Showing papers in "New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy in 2014"
TL;DR: The unique work environment of long-haul truckers is delineated, and comprehensive, multi-level strategies with potential to protect and promote the health, safety, and well-being of truckers are proposed, while reducing adverse consequences for companies and highway safety are proposed.
Abstract: Long-haul truck drivers in North America function in a work context marked by excess physical and psychological workload, erratic schedules, disrupted sleep patterns, extreme time pressures, and these factors’ far-reaching consequences. These work-induced stressors are connected with excess risk for cardiometabolic disease, certain cancers, and musculoskeletal and sleep disorders, as well as highway crashes, which in turn exert enormous financial burdens on trucking and warehousing companies, governments and healthcare systems, along with working people within the sector. This article: 1) delineates the unique work environment of long-haul truckers, describing their work characteristics and duties; (2) discusses the health hazards of long-haul trucking that impact drivers, the general population, and trucking enterprises, examining how this work context induces, sustains, and exacerbates these hazards; and (3) proposes comprehensive, multi-level strategies with potential to protect and promote the health, safety, and well-being of truckers, while reducing adverse consequences for companies and highway safety.
54 citations
TL;DR: This article presents an analysis of the essential elements of effective occupational safety and health education and training programs targeting underserved communities, with specific emphasis on considerations for programs involving low-literacy and limited-English-speaking workers.
Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the essential elements of effective occupational safety and health education and training programs targeting underserved communities. While not an exhaustive review of the literature on occupational safety and health training, the paper provides a guide for practitioners and researchers to the key factors they should consider in the design and implementation of training programs for underserved communities. It also addresses issues of evaluation of such programs, with specific emphasis on considerations for programs involving low-literacy and limited-English-speaking workers.
51 citations
49 citations
TL;DR: Study of schedule preferences in a retail chain in Québec found that most workers wanted: more advance notice; early shifts; regular schedules; two days off in sequence; and weekends off; but also that employers could give better advance notice and establish systems for shift exchanges.
Abstract: Increasingly, work schedules in retail sales are generated by software that takes into account variations in predicted sales The resulting variable and unpredictable schedules require employees to
19 citations
TL;DR: What emerged was not only that all 739 plant employees received OSHA 10-hour General Industry training, but that it was delivered by “OSHA-authorized” members of the International Chemical Workers Union Council who worked at the plant.
Abstract: Seven hundred thirty-nine workers at Merck's Stonewall plant in Elkton, Virginia, have a safer and healthier workplace because four of them were enthusiastic about health and safety training they received from the union's training center in Cincinnati, Ohio. What emerged was not only that all 739 plant employees received OSHA 10-hour General Industry training, but that it was delivered by “OSHA-authorized” members of the International Chemical Workers Union Council who worked at the plant. Merck created a new fulltime position in its Learning and Development Department and hired one of the four workers who had received the initial training. Strong plant leadership promoted discussions both during the training, in evaluation, and in newly energized joint labor-management meetings following the training. These discussions identified safety and health issues needing attention. Then, in a new spirit of trust and collaboration, major improvements occurred.
12 citations
TL;DR: The anti-regulatory political landscape of the 1990s that led to repeal of the standard is explored, as well as the impact of the struggle beyond the standard, and creative approaches for the future are described.
Abstract: In November 2000, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an ergonomics standard to prevent debilitating work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). It was rescinded by Congress within four months. We explore how this story unfolded over two decades of collaboration and conflict. Part I provides an overview of the historical context of the struggle for a standard, followed by interviews with key players from labor, academia and government. They provide a snapshot of the standard; discuss the prevalence of WMSDs in the context of changing work organization; give insight into the role of unions and of scientific debate within the context of rulemaking; and uncover the basis for the groundbreaking OSHA citations that laid the foundation for a standard. Part II interviews further explore the anti-regulatory political landscape of the 1990s that led to repeal of the standard, discuss the impact of the struggle beyond the standard, and describe creative approaches for the future.
11 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that such partnerships and models are valuable tools for collaborating with hard-to-reach workers and strong evidence for structural gains in and among WCs.
