WHO news Climate change and human health Protecting health against the effects of climate change will be next year's theme for World Health Day (7 April 2008) and WHO's 60th anniversary celebrations. Carlos Corvalan talks about WHO's work with countries to help them tackle those effects and how climate change affects people's health.

Prolonged standing during surgical procedures poses a high risk of causing musculoskeletal disorders, including back, leg, and foot pain, which can be chronic or acute in nature. Ergonomic Tool 4: Solutions for Prolonged Standing in Perioperative Settings provides recommendations for relieving the strain of prolonged standing, including the use of antifatigue mats, supportive footwear, and sit/stand stools, that are based on well-accepted ergonomic safety concepts, current research, and access to new and emerging technology.

Universities, like cities, have embraced novel technologies and data-based solutions to improve their campuses with ‘smart’ becoming a welcomed concept. Campuses in many ways are small-scale cities. They increasingly seek to address similar challenges and to deliver improved experiences to their users. How can data be used in making this vision a reality? What can we learn from smart campuses that can be scaled up to smart cities? A short research study was conducted over a three-month period at a public university in the United Kingdom, employing stakeholder interviews and user surveys, which aimed to gain insight into these questions. Based on the study, the authors suggest that making data publicly available could bring many benefits to different groups of stakeholders and campus users. These benefits come with risks and challenges, such as data privacy and protection and infrastructure hurdles. However, if these challenges can be overcome, then open data could contribute significantly to improving campuses and user experiences, and potentially set an example for smart cities.

Nursing schools in the United States have not been teaching evidence-based practices for safe patient handling, putting their graduates at risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The specific aim of this study was to translate research related to safe patient handling into the curricula of nursing schools and evaluate the impact on nurse educators and students' intentions to use safe patient handling techniques. Nurse educators at 26 nursing schools received curricular materials and training; nursing students received the evidence-based curriculum module. There were three control sites. Questionnaires were used to collect data on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about safe patient handling for both nurse educators and students, pre- and post-training. In this study, we found that nurse educator and student knowledge improved significantly at intervention schools, as did intention to use mechanical lifting devices in the near future. We concluded that the curriculum module is ready for wide dissemination across nursing schools to reduce the risk of MSDs among nurses.

The disorderly and disrupted movement of passengers within train stations are key concerns in rail transport, especially where there are increasing numbers of passengers, coupled with often out-dated, adapted station spaces. With careful planning and design, different characteristics of lighting can be employed to address problems relating to the movement and behaviour of passengers in railway environments. This study aims to offer an approach to identify new concepts for lighting-based interventions to influence passenger movement behaviours within train stations. Behaviourally orientated lighting literature was reviewed, providing the knowledge base to inform a series of engagement activities with transport stakeholders and lighting technologists, to understand problematic behaviours and how these might be resolved through targeted lighting design. In combining findings from the literature with insights from rail and transport-related industry stakeholders and lighting specialists, a number of potential opportunities for novel applications of lighting have been identified. Six scenarios are developed that illustrate these opportunities for potential lighting-based interventions to influence train passenger movement and behaviour. These scenarios can be used to inform the direction of further research and consideration of how different lighting characteristics can affect rail passenger behaviours.

Features of lighting that can influence people’s behaviours have been identified in an earlier study, along with six scenarios where these could be applied to solve problems with movements through railway stations. The current paper describes the development and testing of novel lighting interventions for three of these scenarios, with two new products controlled by the Internet of Things technology integrated with operational railway systems. The first uses projected light to indicate preferred platform waiting locations. The second uses chasing light-emitting diode lighting along a staircase to encourage bi-directional movements. The field study has been carried out in real-world operational railway settings. An evaluation has been based on a theory-based approach to consider whether the lighting functions as intended and whether people react in anticipated ways. The study found that the lighting interventions have been successfully implemented, and there are indications of favourable responses from passengers, though these have been small effects. The approach to evaluation also assists with diagnosis of weaknesses in the initial concepts and determination of the situational factors that can compete with the behaviour influencing effect of the lighting. This enables refinement and further product development. Practical challenges in implementing trials in this type of operational setting have been identified.

Nursing educators who teach outmoded manual patient handling techniques contribute to the widespread problem of musculoskeletal disorders in student and practicing nurses. The authors discuss the development and implementation of a new safe patient handling curriculum module, which was pilot tested in 26 nursing programs. The module changes the focus of patient handling education from body mechanics to equipment-assisted safe patient lifting programs that have been shown to protect nurses from injury and improve care.

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