Category:
The History and Future of NIOSH Morgantown
To commemorate Workers Memorial Day, NIOSH is hosting a week of blogs with a new post each day ending on Monday, April 28th. To start us off, we will highlight the past and look to the future with a retrospective on the history of occupational safety and health research and NIOSH in Morgantown, West Virginia. Occupational Read More >
Posted on by 4 CommentsSo How Accurate Are These Smartphone Sound Measurement Apps?
NIOSH has released a free smartphone sound measurement app for iOS devices. For more info and to download the app, see the NIOSH sound level meter app page . Please share your comments on the related NIOSH science blog post. As of June 2013, 60% of all mobile subscribers use smartphones—that’s more than 140 million devices. Read More >
Posted on by 211 CommentsDo We Need to Challenge Respirator Filters With Biological Aerosols?
The purpose of this NIOSH Science Blog is to explain what is currently known about an important aspect of respirator filtration. For decades, respirator researchers have been asked whether filters need to be tested with aerosols similar to those encountered in the environment (Figure 1). Common sense suggests that viruses or bacteria are collected differently Read More >
Posted on by 8 CommentsMaking of the New NIOSH Homepage
What you told us Did you catch the St. Patrick’s Day launch of the new, streamlined NIOSH homepage? For those expecting a routine makeover, we want to take you behind the scenes. For over four years, the NIOSH Web Team has collected information through user testing and from feedback and discussions with users. We heard Read More >
Posted on by 3 CommentsMaking a Splash: Three Fishermen Saved by Personal Flotation Devices!
On the night of June 26, 2010 the fishing vessel Paul Revere, a salmon setnet skiff, capsized while setting their gear in preparation for the start of fishing season. The skipper and her two crew members were thrown in the waters of Bristol Bay near South Naknek, AK. The crew spent two harrowing hours drifting Read More >
Posted on by 7 CommentsSilica Hazards from Engineered Stone Countertops
A new engineered stone countertop product known as “quartz surfacing,” was created in the late 1980s by combining quartz aggregate with resins to create a product for use in home building and home improvement. Manufacturing of this material, including products such as CaesarStone™, Silestone™, Zodiaq™, or Cambria™ is a fast growing industry. First made in Read More >
Posted on by 67 CommentsWorld Cancer Day – Cancer Detectives in the Workplace
Today is World Cancer Day. Around the world, 12.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year, and the number is expected to increase due to the growth and aging of the population, as well as reductions in childhood mortality and deaths from infectious diseases in developing countries (ACS 2011). Cancer is the leading cause Read More >
Posted on by 8 CommentsPersistent Pain in the Neck! What Resources Help you Prevent MSDs in the Workplace?
Repetitive tasks, awkward postures, twisting and turning, or forceful exertions at work are often associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), such as neck or back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, or tendinitis. These are disorders or injuries that affect muscles, tendons, nerves, discs, ligaments, etc. They remain a leading work-related condition. About 30% of all injuries and Read More >
Posted on by 16 CommentsUsing Workers’ Compensation Records for Safety and Health Research
Workers’ compensation insurance has been established in all states to provide income protection, medical treatment, and rehabilitation for employees who are injured or become ill as a result of work. Workers’ compensation claims and medical treatment records along with other information resources have been used to conduct occupational safety and health research and surveillance and Read More >
Posted on by 69 CommentsControlling Exposures to Workers Who Make or Use Nanomaterials
Background It is difficult to estimate how many workers are involved in this field. By one estimate, there are 400,000 workers worldwide in the field of nanotechnology, with an estimated 150,000 of those in the United States [Roco et al. 2010]. The National Science Foundation has estimated that approximately 6 million workers will be Read More >
Posted on by 5 CommentsWhat’s Next for the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods
Many products essential to daily life are produced using chemicals that can endanger human health unless properly controlled. While the end product may be safe for the consumer, the workers who manufacture the product may be occupationally exposed to the chemical ingredients more directly or at higher concentrations than the consumer who uses the Read More >
Posted on by 3 CommentsReducing Worker Exposure to ETS
What better time than during the American Cancer Society’s annual Great American Smokeout, to highlight the benefit of comprehensive smoke-free workplaces on the health of workers. Furnishing a smoke-free work environment has been shown to both reduce exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among non-smokers, and also to decrease smoking among employees. In Massachusetts, recent Read More >
Posted on by 6 CommentsWomen in Science
“When I grow up, I want to be an industrial hygienist.” Hearing a ten-year-old girl say those words would probably warrant a double take. While there might be some little girls out there dreaming about one day conducting research and working in a laboratory, studies suggest that more often, it’s a ten-year-old boy who will Read More >
Posted on by 14 CommentsLadder Safety: There’s an App for That
NIOSH recently released its first smart phone application (app) for mobile devices. This free app is aimed at improving extension ladder safety by providing real-time safety information delivered via the latest technology. Falls are a persistent source of injury in many occupations and in home use. Falls are the number one cause of construction-worker fatalities Read More >
Posted on by 45 CommentsFree On-line Violence Prevention Training for Nurses
In 2012, the Healthcare and Social Assistance (HCSA) sector was amongst the largest industry sectors in the U.S. employing an estimated 19.4 million workers (13.5% of the total workforce)[1]. On average, over the last decade, U.S. healthcare workers have accounted for two-thirds of the nonfatal workplace violence injuries in all industries involving days away from Read More >
Posted on by 34 CommentsThe Importance of Occupational Safety and Health: Making for a “Super” Workplace
There’s just something about superhero movie summer releases that gets us here at NIOSH excited about safety. This summer the source of our inspiration came from the Man of Steel© movie. In the film, pre-Superman Clark Kent is working as a commercial fisherman (a hazardous job if you’re not a man of steel). He risks Read More >
Posted on by 29 Comments1-Bromopropane
1-Bromopropane (1-BP), also known as n-propyl bromide (nPB), is an organic solvent used in a number of commercial and industrial applications. 1-BP may be found in products used in vapor and immersion degreasing operations for cleaning metal, plastics, electronic and optical components; in adhesive spray applications; and in dry cleaning operations. 1-BP may also be Read More >
Posted on by 8 CommentsFirst NIOSH Comic Helps Dispel Internet “Myth”
In June, we released the first-ever NIOSH comic Straight Talk About Nail Gun Safety. The comic has been well received by organizations and stakeholders interested in increasing awareness and prevention of injuries resulting from nail gun use. In the publication we described (p 1, panel 3) the pneumatic nail gun (PNG) velocity, 150 ft/sec, Read More >
Posted on by 43 CommentsReducing Taxicab Homicides
Taxicab drivers face one of the highest homicide rates of any occupation. While rates of homicide have declined among the general working population (in 2010, 0.37 per 100,000 employed), they remain high in the taxicab industry (7.4 per 100,000 employed for the same year). In the early 1990s, bullet-resistant partitions were the dominant safety equipment Read More >
Posted on by 44 CommentsWomen’s Health at Work
This week is Women’s Health Week. With over 58% of U.S. women in the labor force[i], the workplace must be considered when looking at women’s overall health. We must keep in mind that susceptibility to hazards can be different for men and women. Additionally, women face different workplace health challenges than men partly because men Read More >
Posted on by 62 Comments