Medical and technological research must be coordinated in order to find and reduce the risk factors for major public health diseases. This is the main concept behind the new METALUND FAS centre. In the coming years, research will therefore focus very clearly on identifying risk factors in the workplace and external environment that have a definite impact on human health.
The research group also wants interdisciplinary collaboration to result in knowledge being applied in practice and used preventatively, before injuries occur or people become affected by ill health. This applies equally to designing new technology, developing new production systems within industry, and reviewing the permitted threshold levels of harmful air particles in the workplace.
Researchers working at METALUND are normally found in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology at the Lund Institute of Technology.
“We have already collaborated on various research projects, but the funding from FAS allows us to address these issues in a more concerted manner,” says Maria Albin, Associate Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and project leader for METALUND.
The researchers have focused on factors of importance to public health, such as air pollution in the workplace and external environment, and what effects they have on respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease and birth weight. Conversely, if we look at cardiovascular disease we also find that noise in the workplace and external environment is a risk factor, as are certain heavy metals.
“We will examine this type of relationship and also look at protective effects such as natural sounds and certain landscape images,” explains Maria Albin. “Our ongoing projects include studying how people like the areas where they live and we can already see that certain landscape types such as varied nature, wilderness and plant species richness are associated with people liking their neighbourhoods better, exercising more, being less obese and so forth. This is important knowledge from the social planning standpoint.”
METALUND works very broadly at the intersection between work environment, external environment and health. A total of six research groups will focus their studies on the topics of respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, renal disease and diabetes, cancer and reproductive health, stress related health problems and methods for risk assessment and risk management. A national research school is also associated with METALUND.
Text: Sara Bergqvist Månsson
FAS centre funding: SEK5 million annually.
For further information: 
, www.ammlund.se
