Central Support Unit
Clinical Occupational Medicine

The central support unit "Clinical Occupational Medicine" coordinates further medical education in the institute and performs the function of the occupational doctor. To meet the medical education, this central support unit is integrated in medical surveys for compensation of occupational diseases concerning the Employers’ Liability Insurance Association and social court proceedings as well. The central support unit cooperates with different medical departments to enable or corroborate contacts for different research groups of the institute and to promote medical education in the field of occupational medicine.

Members

• Klaus Golka (head)

Current research

The staff of the central support unit is integrated in and cooperates with those research groups of the institute who need expertise in the field of occupational medicine. These are mainly:

• Research group "Chronobiology" (e. g., cooperation in medical examination and surveillance of volunteers)
• Research group "Flexible behaviour control" (e. g., medical examination of volunteers)
• Research group "Individual visual performance" (e. g., joint check of the visual function according to the principles of the Employers’ Liability Insurance Association)
• Research group "Physical environment" (e. g., medical examination of volunteers)
• Research group "Chemical risks" (e. g., cooperation in the evaluation of experimental findings with respect to the relevance in occupational medicine)
• Research group "Individual susceptibility to dangerous chemicals"
• Research group ""Neurobehavioral toxicology and chemosensation" (e. g., funded rotation of residents to survey exposure studies, cooperation in examination of patients suspected to suffer from diseases of the central and/or peripheral nervous system possibly caused by neurotoxicants)
   
• Intergroup research initiative “Urothelium and chemical toxicity" ("UroTox")
  The intergroup research initiative “UroTox” links research on chemical effects on urinary bladder and kidney (research group "Chemical risks", research group "Molecular toxicology ") with occupationally based clinical studies focussed on risk factors for urinary bladder or kidney cancer (research group "Individual susceptibility to dangerous chemicals", central support unit "Clinical Occupational Medicine") and the central support unit "Analytical chemistry"
   
• Within the scope of the occupational doctor of the institute, an enhanced procedure to test visual functions is offered to the staff of the institute in close cooperation with the research group "Individual visual performance" which originated the procedure.

Selected publications

• Golka K., Weistenhöfer W.: Fire fighters, combustion products, and urothelial cancer. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health Part B Crit. Rev. 11 32-44 (2008)
• Weistenhöfer W., Blaszkewicz M., Bolt H.M., Golka K.: N-Acetyltransferase 2 and medical history in bladder cancer cases with a suspected occupational disease (BK 1301) in Germany. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health Part A 71 906-910 (2008)
• Kiemeney L.A., Thorlacius S., Sulem P., Geller F., Aben K.K., Stacey S.N., Gudmundsson J., Jakobsdottir M., Bergthorsson J.T., Sigurdsson A., Blondal T., J. Witjes J.A., Vermeulen S.H., Hulsbergen-van de Kaa C.A., Swinkels D.W., Ploeg M., Cornel E.B., Vergunst H., Thorgeirsson T. E., Gudbjartsson D., Gudjonsson S.A., Thorleifsson G., Kristinsson K.T., Mouy M., Snorradottir S., Placidi D., Campagna M., Arici C., Koppova K., Gurzau E., Rudnai P., Kellen E., Polidoro P., Guarrera S., Sacerdote C., Sanchez M., Saez B., Valdivia G., Ryk C., de Verdier P., Lindblom A., Golka K, Bishop D.T., Knowles M.A., Nikulasson S., Petursdottir V., Jonsson E., Geirsson G., Kristjansson B., Mayordomo J.I., Steineck G., Porru S., Buntinx F., Zeegers M.P., Fletcher T., Kumar R., Matullo G., Vineis P., Kiltie A.E., Gulcher J.R., Thorsteinsdottir U., Kong A., Rafnar T., Stefansson K.: Sequence variant on 8q24 confers susceptibility to urinary bladder cancer. Nat. Genet. 40 1307-1312 (2008)
• Bolt H.M., Golka K.: The debate on carcinogenicity of permanent hair dyes: new insights. Crit. Rev. Toxicol. 37 521-536 (2007)