Category: Emergency Response/Public Sector

Arduous Duty: Using Three Data Sources to Create a Single Wildland Fire Fighter On-Duty Death Surveillance System

Wildland fire fighters are required to pass an “arduous duty” physical fitness test annually to help ensure that they are prepared for the physical nature of the job. Unlike structural fire fighting, wildland fire fighting often requires long work shifts that may last up to 14 continuous days, and often takes place in environments that Read More >

Posted on by CDR Christa Hale, LCDR Corey Butler, and Elizabeth Dalsey, M.A. 2 Comments

Maintaining a Relationship with your Turnout Gear

Sent flowers? Check. Made dinner reservations? Check. Purchased one of those mandatory heart-shaped boxes of candy? Check. Conducted routine cleaning of your turnout gear… wait. What? Valentine’s Day is all about putting in a little extra effort to maintain the important relationships in our lives. Way back in 2013, we began a tradition of taking Read More >

Posted on by Jay Tarley and Jaclyn Krah Cichowicz 3 Comments

Occupational Health Issues in the USA

Happy New Year. As we start afresh in 2017 I wanted to share my recent editorial in the British journal, Occupational Medicine, “Occupational health issues in the USA”.  The article highlights some of the occupational safety and health issues identified as needing attention by the industry sector groups of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).  Read More >

Posted on by John Howard, MD11 Comments

Capturing Work-related Injuries from Emergency Department Data

Work-related injuries frequently occur, despite the fact that many are preventable. It is critical that we accurately describe and monitor these injuries in order to improve prevention efforts. Because there is no comprehensive data source that captures all work-related injuries, the occupational injury community relies on multiple sources to describe the problem. The occupational supplement Read More >

Posted on by Audrey Reichard, Suzanne Marsh, and Rebecca OlsavskyLeave a comment

Deepwater Horizon

With last week’s premier of the movie Deepwater Horizon, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) remembers the workers who were killed and injured in the explosion as well as the tens of thousands who worked on containment and clean up activities. NIOSH played an important role in protecting and monitoring the health and Read More >

Posted on by CDR Lisa Delaney, MS, CIH2 Comments

National Safety Month

It’s National Safety Month. Each June, the National Safety Council and its partners raise awareness on preventing the leading causes of injury and death at work, on the roads and in our homes and communities.  This year’s theme is SafeForLife. Each week of June has a different focus area. In this joint blog from the Read More >

Posted on by John Howard, MD, and Kathy Lane 2 Comments

One Size Does Not Fit All

  When your safety and your life depends on it, you need your equipment to fit properly. This is especially true in the workplace. Improper fit may prevent workers from performing their job duties safely and effectively. If your respirator does not seal properly to your face, if your gloves are too big, if your seatbelt Read More >

Posted on by Hongwei Hsiao, PhD4 Comments

Health Effects from 9/11: Lessons Learned

  Today, as the world remembers the terrorist attacks of 9/11 we must also remember that tens of thousands of responders and survivors of the disaster continue to suffer adverse health effects every day. Multiple types of toxic exposures were encountered by the responders, clean-up personnel and residents of the surrounding community. A new Continuing Read More >

Posted on by Max Lum, Ed.D., MPA15 Comments

NIOSH Research Highlights Importance of Rigorous Standards for Gowns Used to Protect Healthcare Workers

  Recent research performed at the NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), with support from Nelson Laboratories, suggests that some isolation gowns do not meet the performance standards established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). Isolation gowns are the second-most-used piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) Read More >

Posted on by Selcen Kilinc-Balci, PhD, MBA and Maryann D’Alessandro, PhD9 Comments

Workplace Suicide

  The research literature on occupation and suicide has consistently identified several occupations at high risk for suicide: farmers, medical doctors, law enforcement officers, and soldiers. However, there are few studies examining suicides that occur in U.S. workplaces. Recently published research from NIOSH, examined suicides occurring in U.S. workplaces between 2003 and 2010 and compared workplace Read More >