Abstract: Spanish-speaking immigrant workers in construction are considered hard to reach and at high risk for work-related injury and fatality. This evaluation study describes the use of participatory methods and an evaluation checklist to consider a health and safety (HS pre- and post-training tests assessed participant learning. Results indicate moderate learning and application by participants and strong evidence for structural gains in and among WCs. We conclude that such partnerships and models are valuable tools for collaborating with hard-to-reach workers.
9 citations
TL;DR: Household building subcontractors and workers, both native-born and immigrant, were brought together in focus groups to discuss their attitudes and beliefs regarding risk factors for nail gun injury as well as barriers to the adoption of safer technology.
Abstract: Pneumatic nail guns are ubiquitous at residential construction sites across the United States. These tools are noted for the traumatic injuries that can occur from their operation. Different trigger mechanisms on these tools are associated with different levels of risk. Residential building subcontractors and workers, both native-born and immigrant, were brought together in focus groups to discuss their attitudes and beliefs regarding risk factors for nail gun injury as well as barriers to the adoption of safer technology. Participants' comments are organized first by influences on traumatic injury occurrence or prevention and later by sociotechnical system category. Participants attributed influences on injury risk to personal and external causation factors in all sociotechnical system categories; however, participants more frequently described influences on injury prevention as related to workers' behaviors, rather than to external factors. A discussion of these influences with respect to attribution theory and sociotechnical models of injury causation is presented. Language: en
7 citations
TL;DR: The community-academic partnership designed the Rural Air Pollutants and Children's Health study to provide positive impacts while measuring health effects at three low-resource public middle schools near concentrated animal feeding operations in North Carolina.
Abstract: Environmental justice (EJ) research requires attention to consequences for research participants beyond those typically considered by institutional review boards. The imbalance of power between impacted communities and those who create and regulate pollution creates challenges for participation, yet research can also benefit those involved. Our community-academic partnership designed the Rural Air Pollutants and Children's Health (RAPCH) study to provide positive impacts while measuring health effects at three low-resource public middle schools near concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in North Carolina. We evaluated perceived benefits and challenges of study involvement by interviewing school staff and community liaisons who facilitated data collection. Reported benefits included enhancement of students' academic environment and increased community environmental awareness; challenges were associated mainly with some participants' immaturity. Leadership from a strong community-based organization was crucial to recruitment, yet our approach entailed minimal focus on EJ, which may have limited opportunities for community education or organizing for environmental health.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this interview, the worker describes the benefits and difficulties of the hard work involved in drilling unconventional gas wells in Pennsylvania and provides a compelling view of the trade-offs between the economic opportunities of working on a rig and the dangers and stresses of working long hours under hazardous conditions.
Abstract: This is an interview conducted with an oil and gas worker who was employed in the industry from 1993 to 2012. He requested that his name not be used. From 2008 to 2012, he drilled wells for a major operator in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Bradford County is the center of the Marcellus shale gas boom in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In 2012, he formed a consulting business to assist clients who need information on the details of gas and oil drilling operations. In this interview, the worker describes the benefits and difficulties of the hard work involved in drilling unconventional gas wells in Pennsylvania. In particular, he outlines the safety procedures that were in place and how they sometimes failed, leading to workplace injuries. He provides a compelling view of the trade-offs between the economic opportunities of working on a rig and the dangers and stresses of working long hours under hazardous conditions.
5 citations
TL;DR: The history of organized labor's efforts in the United States to secure health and safety protections for workers is reviewed, which concludes that by the late 1960s, several unions were able to help craft the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and secure new federal protections for U.S. workers.
Abstract: New Solutions is republishing this 1991 article by Robert Asher, which reviews the history of organized labor's efforts in the United States to secure health and safety protections for workers. The 1877 passage of the Massachusetts factory inspection law and the implementation of primitive industrial safety inspection systems in many states paralleled labor action for improved measures to protect workers' health and safety. In the early 1900s labor was focusing on workers' compensation laws. The New Deal expanded the federal government's role in worker protection, supported at least by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), but challenged by industry and many members of the U.S. Congress. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the CIO backed opposing legal and inspection strategies in the late 1940s and through the 1950s. Still, by the late 1960s, several unions were able to help craft the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and secure new federal protections for U.S. workers.
