Occupational Health and Safety
Section Newsletter
Winter 2008

Chair's Message

robert.harrison@ucsf.edu

As we look ahead to 2008 and beyond, one change is certain: we will have a new administration in Washington, D.C. and a potential opportunity to significantly strengthen our policies and programs for worker protection. The list of needed improvements is long:  restoring scientific integrity to new standards setting; vigorously enforcing existing standards; increasing extramural and intramural research budgets; building epidemiological capacity for state-based surveillance and intervention programs; integrating occupational health into chronic disease, environmental and injury prevention programs; and increasing the occupational health work force.  An ultimate goal is to put our scientific and technical knowledge in the hands of workers and their organizations, reminding us that many of the accomplishments of health and safety professionals are ultimately tied to coalitions forged with our friends and colleagues in the labor movement.

The Occupational Health and Safety Section of APHA has been guided by this principle for many decades, and much of our work within and outside of APHA has been the product of joint efforts between safety and health professionals and the labor movement.  At this year’s meeting in San Diego - just one week before the election - no doubt the formal breakouts and hallway discussions will focus on strengthening health and safety in the next administration. Over the next several months, we need to begin the process of defining our priorities, sharpening our agendas and strategies, and forging alliances and coalitions with organizations allied with our common interests.  The theme of this year’s meeting, "Public Health Without Borders,” will address a diversity of topics including immigrant and refugee health, health disparities and the critical importance of cross-national health and safety struggles in the global economy.  Many of these topics should be highly relevant to our strategic goals over the next four years.  On behalf of our Section leadership, I look forward to working together with you in the coming year.

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Tomorrow's OSH Professionals

Established in 1999, the James P. Keogh Memorial Scholarship Fund  honors the enormous contribution Dr. James (Jim) Keogh made to occupational health and safety. Dr. Keogh was an outstanding colleague, generous mentor and teacher who nurtured and influenced the work of many others.

The Keogh Scholarship Fund helps the OHS Section to promote and strengthen the participation of students and union representatives in APHA.  Scholarship awardees are provided with the Annual Meeting registration fee, a one-year student membership and a $300 stipend for conference-related expenses.  With your generous support, the Keogh Scholarship Fund enabled five students to attend last year's APHA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

In order to sustain this effort we need continued support from all OHS members.  Please be generous in your tax-deductible contribution to the James P. Keogh Memorial Scholarship Fund. Checks should be made out to APHA-Jim Keogh Scholarship. Please include “Account # 328066-OHS Section” on the check. Send your contributions to APHA, Attn. Natasha Williams, 800 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001.  For more information, contact Karen B. Mulloy, chair, Scholarship Committee, Karen.Mulloy@dhha.org.

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Celebrate National Public Health Week 2008

Kaitlin Sheedy, kaitlin.sheedy@apha.org

The health effects of climate change will take center stage during National Public Health Week, April 7-13, 2008. As part of the weeklong observance, themed "Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance,"  APHA will lead the charge in helping people, communities, and families recognize that adapting to climate change and mitigating its impact is critical not just for the health of our planet, but for the health of the people in our nation and around the world.

Changes in our climate are causing more severe weather events. Extreme weather conditions such as heat waves, high winds, snowstorms, floods and hurricanes have the potential to dramatically affect the health and safety of both individuals and our communities. Changing ecosystems allow for emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases such as dengue or malaria, which are changing the spectrum of disease risks affecting populations. In poorer parts of the world, drought and floods often force people to move away from lands no longer producing enough food, often resulting in hunger and malnutrition. Moreover, contaminated drinking water can result in outbreaks of diarrheal diseases, leading to dehydration or death.

Few Americans will ever see the melting Greenland ice cap up close, or interact with an arctic polar bear facing extinction as its habitat melts.  But local public health professionals around the country increasingly will be dealing with the impacts of climate change on the ground, every day. Join APHA as we work to create a healthier planet. Visit the official National Public Health Week Web site at www.nphw.org to check out the climate change blog and brochure, sign up to be a National Public health Week partner, or add your week's event to the national calendar.  For more information about National Public Health Week, contact kaitlin.sheedy@apha.org.

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Beyond Texas City...

It’s been nearly two years since the blast at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas on March 23, 2005, killed 15 workers and injured 180 others.  Nine months following the Texas City disaster, The Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and Environmental Education sent a survey to local unions at each of 71 United Steelworkers-represented refineries. The survey sought to determine the extent to which conditions similar to those that led to the BP Texas City catastrophe exist at the nation’s other refineries and what is being done to correct those conditions. 

The report from the study: Beyond Texas City: The State of Process Safety in the Unionized U.S. Oil Refining Industry, October 2007 can be found at www.usw.org/usw/program/content/BeyondTexasCity.php. The participatory research team for the study included OHS section Members Tobi Lippin and Kristin Bradley-Bull of New Perspectives Consulting Group, and Tom McQuiston of the Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and Environmental Education.  Also, an article by Leo Gerard based on the study appears in the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-w-gerard/texas-city_b_75839.html .

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Indiana University, University of Wisconsin Partner to Offer Federal Safety Training

Indiana University (IU) and its partner, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-W), were selected as one of eight new education centers to provide training for OSHA.  The selection will allow the consortium, led by IU and the Safety Program in IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, to provide health and safety training to private-sector and federal employees throughout OSHA's Region V, which encompasses Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. "The center will allow Indiana University to provide employers with expert OSHA regulatory compliance training and opportunities to promote health and wellness in the workplace," said Kevin Slates, clinical assistant professor and OHS Section member.  Dr. Slates will serve as the education center's course chair and advisory board member.

IU's Safety Program offers various levels of safety management education, as well as options for undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students also can pursue a doctorate degree in applied health science with an option in safety management. Students will be able to take the OSHA courses in addition to college credit safety and health classes.

The Department of Occupational and Environmental Safety & Health at UW-W offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in occupational safety and health and includes coursework covering a wide range of subjects including ergonomics, accident prevention, security and environmental protection.

For more information, contact Kevin Slates at (812) 856-3766 or kslates@indiana.edu.

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Occupational Health & Safety Video Clips