(Hypertension. 2000;35:e17.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.
Hypertension Electronic Pages |
Hypertension Electronic Pages
 |
Introduction |
|---|
Occupational Medicine: State of the Art Reviews: The Workplace and Cardiovascular Disease
Volume 15, Number 1.
Peter L. Schnall, Karen Belkic, Paul Landsbergis, and Dean Baker, eds. 352 pp.
Philadelphia, Penn: Hanley and Belfus; 2000.
US rates: $36.00 for a single issue; $ 96.00 for the series (4 issues).
ISBN 1-56053-32500.
On the same day that I rather hastily reviewed this book, 2 other experiences highlighted its main message: today’s workplace and the strains that are imposed on most working people are major contributors to cardiovascular disease in general and to hypertension in particular. The first of these experiences was riding in a taxi through Manhattan to New York LaGuardia airport, and the second was viewing Boiler Room, a movie about a group of young men selling worthless securities over the phone to naïve buyers (including physicians). Seeing the frenzy, the physical and psychological stress, and the frustrations of the cabdriver and the stockbroker, people on the 2 extremes of American occupations, brought home the reality of what is described in this book.
As the 4 editors and 34 other contributors repeatedly document, we are
all threatened by Karoski: the Japanese term for death from overwork
(as described in the chapters on Working Life in Japan). It’s really
not so much overwork but "job strain" that seems to be doing us in.
Throughout the 300 plus pages, this message comes through loud and
clear. To the authors’ credit, every aspect of the role of job strain
in causing cardiovascular