TL;DR: In the United States, unions sometimes joined by worker advocacy groups have played a critical role in strengthening worker safety and health protections by participating in the rulemaking process, through written comments and involvement in hearings, and defending improved standards in court.
Abstract: In the United States, unions sometimes joined by worker advocacy groups (e.g., Public Citizen and the American Public Health Association) have played a critical role in strengthening worker safety and health protections. They have sought to improve standards that protect workers by participating in the rulemaking process, through written comments and involvement in hearings; lobbying decision-makers; petitioning the Department of Labor; and defending improved standards in court. Their efforts have culminated in more stringent exposure standards, access to information about the presence of potentially hazardous toxic chemicals, and improved access to personal protective equipment-further improving working conditions in the United States.
TL;DR: There is a need to educate women associated with agriculture in India on the harms and proper use of agrochemicals in order to better protect and inform their households and communities.
Abstract: Poor handling, storage, and application of agrochemicals have resulted in a steep rise in mortality and morbidity associated with their use. This study aimed at assessing the awareness of wives of farmers and farmworkers in rural Vellore on the use and health effects of agrochemicals to identify gaps in their knowledge. A cross-sectional survey among 512 wives was conducted. Nearly 75 percent of the wives (384/512) did not know that agrochemicals could pass through skin. Also, wives who owned between 1 and 5 acres of land had a higher odds of knowing that agrochemicals were harmful (OR: 1.71(1.03-2-85), p < 0.05) and need to be disposed safely (OR: 4.76 (1.47-15.36), p < 0.05), than those owning less than an acre or no land. There is a need to educate women associated with agriculture in India on the harms and proper use of agrochemicals in order to better protect and inform their households and communities.
TL;DR: This has become all too routine in asbestos litigation, where defendants predictably seek to preclude testimony about medical and scientific issues that have been settled for decades and that are not legitimately disputed outside of litigation by the unbiased scientific community of national and international regulatory agencies and scientific organizations.
Abstract: The now well documented phenomenon of “doubt science” has crept into litigation generally, but has had a particularly deleterious effect in asbestos litigation, giving rise to pernicious myths that are told and re-told every day in legal briefs and in court proceedings. Defendants routinely challenge the admissibility of testimony from plaintiffs' expert witnesses when those experts testify about certain key concepts in asbestos medicine and asbestos science. Defendants boldly proclaim plaintiffs' experts' opinions to be “junk science” and seek to have them precluded regardless of how well documented, well researched, well supported and well accepted those opinions are. This has become all too routine in asbestos litigation, where defendants predictably seek to preclude testimony about medical and scientific issues that have been settled for decades and that are not legitimately disputed outside of litigation by the unbiased scientific community of national and international regulatory agencies and scient...
TL;DR: Defendants' efforts to manufacture “controversy” over previously uncontroversial facts are bald attempts to infect the legal process with junk “doubt science.”
Abstract: Part I of this survey confronted the first two Most Pernicious Myths in Asbestos Litigation: the supposed harmlessness of chrysotile asbestos; and so-called idiopathic mesothelioma. Part II discusses the pernicious notions of safe exposure thresholds for asbestos and the unreliability of Tyndall lighting. Defendants' attempts to preclude plaintiffs' experts from testifying about these generally accepted scientific facts are a disservice to the legal system and to plaintiffs who have been harmed by asbestos. These defense tactics attempt to deny reality and to spin scientific facts in order to keep them from the jurors' eyes and ears. This undermines the legal system and harms the integrity of the scientific enterprise. Defendants' efforts to manufacture “controversy” over previously uncontroversial facts are bald attempts to infect the legal process with junk “doubt science.” The role of this type of “doubt science” is being steadily exposed as legitimate researchers resist the degradation of their discip...
TL;DR: This is an interview with Gary Grant and Naeema Muhammed, leaders of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, about where they grew up, their politicization, how their paths crossed, their work together after Hurricane Floyd, and the unique challenges of organizing for social justice for black communities in the South.
