Kate McPhaul, mcphaul@son.umaryland.edu

The 2007 Annual Meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., from Nov. 4-8 with the theme "Politics, Policy and Public Health."  One idea born during last year's meeting has involved taking a larger leadership role within APHA on immigrant workers' health and safety. Launching this idea is an "institute" embedded within the OHS program.  Coordinated by Kerry Souza, Jim Cone, Kate McPhaul and Sherry Barron, this series of scientific sessions and a poster session focuses exclusively on occupational health and safety disparities, including sessions devoted to innovative research methods for immigrant workers, OHS for agricultural workers, Hispanic workers issues, and more.  The sessions begin on Monday, Nov. 5 at 8:30 a.m. with a session entitled "Environmental Justice for Immigrant Workers" (Session 3447.0) and continue through Tuesday's Poster Session devoted to occupational health disparities among vulnerable workers (Session 4188.0).

Another exciting session entitled "Paradigm Shift or Struggle: Integrating Health Promotion and Health Protection" (Session 4247.0) is coordinated by Cassandra Okechukwu, a student member and Dr. Greg Wagner, a senior scientist and longtime OHS Section member.  This session is designed to involve our section in understanding and informing methods to integrate health promotion and health protection in the workplace.  This Tuesday afternoon panel includes NIOSH grantees, employer and labor perspectives.

Another panel entitled ""Mental Health and Occupational Health: Improved Consumer, Community and Staff Safety" (Session 5130.0, 11/7/07, 12:30pm) is co-sponsored by the OHS Section, but is actually part of the Mental Health Section program.  Workplace violence advocates from within our section (Kate McPhaul, Jonathan Rosen, Matt London, Jane Lipscomb) will discuss a case study of a mental health field worker murdered by a client while on the job, and the panel will explore how mental health and occupational health advocates can work together to improve staff safety while preserving client rights and access to care.

We have a substantial representation from students, OHIP interns, rank and file workers, new investigators, and international investigators, all of whom are potentially active OHS Section members. Please make an effort to get these sessions and all the business meetings and social functions that are part of the 2007 OHS Program. For a complete listing of OHS-related activities and sessions at the APHA Annual Meeting, visit the OHS Section Web site at http://depts.washington.edu/oshalert/2007OHS_Program_Aug%2023.pdf.