Weekly E-Newsbrief
December 22, 2023
The E-Newsbrief of the National Clearinghouse is a free weekly newsletter focusing on new developments in the world of worker health and safety. Each issue provides summaries of the latest worker health and safety news from newspapers, magazines, journals, government reports, and the Web, along with links to the original documents. Also featured each week are updates from government agencies that handle hazmat and worker safety issues such as DOE, EPA, OSHA and others.
Subscribing to the National Clearinghouse Newsbrief is the best way to stay on top of the worker health and safety news.
- Top Stories
- Calendar Features
- On The Web This Week
- Federal Agency Update
- Awardee Highlights/Online Learning
- Job Openings
- We Want Your Feedback
- Newsbriefs Past Issues
| Top Stories | Back to Top |
U.S. Agency Concludes Chemical Leak That Killed 6 Georgia Poultry Workers was ‘Completely Preventable’
A chemical leak that killed six workers at a Georgia poultry plant in 2021 resulted from a poorly designed freezer that spilled deadly liquid nitrogen as well as a failure by the plant’s owner to install safety equipment and properly train employees for emergencies, a federal agency has concluded. Federal investigators found the freezer had a bent tube, likely damaged during maintenance, that disabled its ability to monitor and regulate liquid nitrogen levels — allowing the chemical to fill and then leak from the freezer. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has called on employers to make sure that their employees are properly trained and to make sure local emergency responders are aware of what chemicals are stored and any potential hazards.
National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2022
In December 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the 2022 data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. According to the data, there were 5,486 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2022, a 5.7% increase from 5,190 in 2021. The fatal work injury rate was 3.7 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, up from 3.6 per 100,000 FTE in 2021.
Can Family Doctors Deliver Rural America from its Maternal Health Crisis?
There are many reasons labor and delivery units close, including high operating costs, declining populations, low Medicaid reimbursement rates, and staffing shortages. Family medicine physicians still provide the majority of labor and delivery care in rural America, but few new doctors recruited to less populated areas offer obstetrics care, partly because they don't want to be on call 24/7. Now, with rural America hemorrhaging health care providers, the federal government is investing dollars and attention to increase the ranks.
NPR [Author: Sarah Jane Tribble]
Railroad Supervisors Go to Extremes to Hide Worker Injuries
The nation’s powerful freight railroad companies say they are among the safest employers in America and tout their injury records to prove it, but employees claim that the culture is more along the lines of blaming workers when they get hurt and motivating supervisors to go to extreme, and sometimes dangerous, lengths to keep injuries off the books. Railroad workers allege harassment at the hands of management, and many claim that if they got hurt on the job, they would keep it quiet for fear of retaliation.
ProPublica [Authors: Topher Sanders, Dan Schwartz, Danelle Morton, Gabriel Sandoval and Jessica Lussenhop]
A Known Carcinogen Is Showing Up in Wildfire Ash, and Researchers Are Worried
It's widely known that wildfire smoke is bad for your health, but a group of researchers recently found a known carcinogen in California wildfire ash, raising concerns about just how harmful it could be to breathe the air near a blaze. According to a study released in Nature Communications last week, researchers discovered dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium in samples of ash left behind by the Kincade and Hennessey fires in 2019 and 2020. Workers in the manufacturing industry who've been exposed to elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, have higher rates of lung cancer. In some affected areas, the study found that the concentration of chromium 6 was up to seven times that of unburned land.
NPR [Author: Joe Hernandez]
| Calendar Features | Back to Top |
PEPH 2024: Climate Change and Environmental Justice: Engaging Diverse Teams
Registration is now open for the Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) 2024 Network Meeting. The purpose of this three-day meeting is to bring grantees and partners within the PEPH network together for the first time since February 2020 to discuss common issues, approaches, and opportunities. The focus will be on engaging diverse teams in the context of the intersection of climate change and environmental justice. The workshop will be held February 20-22, 2024, on the NIEHS campus in Durham, North Carolina.
PEPH Webinar: Meet the Editors
This Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH) webinar will welcome the chief editors of Environmental Health Perspectives, the Journal of Health and Pollution, and the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. The editors will share information about their journal to provide a better understanding of the journal’s vision, general focus, and new or emerging topics of interest. In addition, the editors will provide news and updates, tips for submitting papers, and additional information relevant to the PEPH network. The webinar will take place on January 10, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Simplifying OSHA Rooftop Fall Protection Requirements
Occupational Health and Safety Online is hosting a training session on rooftop safety. This session will discuss common rooftop fall hazards, applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) codes, and the Risk Assessment Matrix that guides decision-making to protect workers. The webinar will be held on January 11, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Are You Meeting OSHA’s First Aid Requirements?