Posted on by Hope M. Tiesman, PhD 11 Comments

A Perfect Romance: A Valentine’s Day Guide to the Necessary Considerations of CBRN APR Use

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear … no, we’re not talking about our plans for Valentine’s Day. For the last few years NIOSH has celebrated this romantic holiday by showing a little love for respirators. This year we are highlighting the special considerations necessary for the use of CBRN APRs (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Air-Purifying Read More >

Posted on by Jaclyn Krah, MA4 Comments

Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development – How NIOSH is Helping Design Improved Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers

The current Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the largest in history and is unprecedented in many ways, including the large number of healthcare workers who have been infected while treating patients. The large scale of the epidemic, as well as the two healthcare workers who contracted Ebola while caring for the first case in Read More >

Posted on by Ronald Shaffer, PhD27 Comments

Be Pioneers to Protect Our Volunteers!

Emergency responders, such as police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics, are often on the front lines during a disaster, which makes them particularly vulnerable to work-related injuries and illnesses during a response. The scientific community has some knowledge about occupational injuries and illnesses among these groups from surveillance systems currently in place, notably the Bureau Read More >

Posted on by Kimberly Brinker, RN, MSN, MPH1 Comment

Is There a Link Between Firefighting and Cancer? – Epidemiology in Action

Epidemiology is the art and science of using data to answer questions about the health of groups. In occupational epidemiology, we use that data to understand how work affects health. This blog entry is part of a series that shares the stories behind the data. Firefighters face numerous hazards in the line of duty. The Read More >

Posted on by Robert D. Daniels, PhD, CHP17 Comments

Motor Vehicle Safety and Law Enforcement Officers

In 2010, motor-vehicle-related events accounted for approximately two out of every five fatal work injuries in the United States [BLS 2011a]. Non-fatal motor-vehicle crashes can result in serious long-term injuries, permanent disabilities, and costly medical care. Notably absent from motor-vehicle research has been research addressing the safety of law enforcement officers who not only spend Read More >

Posted on by Hope M. Tiesman, PhD7 Comments

Protecting Workers from Ebola: Eight Knowledge Generation Priorities

  On November 3, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies convened a workshop of distinguished representatives from the public and private sectors.   The participants were asked to suggest priorities for research that will “provide public health officials, healthcare providers, and the general public with the most up-to-date information Read More >

Posted on by John Howard, MD; Margaret Kitt, MD; Maryann D’Alessandro, PhD; Lisa Delaney, MS, CIH; Chad Dowell MS, CIH13 Comments

Emergency Preparedness Month

September is Emergency Preparedness Month. To mark this event, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announces the new NIOSH Emergency Preparedness and Response Directory web page. The page will help our stakeholders find resources faster and easier for preventing injury and illness among responders in the line of duty. The web page Read More >

Posted on by Michelle R. Martin, MS10 Comments

WTC Rescue/Recovery and Obstructive Airway Disease

  The inhalation of chemicals, particulate matter (dusts and fibers), and the incomplete products of combustion during occupational and environmental disasters has long been associated with respiratory disorders[1]. While there is substantial literature on the association between respiratory diseases and chronic environmental exposures such as air pollution and long term occupational exposure in industries such Read More >

Posted on by Charles B. Hall, PhD6 Comments

GAO Report on Adding Cancers to WTC Covered Conditions

The World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program was established by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (Act), and is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The Program provides medical monitoring and treatment at no cost for enrolled responders at the WTC and related sites in New Read More >

Posted on by Paul J. Middendorf, PhD, CIH7 Comments

Free Online Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance Training

An Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) system is a critical component in protecting emergency workers from the safety and health risks inherent in emergency response work.  An ERHMS system includes specific recommendations and tools for all phases of a response, including the pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment phase.  Medical monitoring and surveillance can help Read More >

Posted on by Renée Funk, DVM, MPH&TM, MBA, DACVPM15 Comments