indeed these "social determinants" greatly outweigh, I understand, the effects of genetics and lifestyle. See http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/.
There is a fascinating history to this work (Wilkinson and the British civil
service) engagingly presented by Monique Begin to a Canadian Senate Committee
(Social Affairs, Science and Technology) on February 22, 2007.
We are far from having absorbed these relatively recent findings about social
determinants into our understandings and policies. They will transform the "job
market" if we do -- indeed such concepts as a "living wage" and the health
risks associated being an "employee" are just the tip of it iceberg of change.
Where we used to worry about the stress on executives, it is now clear that
that is not the main health issue and cost involved for society -- it is stress
on the those with less control over their lives working in the hierarchies of
our institutions.
Or so I am told. I am no expert in this but it is a developing field of
research that seems well worth looking into by those of us interested in
re-designing work. (I apologize if this has already been a subject of attention
on this list.)
Gail
----- Original Message -----
From: david crane
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] At Closing Plant, Ordeal Included Heart Attacks
Arthur - indeed, not surprising. Research after the collapse of British
manufacturing due to high exchange rate for pound in Thatcher years found
significant increase in heart attacks, use of prescription pharmaceuticals and
other indicators of stress. Likewise, research in Eastern Europe and Russia
following collapse of Soviet Union showed an actual decrease in the life
expectancy of males following economic collapse. These kinds of economic
events greatly increase stress which, in turn, contributes to heart attacks and
other negative health outcomes. David Crane
----- Original Message -----
From: Arthur Cordell
To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:39 AM
Subject: [Futurework] At Closing Plant, Ordeal Included Heart Attacks
A not surprising finding.
====================================
February 24, 2010 NY Times
At Closing Plant, Ordeal Included Heart Attacks
By MICHAEL LUO
The first to have a heart attack was George Kull Jr., 56, a millwright who
worked for three decades at the steel mills in Lackawanna, N.Y. Three weeks
after learning that his plant was closing, he suddenly collapsed at home.
Less than two hours later, he was pronounced dead.
A few weeks after that, a co-worker, Bob Smith, 42, a forklift operator
with four young children, started having chest pains. He learned at the
doctor's office that he was having a heart attack. Surgeons inserted three
stents, saving his life.
Less than a month later, Don Turner, 55, a crane operator who had started
at the mills as a teenager, was found by his wife, Darlene, slumped on a love
seat, stricken by a fatal heart attack.
It is impossible to say exactly why these men, all in relatively good
health, had heart attacks within weeks of one another. But interviews with
friends and relatives of Mr. Kull and Mr. Turner, and with Mr. Smith, suggest
that the trauma of losing their jobs might have played a role.
"He was really, really worried," George Kull III said of his father. "With
his age, he didn't know where he would get another job, or if he would get
another job."
A growing body of research suggests that layoffs can have profound health
consequences. One 2006 study by a group of epidemiologists at Yale found that
layoffs more than doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke among older
workers. Another paper, published last year by Kate W. Strully, a sociology
professor at the State University of New York at Albany, found that a person
who lost a job had an 83 percent greater chance of developing a stress-related
health problem, like diabetes, arthritis or psychiatric issues.
In perhaps the most sobering finding, a study published last year found
that layoffs can affect life expectancy. The paper, by Till von Wachter, a
Columbia University economist, and Daniel G. Sullivan, director of research at
the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, examined death records and earnings data
in Pennsylvania during the recession of the early 1980s and concluded that
death rates among high-seniority male workers jumped by 50 percent to 100
percent in the year after a job loss, depending on the worker's age. Even 20
years later, deaths were 10 percent to 15 percent higher. That meant a worker
who lost his job at age 40 had his life expectancy cut by a year to a year and
half.
Additional investigation is still needed to understand the exact connection
between job loss and poor health, according to scientists. The focus is mostly
on the direct and indirect effects of stress. Acute stress can cause
biochemical changes that trigger heart attacks, for example. Job loss and
chronic stress can also lead to lifestyle changes that damage health.
Studies have, for instance, tied job loss to increased smoking and greater
chances of former smokers relapsing. Some laid-off workers might start drinking
more or exercising less. Increased prevalence of depression has been tied to
both job loss and the development of heart disease.
"We're just at the very beginning of studying pathways," said William T.
Gallo, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hunter College in New
York. "We want to find out how we can intervene so we can lessen the effects of
job loss, or eliminate them."
The anxiety among the 260 workers at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in
Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo, actually began months, even years, before
the company announced in mid-December 2008 that it was closing. Bethlehem
Steel, the previous owner, had shut the main steel mill in 1985. After it
shuttered the coke ovens across the street from the galvanizing mill in 2001,
two workers committed suicide.
Bethlehem went bankrupt in 2003, passing the galvanizing operation on to
International Steel Group, which merged with ArcelorMittal in 2005. Workers had
been fighting to preserve their jobs ever since.
Even before the plant finally closed last April, Anthony Fortunato,
president of Local 2604 of the United Steelworkers of America, counted at least
a half-dozen workers who had coronary problems dating to 2006.
A 2009 study led by Sarah A. Burgard, a professor of sociology and
epidemiology at the University of Michigan, found that "persistent perceived
job insecurity" was itself a powerful predictor of poor health and might even
be more damaging than actual job loss.
Nevertheless, it was not until after company officials announced that the
Lackawanna plant was closing that any of the workers actually died from a heart
attack.
The news of the closing hit Mr. Kull hard, according to his family. He had
always been a drinker, but now he was drinking almost every night and seemed
depressed.
"He was going out and trying to forget about all of this stuff," his son
said.
Mr. Kull, who was 5-foot-8 and a stocky 200 pounds, had a history of high
blood pressure but had passed his company physical the year before, including a
stress test. On Dec. 28, 2008, he sat down to watch a Buffalo Bills game and
have a few drinks. He got up to make dinner but collapsed on the sofa.
Weeks later, his co-worker, Mr. Smith, thought he might have pulled a
muscle while raking snow off the roof when he started having chest pains in
bed. It did not cross his mind, he said, that he might be having a heart
attack. He had no problems with his blood pressure, his cholesterol was low and
he was in decent shape, often playing hockey with his boys on their backyard
rink.
But his wife, Kim, watched as he tossed and turned at night, fretting about
whether he would find a job that paid as much as his position at the mills.
When he was still feeling uncomfortable the next day, she made him see a
doctor.
"I think the stress just got to him," she said.
Mr. Turner's wife, Darlene, noticed that he was smoking more after he
learned about the plant closing. He was up to more than two packs a day, from a
little over a pack. She also saw that he seemed to be laboring more when he
exerted himself.
About the same time, they found out that her hours had been cut at her
accounting job, to just one day a week. Still, he kept his worries to himself.
At his funeral she learned from colleagues that he had been asking for Tums at
work.
"My husband was the type of person that just kept everything inside," Mrs.
Turner said.
She came home on Feb. 13, 2009, and found her husband sitting on the love
seat, his hat and gloves still on.
At first she thought he had fallen asleep.
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