Register Now for Spring 2018 National Trainers’ Exchange and WTP Awardee Meeting

The 7th National Trainers’ Exchange is hosted by the Western Region Universities Consortium (WRUC) in conjunction with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Training Program (WTP). The Exchange will bring together safety and health trainers and training stakeholders from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the NIEHS WTP to exchange ideas about how to make training for hazardous materials and emergency response workers more effective and empowering. The Awardee Meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 9, 2018; the National Trainers’ Exchange will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 10-11, 2018. The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Grand Phoenix hotel. The hotel block closes Monday, April 16, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. MT. Registration closes Friday, April 27, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Meeting & Registration Information

Accommodation and Transportation

WTP Director Discusses Targeting and Tackling Health Hazards that Lurk in the Workplace

YOUR HEALTH© Radio welcomed Chip Hughes, director of the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP), who spoke about reducing and preventing the health hazards that threaten workers both during their average workday and during responses to disasters such as 9/11 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Hughes’ interview begins at 11 minutes in the March 31 episode.

Information on Radio Show

Listen to the Episode

Dr. King Said Segregation Harms Us All. Environmental Research Shows He Was Right.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached that segregation was harmful not only to black Americans, but also to the nation as a whole. He died before the modern environmental movement, but a growing body of research around pollution and health shows that his belief about segregation hurting everyone extends to the environment as well. Many American cities that are more racially divided have higher levels of pollution than less segregated cities. As a result, both whites and minorities who live in less integrated communities are exposed to higher levels of pollution than those who live in more integrated areas.

The New York Times [Author: Kendra Pierre-Louis]

How Texas is ‘Building Back Better’ from Hurricane Harvey

For most Americans, the one-two punch of last fall’s hurricanes is ancient history. But hard-hit communities in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean are still rebuilding. Dr. Nicole Errett, Lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Washington School of Public Health, traveled with public health students to southeast Texas, where the impacts of Hurricane Harvey are still felt today. Through interviews with local health officials, they learned how Hurricane Harvey is still affecting many residents. As often seen during natural disasters, Harvey amplified pre-existing health and social stresses and inequities.

The Conversation [Author: Nicole Errett]

Cell Service Can Mean Life or Death After a Disaster. Could Drones Help?

Cell service get clobbered by a hurricane? Fly in a drone. The rash of devastating storms that knocked out power and phone service to millions in the U.S. last year laid bare how vulnerable those technological lifelines are to extreme weather. Some companies are trying to use one of this decade's coolest developments — remote-controlled drones — as a temporary fix.

USA Today [Author: Edward C. Baig]

2018 John Ring LaMontagne Lecture: “The Mother (of all Pandemics) and Her Naughty Children: 100 Years of Behaving Badly”

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic, which sickened as much as one-third of the world’s population and has been called one of the deadliest pandemics in history. One hundred years later, flu remains a significant cause of illness in the United States and around the world. The 2018 John Ring Lamontagne Memorial Lecture, which will focus on this extraordinary pandemic and what scientists still can learn from it. The event takes place on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Lipsett Amphitheater in Bethesda, Maryland.

Event Details

Webinar: Climate Adaptation Policy at the State and Local Level

Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, with the American Society of Adaptation Professionals and the University of the District of Columbia's College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences, is hosting a new five-webinar series -- "Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience Leadership Series." This is the first webinar in the new series and focuses on climate policy. Panelists include Michael McCormick, California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and Guy Williams, on the Detroit Climate Action Plan. The webinar will be held on April 16, 2018, from 1:15-2:45 pm ET.

Webinar Registration

Symposium: 30th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services

The 30th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Symposium and Dinner will be held on April 18-19, 2018. Presenters will include association leaders and policy makers who are experts in such areas as first responder communications, emergency medical services, building codes, leadership, public safety education, and health and wellness. The Symposium will be held at the Washington Hilton.

Symposium Information and Registration

Registration for 2018 Preparedness Summit Now Open

The upcoming 2018 Preparedness Summit will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia, April 17-20, 2018. The theme is: “Strengthening National Health Security: Mastering Ordinary Responses, Building Resilience for Extraordinary Events.” Since its beginning in 2006, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has taken a leadership role in convening a wide array of partners to participate in the Summit.

Summit Information

2018 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program

Leaders from various sectors will engage in three days of free exchange of ideas and approaches to achieving environmental justice. Interactive training sessions will feature voices of experience, research, discussions, and thought-provoking dialogue. The program format will feature the needs and challenges of communities, governments, municipalities, tribes, faith-based organizations, and others with an interest in environmental justice. Program speakers will feature representatives from Federal and state agencies, local governments, tribes, community groups, business and industry, public interest groups, academia, and other entities. The Conference will be held at the Washington Marriott Metro Center in Washington, D.C. from April 25-27, 2018.

Information and Registration

Tribal Environmental Health Summit

Registration for the 3rd Tribal Environmental Health Summit is now open. The Summit is sponsored by Oregon State University College of Public Health and Human Sciences, The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the Native Environmental Health Research Network. The theme for this year is “Sustaining Long-Term Partnerships and Projects with Native American Communities.” The Summit will be held on June 25-26, 2018, in Corvallis, Oregon. Abstract submissions are due May 31, 2018.

