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The E-Newsbrief of the National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training is a free weekly newsletter focusing on new developments in the world of worker health and safety.
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Opportunity to make reservations in the hotel block for the 2024 NIEHS WTP Fall Awardee Meeting and Workshop closes Monday, September 30, 2024, 5:00 p.m. EDT. The awardee meeting will be held October 22, 2024, and will be in-person only. The workshop to be held October 23-24, 2024, will be in-person only at the NIEHS campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Registration for the awardee meeting and workshop will close October 11, 2024, 5:00 p.m. ET.
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COVID-19 killed more than 3,600 U.S. health care workers in the first year of the pandemic. It left many more with physical and mental illnesses, and a gutting sense of abandonment. Workers experiences have been detailed in state investigations, surveys of nurses, and published studies. More than a dozen lawsuits filed on behalf of residents or workers at nursing facilities also detail experiences and allege that accommodations were not made for workers facing depression and PTSD triggered by their pandemic duties. Health care workers and unions reported risky conditions to state and federal agencies, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had fewer inspectors in 2020 to investigate complaints than at any point in a half-century.
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After earlier trouble scrubbing liquid radioactive waste down to levels acceptable for solidification, the Hanford Site has produced more than 550,000 gallons of compliant waste, a federal official said at an industry gathering. The 550,000 gallons is the beginning of a batch of roughly 800,000 gallons of compliant waste that the site wants to have ready by this time next year. Leftover from Cold War plutonium production for nuclear weapons, the 56 million gallons of liquid waste at Hanford are stored in an expansive network of underground tanks.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third close contact of a patient in Missouri hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu reported that they also experienced symptoms. The person, a health care worker, was not tested because their symptoms resolved before the investigation into the illnesses began. This contact is the second health care worker to report developing symptoms after contact with the patient. The first was tested for flu, and the results were negative. Normally, health care workers are of high interest to disease detectives because they are often among the first to fall ill in outbreaks, but the agency says the risk of H5N1 to the general population remains low.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees a network of roughly 4,000 monitors across the country that measure the levels of six pollutants, including ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter, that are detrimental to human health. Research indicates that communities of color are often closer to industrial polluters and are disproportionately exposed to air pollution. To help address gaps in air pollution monitoring, the EPA awarded $53 million in grants to 133 community groups in 2022. Funded by the Inflation reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, the grant program focuses on places that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution. Earlier this year, many of those community groups began setting up their own air quality monitors to identify pollution from industrial operations, waste burning, and oil and gas development, among other sources.
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The Women’s Bureau is hosting a panel that will highlight the significant contributions and achievements of Latina leaders in the modern labor movement. Distinguished speakers will share their experiences, challenges, and successes in advocating for workers’ rights and fostering inclusive workplaces. The panel will take place October 8, 2024, 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET.
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Disaster planning and recovery have historically centered around a single, isolated event. However, climate change is driving more high-intensity events, with disaster after disaster striking the same regions, leaving them with no time to fully recover between events and thus exacerbating the impact of each subsequent incident. Infrastructure resilience is one aspect: constructed buildings, such as homes, are unable to withstand the compounding impacts of multiple disasters, leaving already vulnerable populations without shelter and comfort. This Climate Conversations webinar will discuss housing resilience and access in the context of compounding disasters and how to rethink our disaster framework to adapt to this new reality. The webinar will take place October 25, 2024, 12:30-1:45 p.m. ET.
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The Rutgers University Center for Public Health Workforce Development hosted a webinar on inhalation transmission and healthcare workers. Recordings of the presentations are now available on their website, including panel discussions and case studies. Attendees of the webinar reviewed and analyzed the developments in air/inhalation transmission science, discussed the World Health Organization’s updated terminology for pathogens transmitted through the air, and discussed the concrete steps that can be taken to promote the recognition of air/inhalation transmission science among healthcare facilities, health departments, and government agencies.
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Each year, thousands of construction workers suffer head injuries on the job. Based on historical data, over 50,000 nonfatal work-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are treated annually in U.S. emergency departments, and between 2003 and 2010, over 2,000 construction workers died from a TBI. This webinar, hosted by CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training, will explore: 1) TBIs and their impact on construction workers, 2) how to select protective headgear to prevent TBIs, and 3) what the current standards say about head protection. The webinar will take place October 15, 2024, 2:00-3:15 p.m. ET.
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A letter to the editor of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine responds to a publication titled, “An urgent call to address work‐related psychosocial hazards and improve worker well‐being.” While the authors of this letter fully agree with the conclusions of that publication, they offer three additional recommendations that could be good starting points for developing national regulations for workplace psychosocial hazards.
