by Tim Morse
OHS Section Chair
The OHS Section has been extremely active as we prepare for one of the largest group of papers and posters ever at the Washington Annual Meeting. It appears that we had a record amount of submissions this year and therefore a very busy (and energetic!) Program Committee sifting for the best presentations. As a result, we have an amazingly broad and deep program this year (posted on our website), reflecting both the science and advocacy aspects of occupational health and safety.
We have amazing award winners: Martin Cherniack, Alice Hamilton award, LaMont Byrd and Amy K. Liebman (Lorin Kerr Awards), Barbara Rahke, Tony Mazzocchi Award, and Salvador Moncada i Lluis, International Health and Safety Award. The awards will be presented at the Tuesday luncheon (along with the always amazing and hilarious skit from the Dooley Players).
We also have a joint breakfast social (with the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics) Sunday morning, our welcome social on Sunday night at the American Federation of Teachers headquarters, and the legendary Dance Party on Tuesday night that attracts people from all across APHA.
And finally, we are honored to have occupational health selected as the topic for the APHA-wide closing session on Wednesday afternoon, so be sure to have your travel plans allow you to be there to hear Linda Rae Murray (OHS member and APHA president), David Michaels (OHS member and head of OSHA), Leo Gerard (International Union President from the Steelworkers Union), and Darryl Alexander (OHS member and health and safety staff for the American Federation of Teachers).
All OHS members should be aware that you are very welcome to our Section business meetings at the annual conference. Despite the title that conjures mind-numbing discussions of budgets and procedures (and sometimes early morning start times), our business meetings are well attended, lively discussions and meetings that feature important advocacy issues, heads-ups on important events and sessions at the conference, and fabulous networking opportunities with scientific, policy and advocacy experts.
Advocacy Issues
The Section has been working on several advocacy issues over the last few months. The Section sent a letter to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget urging the release of a draft OSHA policy on employing minors in hazardous agricultural work which had been held up for a year for economic review. The letter resulted in some media coverage, will hopefully get it released for the public comment phase of rulemaking. We also submitted comments supporting bilingual labeling of pesticides to assist in protecting Spanish-speaking agricultural workers. Special thanks to Mary Miller, Celeste Monforton, and Amy Leibman for their work on these issues. We also have been working with national COSH groups and others on pushing for future funding for NIOSH Education and Research Centers and Agricultural Centers, both of which were tagged for elimination by the White House budget proposals. OSHA funding also needed support due to targeting by Republican budget proposals, which have been driven by a push for deregulating business. Resources and information for most of these issues (as well as information on the OSHA heat stress campaign) and much, much, more are available on our OHS website (and thanks to Bradley King for his great website work). We are also starting to prepare comments from the Section on the OSHA recordkeeping revisions and NIOSH carcinogens policy.
Congratulations to OHS Officers!
Congratulations to our new just-elected officers. Linda Delp was elected to be Section chair beginning in November 2012 (my term ends at the Annual Meeting, with Walter Jones taking over until the annual meeting in 2012); Alberto Caban-Martinez will be taking over as secretary at the same time, taking over after Nancy Menzel ‘s and Deb Weinstock’s terms. In addition, Sandra Ramey and Vidisha Parasram were elected Section Councilors, and Leslie Nickels to the APHA Governing Council.
We encourage all members to join us for our monthly leadership calls (usually on the third Fridays of the month) and to find out about running for elected leadership positions or working on subcommittees. Contact me for information about how it works and what is available. In particular, the OHS Section will be celebrating our 100th anniversary at the 2014 meeting in New Orleans, and a Glenn Shor is chairing a committee to plan for that -- contact Shor.Glenn@dol.gov to get involved).