Summit Registration

Submit Your Abstract

Phosphine Exposure Among Emergency Responders — Amarillo, Texas, January 2017

According to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), forty (78.4%) of 51 emergency personnel responding to an acute phosphine exposure incident in Texas in January 2017 did not use respiratory protection, including 15 (37.5%) who received medical care after the incident and seven (17.5%) who reported new or worsening symptoms consistent with phosphine exposure within 24 hours of the incident. The majority had received standard emergency response training and knew of agency standard operating procedures for responding to incidents involving hazardous substances.

CDC MMWR [Authors: Emily Hall et al.]

Surgeon General’s Advisory on Naloxone and Opioid Overdose

A new Surgeon General's Advisory provides guidance on naloxone and opioid overdoses for patients and the public, as well as prescribers, substance use disorder treatment providers, and pharmacists. Over the past 15 years, individuals, families, and communities across the nation have been tragically affected by the opioid epidemic, with the number of overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids doubling from 21,089 in 2010 to 42,249 in 2016. This steep increase is attributed to the rapid proliferation of illicitly made fentanyl and other highly potent synthetic opioids.

Surgeon General

Getting the Message Through with Toolbox Talks

Good safety training sessions provide workers with all the information they need to avoid injury. However, there’s no guarantee workers will retain the information months later. In some cases, up to 70 percent of training is forgotten within a week. Thus, safety managers should take steps to increase the long-term retention of safety lessons.

Safety and Health [Author: Mathew Howard]

FEMA Invites Community to Participate in National Level Exercise

On April 3, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that the agency is conducting its 2018 National Level Exercise and would like to invite other government agencies, representatives, and organizations in the private sector, communities, and individuals to participate in this historic exercise. The 2018 National Level Exercise (NLE), based on a mid-Atlantic hurricane scenario, represents one key step towards implementing FEMA’s recently released 2018-2022 Strategic Plan.

National Level Exercise 2018

FEMA and Emergency Management Partner Organizations Release PrepTalk on Lessons from Survivors

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in partnership with organizations that collectively represent the emergency management profession, released the sixth video presentation from the inaugural PrepTalks Symposium, Amanda Ripley’s “The Unthinkable: Lessons from Survivors.” In her PrepTalk, Ripley combines the inspiring stories of disaster survivors with research into how the brain works when confronted with unusual events. She explains why our instinctive response may be the worst possible reaction unless we have had the experience and/or the training to help us act quickly during moments of great peril. Ripley provides advice on steps she says emergency managers can take now to help individuals be more decisive in emergencies.

FEMA PrepTalks

OSHA and NIOSH Provide New Information on Chemically Induced Hearing Loss

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a bulletin, titled “Preventing Hearing Loss Caused by Chemical (Ototoxicity) and Noise Exposure,” warning of a potentially serious workplace hazard. The bulletin provides recommendations to employers and safety professionals about identifying ototoxicants in the workplace and establishing hearing conservation programs in workplaces where these chemicals cannot be replaced.

Safety and Information Bulletin

NIOSH’s Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention

NIOSH Releases New Nanotechnology Workplace Design Recommendations

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently launched four new products intended to provide options to companies for controlling possible exposure of their workers to nanomaterials on the job. The documents provide recommendations on minimizing exposures during common processes and tasks.

Protecting Workers during the Handling of Nanomaterials

Protecting Workers during Nanomaterial Reactor Operations

Protecting Workers during Intermediate and Downstream Processing of Nanomaterials

Questions to Ask Before You Start Working with Nanomaterials

Toolkit: Use the Environmental Public Health Performance Standards (EnvPHPS) To Improve Your Program's Capacity

The Environmental Health Services (EHS) division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created an Environmental Public Health Performance Standards (EnvPHPS) Toolkit to help improve environmental public health program performance.

EnvPHPS Assessment Toolkit

A Toolkit for Rural Communities: Emergency Preparedness and Recovery

This Planners4Health toolkit from the American Planning Association is a reference guide to help small towns and rural communities prepare for potential disaster situations. It offers advice on disaster planning, immediate response, and long-term recovery, with chapters and special considerations for economic impact and funding, infrastructure, mobilizing supplies, insurance, healthcare and emergency medical services, volunteer management, emotional/spiritual and social services, animals and pets, communications, resource planning, and team development.

American Planning Association

Research Center Director and Associate/Full Professor in Environmental Health

The University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Department of Public Health seeks a successful Environmental Health researcher to serve as the director for two leading environmental health centers. The successful candidate will have strong expertise and research interests in environmental health and will be appointed at the associate or full professor level, depending upon qualifications. This faculty member will be expected to provide leadership within the department on environmental health.

UMass Job Description

Featured Safety Jobs with the American Society of Safety Engineers

Featured Jobs

Featured Safety Jobs with the American Industrial Hygiene Association

Featured Jobs

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