Abstract: This is an interview with Gary Grant and Naeema Muhammed, leaders of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. Each of them talks about where they grew up, their politicization, how their paths crossed, their work together after Hurricane Floyd, and the unique challenges of organizing for social justice for black communities in the South. We learn of their fight against concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), primarily for the hog trade, and they take us up to North Carolina's Moral Monday protests of 2013 against legislation that threatens voting rights, public education, access to medical services, unemployment benefits, workers rights, occupational and environmental health, and women's access to reproductive health care. We are grateful to these two friends of New Solutions for their contribution to the journal, and we hope that their insights regarding struggles for social and environmental justice can serve as guides for us all.
TL;DR: Harriet Hardy, protégé of Alice Hamilton, spent 1948 in the Health Division of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and her role and influence both inside and outside the atomic weapons complex have been elucidated.
Abstract: Harriet Hardy, protege of Alice Hamilton, spent 1948 in the Health Division of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The contemporary campaign for federal legislation to compensate nuclear workers brought to the fore living retirees in whose cases of occupational illness Hardy had a role in diagnosis or case management. A third case is documented in archival records. Methods of participatory action research were used to better document the cases and strategize in light of the evidence, thereby assisting the workers with compensation claims. Medical and neuropsychological exams of the mercury case were conducted. Hardy's diary entries and memoirs were interpreted in light of medicolegal documentation and workers' recollections. Through these participatory research activities, Harriet Hardy's role and influence both inside and outside the atomic weapons complex have been elucidated. An important lesson learned is the ongoing need for a system of protective medical evaluations for nuclear workers with complex ch...
TL;DR: The authors conclude that the current renewed drive by the European Commission towards reducing regulation for business, especially in the aftermath of the crisis, further justifies longstanding anti-regulatory preferences of neoliberal domestic elites, with the result that the costs of disregard for public safety are externalized onto the general populace.
Abstract: The roof collapse of the Maxima supermarket in Riga, Latvia on November 21, 2013 left 54 dead. This analysis identifies the disaster as a “safety crime.” Neoliberal deregulatory measures, intensified by the global economic and financial crisis and a programme of radical austerity, together with corporate and state disregard of public safety and well-being, combined to produce the disaster. The wider context and underlying causes of catastrophic safety failure exemplify the inherently contradictory character of the neoliberal “Baltic model” of austerity, recently much in vogue with international policymakers in both Europe and the United States. The authors conclude that the current renewed drive by the European Commission towards reducing regulation for business, especially in the aftermath of the crisis, further justifies longstanding anti-regulatory preferences of neoliberal domestic elites, with the result that the costs of disregard for public safety are externalized onto the general populace.
TL;DR: Some of the new issues COSH groups are facing as a result of declines in labor union density and the lack of effective government protection for large populations of workers, as well as assessing strategies that NYCOSH and other groups have adopted to strengthen and revive the U.S. health and safety movement.
Abstract: An interview with Joel Shufro, Executive Director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health [NYCOSH], conducted shortly before he steps down after 34 years of service. Shufro discusses the recent history of the U.S. worker health and safety movement, including successes and failures of NYCOSH's efforts. He addresses some of the new issues COSH groups are facing as a result of declines in labor union density and the lack of effective government protection for large populations of workers, as well as assessing strategies that NYCOSH and other groups have adopted to strengthen and revive the U.S. health and safety movement.
TL;DR: Faced with the reality that true prevention is in the hands of employers, PTRC's strategy has been to engage with and empower workers by educating them about hazards, safety practices, and their legal rights.
Abstract: Since 1992, the Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC) in Vadodara—founded by the author and his mentor Vijay Kanhere—has been a critical resource and key actor in the struggle to improve working conditions in India. Much of the PTRC's work has focused on occupational lung disease, particularly silicosis among agate craft workers. PTRC has brought medical services to workers, pressured industry sectors and associations to mitigate exposures (e.g., through ventilation), and been instrumental in legal action to bring financial recompense to victims. Faced with the reality that true prevention is in the hands of employers, PTRC's strategy has been to engage with and empower workers by educating them about hazards, safety practices, and their legal rights.
TL;DR: The Italian Epidemiology Association has declared that the “biased and deliberately tailored use of the scientific evidence” by scientists with a conflict of interest serves to delay needed measures to prevent harm to public health from a polluting Italian steel plant's continuing chemical emissions.