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Twenty years ago, it was legal for the battery recycling facility in the City of Industry, California, to spew harmful emissions into the air. A health hazard assessment in 2000 found that the smelter’s releases of lead, arsenic, benzene, and 1,3-butadiene raised the risk of cancer in surrounding neighborhoods more than any other facility in Los Angeles County. In 2008, the facility installed pollution-control equipment that uses an electric charge to capture particulate pollution and wash it away, significantly dropping lead releases, but the company has still occasionally exceeded limits. A new permit would require the company to pay for expanded air and soil monitoring, including installing an air monitor in a nearby neighborhood for the first time. Despite these monitoring measures, it is not clear whether more monitoring and transparency would protect the public.
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The wildfire that hit the town of Lahaina, Hawaii, was the definition of extreme. Wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour drove the flames with alarming speed, eventually destroying more than 2,000 homes and buildings, but even in those catastrophic conditions, some homes survived. In the wake of Lahaina’s fire in August 2023, the surviving structures were assessed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. The institute studies why buildings burn, and found that many surviving homes in Lahaina had features that made them more resistant to burning, including certain building materials and the surrounding vegetation in their yards. Research shows that cost-effective projects to reduce flammable brush and build homes with fire-resistant materials can reduce the chances that a house will burn.
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Extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related illness and death in the United States, causing more fatalities in a typical year than hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms, and floods. To become more resilient to these events, communities across the U.S. are developing heat action plans and updating all-hazard plans to prepare for extreme heat’s impacts on people, businesses, and critical infrastructure. The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) is hosting this challenge to invite local governments, in close collaboration with community members and leaders, to develop Heat Tabletop Exercise Situation Manuals complete with realistic extreme heat scenarios to exercise heat action plans.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to establish a new program to better manage, recycle, and reuse climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The final rule includes provisions that will reduce wasteful leaks from large refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and will support American leadership and innovation in the development of clean solutions to tackle these dangerous heat-trapping emissions. By reducing leaks and promoting innovative reuse of existing HFCs, this final rule will help the nation achieve an 85% HFC phasedown by 2036, while boosting American leadership and competitiveness.
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The Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $3 billion for 25 selected projects across 14 states to boost the domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials nationwide. The portfolio of selected projects, once fully contracted, are projected to support over 8,000 construction jobs and over 4,000 operating jobs. Batteries are critical to strengthening the U.S. grid, powering American homes and businesses, and supporting the electrification of the transportation sector. Of the 25 projects selected, more than half have committed to or already have signed a Project Labor Agreement commitment and 10 have an agreement with labor or a neutrality pledge.
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The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has scheduled an online meeting of the Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH) on October 17, 2024, 1-4 p.m. EDT. The agenda will feature regulatory updates from OSHA, a report from FACOSH’s Subcommittee on Best Practices and Lessons Learned, input from the department’s Wage and Hour Division, and remarks by Douglas Parker, the assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health. Public and member attendance at the meeting is online only.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and AmeriCorps announced the Environmental Justice Climate Corps, a new partnership for people to serve in careers that benefit disadvantaged and other low-income communities. This historic initiative is the largest environmental partnership in AmeriCorps’ history and the first nationwide service effort at EPA. The Environmental Justice Climate Corps is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Climate Corps—a workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy.
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Amy K. Liebman, MPA, Chief Program Officer of Workers, Environment, and Climate at the Migrant Clinicians Network, received the Shelley Davis Humanitarian Award as part of the 24th Annual Legacy Awards presented by Farmworker Justice. The award recognizes those who have made notable contributions to farmworker communities. At Migrant Clinicians Network, a partner organization of Worker Training Program awardee Atlantic Center for Occupational Health and Safety Training, Liebman has established nationally recognized initiatives to improve the health and safety of immigrant workers and their families. She oversees programs ranging from integrating occupational and environmental medicine into primary care to designing worker safety interventions.
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The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) and the Office for Total Worker Health at NIOSH have teamed up to develop an online portal for safety researchers and employers. The HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse is an open-source database that houses “de-identified” data from the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire. According to its website, HERO is dedicated to identifying and sharing best practices to improve the health and well-being of workers, their spouses, dependents, and retirees.
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A collaboration between The Sick Times and Long COVID Justice is publishing resources that provide foundational information about navigating Long COVID. There will be over 30 resource sheets in total designed by and for people with Long COVID and associated diseases.
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Portsmouth Naval Shipyard employs a civilian workforce of top-tier professionals to safely overhaul, repair, and modernize the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet. As an industrial hygienist, you will anticipate and recognize hazards, evaluate exposures, implement control measures, and confirm protection from risks to shipyard workers’ health and safety. You will manage health and safety programs such as respiratory protection, control of hazardous metals, laser safety, hearing conservation, industrial ventilation, and hazard communication. In addition to directly supporting employees in each trade, industrial hygienists collaborate with the shipyard’s engineering departments to incorporate health and safety protocols into planned work for each submarine’s maintenance availability period.
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