NIOSH Science Blog Posts
Your NIOSH Top 5 for 2014
What did you read in 2014? While we aren’t privy to your favorite beach read or your book club selections, we do know what caught your eye on the NIOSH blog and website. Your favorite blogs last year are listed below. So How Accurate Are These Smartphone Sound Measurement Apps? N95 Respirators and Surgical Read More >
Posted on by 6 CommentsHappy Holidays from NIOSH- 2014
Health Hazard Evaluations Aging Patient Handling PPE Young Workers Read More >
Posted on by 6 CommentsIs 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 17 CommentsBuilding Better Buoyancy – Developing Innovative Life Vests for Commercial Fishermen
Think about wearing a life jacket to work. What comes to mind? Do you think cool, comfortable, and easy-to-work in? Or, are you more inclined to think of life jackets as cumbersome, uncomfortable, and interfering? If you are leaning toward the latter, you’re right on track with what NIOSH heard from commercial fishermen back in Read More >
Posted on by 11 CommentsWhat Works Best to Prevent Stress Among Healthcare Workers: Changing the organization or educating staff?
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals have to make many decisions on a daily basis. These decisions can involve risk assessment methods, preventive workplace measures, workers’ health surveillance or even rehabilitation or return-to-work practices. According to the principles of evidence based practice, such decisions should be guided by high-quality scientific knowledge (van Dijk et Read More >
Posted on by 10 CommentsProlonged Standing at Work
The National Retail Federation forecasts that retailers and merchants will hire between 730,000 and 790,000 seasonal workers this holiday season.[i] Many of these workers, such as sales associates and cashiers, have little, if any, opportunity to sit during their work shift. Increasingly, workers across a variety of occupations are required to stand for long periods Read More >
Posted on by 27 CommentsSafety and Health for Immigrant Workers
The United States workforce, like the population in general, is becoming more ethnically diverse. “We are and always will be a nation of immigrants,” President Obama stated recently in announcing his initiative on immigration reform. The Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project estimates that immigrants will make up roughly 23% of adults of working Read More >
Posted on by 23 CommentsCollecting Data on Worker Hearing Loss: 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. Hearing loss is one of the most common chronic health conditions Read More >
Posted on by 8 CommentsThanksgiving Ergonomics: Reducing material handling injuries with engineering controls
If you haven’t purchased your 20 pound Thanksgiving turkey or your 10 pound bag of potatoes rest assured employees at your local grocery stores are busy restocking the shelves each day with your favorite Thanksgiving foods. It‘s hard enough lifting those items into your cart but what about the workers who haul those tons Read More >
Posted on by 23 CommentsFirst, Do No Harm: Temporary Threshold Shift Screening Is Not Worth the Risk
Recently, a study by Dr. Hanns Moshammer and colleagues on “The Early Prognosis of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss” garnered national media attention.[1] Their research, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, [2] recommended routine implementation of a temporary threshold shift (TTS) screening test to identify workers particularly at risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) from Read More >
Posted on by 9 CommentsA Health and Safety Evaluation at an Airline Catering Facility
The airline industry predicts that more than 24 million people will fly during the Thanksgiving holiday this year. If you are one of those passengers, chances are that you’ll have a snack or a soda on your way to your destination. Before reaching your seat, those snacks, beverages, and meals are prepared, assembled, and Read More >
Posted on by 10 CommentsWork-family Conflict, Sleep, and the Heart
Health care workers represent an increasingly important and ever growing work force in our society. They are also a group of “high-risk workers” meaning they report a lot of musculoskeletal pain, work-related injuries and sleep deficiencies. In addition to this, many health care workers labor in rotating shifts, with little time in-between shifts, so Read More >
Posted on by 7 CommentsMotor 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 7 CommentsIntervening for Work Stress: Work-life Stress and Total Worker Health Approaches
The NIOSH Office for Total Worker HealthTM recently launched a series of posts discussing total worker health (TWH) issues on the NIOSH Science Blog. As part of this series, we will summarize select TWH webinars and allow those who couldn’t participate in the original broadcast an opportunity to correspond with the presenters. Below you will Read More >
Posted on by 9 CommentsProtecting 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 13 CommentsSpooky Safety
Were you wondering how the NIOSH Science Blog was going to tie in to Halloween? After all, if we have something to say about National Doughnut Day, there has to be a connection to Halloween, right? For us, the problem was picking which horrifying hazard to highlight. Well, we aren’t going to talk about the Read More >
Posted on by 8 CommentsKeeping the Momentum Going for Total Worker Health
Earlier this month NIOSH hosted the 1st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker HealthTM together with 17 other partners. The symposium was a tremendous success. The over 350 attendees were able to learn from the perspectives of over 100 presenters from within the United States and other countries representing nonprofit, private, government, and academic institutions, Read More >
Posted on by 5 CommentsDrive Safely Work Week 2014
The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) is calling on leaders of companies and organizations to emphasize road safety for all employees—not just those who drive company vehicles— as a core component of the organization’s safety culture. NIOSH supports this call to action. This year, the theme of Drive Safely Work Week (DSWW), NETS’s Read More >
Posted on by 13 CommentsCan Predictive Analytics Help Reduce Workplace Risk?
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” — Niels Bohr Text message to chemical plant manager: Chlorine leak expected on line 2 tomorrow. Inspect and repair. High priority email and automatic call to coal mine superintendent: 83% chance of roof fall on section 4. Evacuate immediately and take corrective actions. Monthly Read More >
Posted on by 30 CommentsOccupational Exposures at Electronic Scrap Recycling Facilities
Go Green! Recycle! We have all heard the call to be more environmentally conscious. However, not everyone is aware of the many health and safety hazards facing employees who handle the recycling of electronics. Many recycled electronics can contain hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and other toxic metals. In 2011, the U.S. e-scrap recycling Read More >
Posted on by 41 Comments