Abstract: Recent revelations have raised concerns on how conflicts of interest may involve even leading scientists and prestigious institutions and lead to bias in reporting and assessing scientific evidence. These have highlighted the need for action to safeguard scientific integrity and public health. The Italian Epidemiology Association has declared that the “biased and deliberately tailored use of the scientific evidence” by scientists with a conflict of interest serves to delay needed measures to prevent harm to public health from a polluting Italian steel plant’s continuing chemical emissions. In France, unresolved concerns over conflict of interest forced the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Public Health to cancel its imminent appointment of a prominent scientist as its Director. These negative events demonstrate the necessity for scientific institutions and journals to implement rigorous measures regarding conflict of interest and the safeguarding of scientific integrity and public health.
TL;DR: The main challenge for Cuban ergonomists is to transfer knowledge to occupational health practitioners in order to be in concordance with basic standards and regulations regarding ergonomics.
Abstract: The concept of ergonomics was introduced in Cuba at the beginning of the 1970s. More than 40 years later, the prevailing approach to workers' health is still generally reactive rather than proactive, despite the commitment of the government to the subject. A factor influencing this issue is, generally, lack of recognition of the benefits of establishing ergonomic principles within most occupational activities. Recent progress to move occupational health practice toward a more preventive approach has been conducted, frequently with international support. The introduction of a set of Cuban standards proposing the necessity of ergonomic evaluations is an example of this progress. The main challenge for Cuban ergonomists is to transfer knowledge to occupational health practitioners in order to be in concordance with basic standards and regulations regarding ergonomics. The article offers a short description of the history of ergonomics and an overview of ergonomics practice in Cuba.
TL;DR: New Solutions is fortunate to have found and received permission to publish two interviews of key staff members of the Workers’ Health Bureau, which operated between 1921 and 1928 and formally closed in 1929.
Abstract: New Solutions is fortunate to have found and received permission to publish two interviews of key staff members of the Workers’ Health Bureau. The Bureau was based in New York City; it operated between 1921 and 1928 and formally closed in 1929. Its mission was to provide medical and scientific support to unions in their efforts to identify hazardous materials in the workplace, present strategies for preventing occupational illnesses associated with these hazards, and when feasible present solutions for replacing these hazards with safer technologies. The Bureau organized several annual national health and safety conferences and pursued legislative action to obtain strong worker protection laws and standards. The Bureau was started by Grace Burnham (McDonald after her second marriage) and Harriett Silverman, and early on Charlotte Todes (Stern after her marriage) joined the Bureau. They were radical women who sought to ally with trade unions to improve workers’ health and safety. Burnham and Silverman met while working on the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Industry of Greater New York. (The board was a non-governmental organization established to oversee, investigate, and make recommendations regarding the working conditions in the clothing and textile industries of New York City. It had two representatives each from the unions and employers, and three public representatives. 1 )
TL;DR: It is looked at how progressive section members and allies through the century have established occupational health and safety as an integral part of public health, and see their efforts, small and large, successful and not, to expose and reduce workplace hazards and improve working conditions of their times.
Abstract: One hundred years ago in 1914, the American Public Health Association (APHA) created its sixth professional section—Industrial Hygiene, which in 1955 was renamed the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section. (There are now 29 primary sections.) New Solutions is proud to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the section’s founding by taking notice of the state of occupational health in the United States at that time in history, and to evaluate a century of public health efforts to protect workers from injury, illness, and fatality hazards on the job. In this special issue encompassing the past and present, and with our eyes on the future, we look at how progressive section members and allies through the century have established occupational health and safety as an integral part of public health, and see their efforts, small and large, successful and not, to expose and reduce workplace hazards and improve working conditions of their times.
TL;DR: The following short play is about workers fighting for their rights at a textile factory in the early 20th century, written by an adult education teacher, performed by her students and attended by the school's students and teachers.
Abstract: Theater acting can help build the social skills needed for effective communication at work and in the wider community. The following short play is about workers fighting for their rights at a textile factory in the early 20th century. It was written by an adult education teacher, performed by her students and attended by the school's students and teachers.