Identify the ethical issues in the following case study:

You are collecting data on workers in a manufacturing plant in order to examine the association between job tasks and health outcomes. You will extract data from the employee personnel records on age, job tasks, average weight lifted daily, and exposure to noise in plant.

Workers will also go through a health screening including:

weight and height

interview regarding chronic health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease

blood draw to assay plasma lipid levels $($plasma triglyceride and cholesterol$)$

questionnaire to assess depressive symptoms

strength and flexibility testing

screen to determine hearing loss

You originally planned to administer informed consent prior to collecting any data on each worker, but the employer says this can$$t be done because it would result in decreased productivity. The employer says they have told workers that participation is mandatory, so consent is not needed.

You will enter data into an excel spreadsheet that will be saved on the hard drive of your laptop. During the hearing evaluation, you will write down the results on a piece of paper that includes the worker$$s name, age, and home address. You will take these forms back to the lab at UC$.$

The employer wants copies of the data that you collect. The employer says anonymous data is OK$,$ as long as you include age and gender of each subject.

Questions for Case Study

Do you need IRB approval? If you don$$t know, how do you find out?

Yes, you can go to the fda website to find out.

Is it reasonable to bypass the informed consent process in order to avoid decreasing worker productivity?

Is it ethical for the employer to make participation in the study mandatory? Why or why not?

How can both the electronic and paper data be kept confidential and private?

Is it ethical to give copies of the data to the employer? Why or why not?

What should you do if you have a participant who scores as being $$severely depressed and suicidal?$$ What is your ethical responsibility as a researcher in this situation?

What are the possible risks and benefits for the worker regarding this study? Discuss possible risks and benefits for the worker regarding this study. $[$Remember: Each of these risks and benefits need to be in the informed consent.$]$