Dear OHS Section Members:

It's been nearly five months since the Obama administration took office, and although the president has not yet nominated individuals to lead OSHA and MSHA, I am hopeful and excited for a progressive worker health and safety agenda.  The OHS Section can take pride that one of our own, Jordan Barab (a 17-year member of the OHS Section) is the acting head of OSHA.  His tenure started in mid-April, just in time for a group of worker health and safety proponents to land (literally) at his door, to mark Worker Memorial Day on the front steps of the Department of Labor building.

Our morning rally, sponsored by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, [http://www.coshnetwork.org/] United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities [http://www.usmwf.org/] and the OHS Section, was followed by two congressional hearings on worker health and safety topics, one on OSHA penalties and the other on family-member rights in fatality and catastrophe investigations.  OHS Section members were well-represented at the witness tables at both hearings:  Peg Seminario (a member since 1977!), Jim Frederick, and myself. 

In February, Mike Wright (another OHS Section member) testified at a hearing on the Toxic Substances Control Act, reminding members of Congress that any discussion on chemicals policy must consider workers' exposure.  Wright testified: Workers "…are the first to be exposed, and usually the highest exposed are the workers who produce them and incorporate them into products.  Most epidemiology regarding toxic substances uses cohorts of workers -- in other words, it's workers' bodies that get counted in these retrospective human experiments."  Wright relayed vitally important information to the Committee -- information that many workers and their advocates know, but few others realize "OSHA requires labels and written information sheets for workplace chemicals, but they frequently contain almost no useful information beyond acute toxicity -- nothing at all about long-term effects, because those chemicals have never been tested."  

It's inspiring and motivating to see new policy discussion on health and safety, with OHS Section members at table promoting and defending workers' rights and health.

Section Administration

Turning to a few items of Section business, we received a request from the International Health Section (IHS) for a liaison from our Section.  IHS is seeking a person from OHS to foster "more active exchange of ideas and strategies," including "development of resolutions pertaining to global health issues, joint plenary sessions at the annual meeting, co-hosting social hours, and encouraging secondary Section membership."  If you are interested in serving for at least one year as the OHS Section liaison to the International Health Section, please send me an e-mail: celeste.monforton@gwumc.edu.

Since 2005, Ingrid Denis, MA, has done a yeoman's job as our Section's newsletter editor.  Without any complaint (and not enough appreciation), Ingrid prepared much of the content for the Section newsletter, mastered electronic challenges, and offered us a professional and informative newsletter several times a year.  Ingrid went above and beyond the call of duty, volunteering year after year for the newsletter editor assignment.  Speaking on behalf of the past Section chairs who had the pleasure of working with Ingrid, we never had to worry about getting out the Section newsletter because Ingrid always had it under control.  We say BRAVO and THANK YOU.  

Needless to say, the Section needs a new volunteer to serve as our newsletter editor.  Would you consider taking on this responsibility for a one-year term beginning in November 2009?   You will be supported with content from the Section Counselors and Section chair, and provided training on how to use the APHA electronic newsletter system.  If you would consider volunteering your time to this vital Section duty, or splitting the duties with another Section member, please send me an e-mail: celeste.monforton@gwumc.edu.

I'd like to offer an additional note of thanks to the OHS Section members who responded to our call for donations to the James Keogh Scholarship Fund.  These funds allow us to support a few deserving students and workers involved in H&S at the Annual Meeting, paying their registration fee, offering a modest ($300) stipend and purchasing a one-year membership for them. For the period beginning Jan. 1, 2009 through May 30, 2009, the following OHS Section members sent donations to APHA to support the James Keogh Scholarship Fund:

Jacqueline Agnew

Katherine Hunting

David Kern

Celeste Monforton

Craig Slatin

If you are able to make a tax-deductible donation of $20, $50, $100 or more, please send a check payable to APHA-Jim Keogh Scholarship, and include "Account # 328066-OHS Section" on the check.  Mail your contributions to APHA, Attention: Natasha Williams, 800 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.  

APHA Annual Meeting (November 2009)

It's time to begin your travel planning to attend the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.  On Saturday, Nov. 7, an alliance of worker health and safety advocates is hosting the 2009 National Worker Safety and Health Summit, under the theme "A New Era for Safety and Health Activism." This pre-APHA meeting will bring together activists from labor, public and environmental health, family rights, immigrant rights, and the COSH groups to strategize about our fight for improved H&S for all workers.  The Summit will provide an exciting opportunity to exchange ideas and build energy to jump-start the APHA meeting, which runs from Nov. 8-11 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. 

As is our tradition, the OHS Section will kick off the Annual Meeting on Sunday, Nov. 8 with our 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Section Meeting.  Later in the day, we will offer four fabulous poster sessions and a Section orientation for new (and old) members, and will be ready to defend our proposed policy resolutions from 3:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. during the public hearings.  The resolutions drafted by OHS Section members cover three issues: asbestos, workers' compensation, and immigrants and the U.S. border. 

For the third year in a row, our scientific program will offer the Occupational Health Disparities Institute (OHDI), a series of sessions with public health research and practice themes involving vulnerable or hard to reach populations of workers and the hazards they face.  Over the three days of scientific sessions, the OHDI will feature six unique sessions, with topics ranging from defining disparities, community-based participatory research, and interventions, and providing insight into the OHS experiences of farm workers, construction workers, and low-income health care providers.  The OHS Section's scientific program will also feature three "Blue-Green" sessions examining the synergy between jobs, health and safety and environmental protection.

Our infamous and fabulous OHS Section Awards luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Convention Center, with our annual party taking place that evening. 

Finally, the editors of the journal New Solutions have made a generous offer for presenters at the OHS Section's scientific program: they encourage you to submit your presented research as a paper for publication in the journal.  New Solutions is one of the few journals entirely devoted to occupational  and environmental health policy. All the journal's editors are long-time members of the APHA OHS Section.   

Wishing you a healthy and happy summer, and hoping to see you in Philadelphia.