A workplace first-aid program is part of a comprehensive safety and health management system. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to provide access to first aid and emergency medical care. This webinar will outline the basics of what supplies and training are required. The webinar will be held on January 17, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. ET.
| On The Web This Week | Back to Top |
California Embraces Emergency Rules to Protect Countertop Workers from Incurable Silicosis
The deaths of young workers who cut kitchen and bathroom countertops prompted a state board to back emergency safety measures aimed at preventing silicosis, an incurable lung disease that has risen along with the booming popularity of engineered stone. The artificial material is made of crushed stone bound together with resin and can have silica levels exceeding 93% — much higher than in marble or granite. Workers who cut and grind engineered stone are at risk of inhaling tiny particles of crystalline silica that scar their lungs, leaving them struggling to breathe.
Los Angeles Times [Author: Emily Alpert Reyes]
Webinar Recording: Climate Abandonment Areas
This webinar, hosted by the First Street Foundation, discusses research published in the journal, Nature-Communications. This research integrates observed historic trends of population change, along with flood risk information, to uncover climate migration trends that are occurring in many high flood risk areas across the country. The research highlights the emergence of “Climate Abandonment Areas,” which are locations that have lost population from 2000-2020 and can be directly attributed to climate change related flood risk.
More Funding for Harm Reduction Programs in Rural Maine
It’s well documented that urban and rural communities alike are suffering from our nation’s overdose crisis, but rural regions must overcome some distinctive barriers. Higher rates of chronic illnesses, lack of public transportation, and great distances to care are among the barriers rural communities face. In the summer of 2022, MaineHealth launched Project DHARMA – Distribution of Harm Reduction Access in Rural Maine Areas – a collaboration with community-based organizations. Among the supplies and services syringe services programs typically provide in addition to clean syringes are saline, Band Aids, condoms, information, and referrals.
The Daily Yonder [Author: Taylor Sisk]
| Federal Agency Update | Back to Top |
Department of Labor Seeks to Expand, Establish Protections for Today’s Emergency Response Workers
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration will publish a proposal in January 2024 to update an existing standard and expand safety and health protections for emergency responders, including firefighters, emergency medical service providers and technical search and rescue workers. The proposal will include major changes for protective clothing and equipment and significant improvements in safety and health practices that the industry generally accepts as standard procedures.
EPA Awards Nearly $2.2M to Small Businesses to Advance Innovative Environmental Technologies
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced almost $2.2M in research funding to 22 small businesses to develop technologies that will help protect human health and the environment. The 22 small businesses will use EPA funding to develop their novel projects, including an AI-based mapping tool to support first responders during disasters, a reactor to remove PFAS from sewage waste, and a self-cleaning indoor air purification system for use during wildfires.
EPA’s Annual Enforcement Results Shows Significant Increase in Enforcement Activity to Protect Communities from Pollution
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Fiscal Year 2023 Enforcement and Compliance Annual Results, which showed significant increases in on-site inspections, new criminal investigations, civil settlements, and cleanup enforcement, as well as record levels of enforcement activity in environmental justice communities long scarred by pollution. EPA’s enforcement and compliance program made significant progress in efforts to support communities with environmental justice concerns.
NIOSH Announces Winners of Mine Technology Awards
Four organizations recently earned recognition from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) for their use of technology and creativity to advance miner safety and health. The 2023 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Awards were presented for the following categories: industrial minerals, coal, and metal. “Whenever private companies address health and safety issues with innovative approaches, everyone wins,” Steve Sawyer, director of the NIOSH Mining Program’s Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, said in a press release. “In mining, each operation has its own unique challenges, and solutions to these challenges need to be tailored to each mine.”
2023 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Awards
U.S. Department of Labor Announces Final Rule to Protect Miners from Surface Mobile Equipment-Related Accidents, Injuries, Fatalities
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced a final rule from its Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to help protect miners from accidents, injuries and fatalities related to surface mobile equipment. The rule requires mine operators to have written safety programs for surface mobile equipment — excluding belt conveyors — at surface mines and underground mines’ surface areas. The programs must include input from miners and their representatives and identify hazards and risks. In recent years, powered haulage equipment and machinery have been the leading causes of serious and fatal mine accidents. The final rule aligns with MSHA’s overall effort to improve safety in equipment use.
U.S. Department of Labor Joins 6 Federal Agencies in Agreement to Implement American Climate Corps
The Biden-Harris administration is taking critical steps to advance the American Climate Corps, a landmark initiative announced by President Biden in September 2023 to train the next generation of clean energy, conservation and climate resilience workers, while putting them on a path to good-paying union jobs. Beginning in January, senior administration officials will convene a series of virtual listening sessions to hear directly from prospective American Climate Corps applicants and implementing partners, including labor unions, educational institutions, employer partners, and state, local and Tribal governments about their priorities for the American Climate Corps. The sessions will inform the implementation of this historic new initiative.
| Awardee Highlights/Online Learning | Back to Top |
Test Your Knowledge of Carcinogens in The Workplace
How well can you identify carcinogenic risks in the workplace? A virtual training game is putting your knowledge to the test. The game is intended to educate participants on the STOP principle: Substitution, Technical Measures, Organizational Measures, and Personal Protective Equipment. The game is available in English, Dutch, and French.
| Job Openings | Back to Top |
Principal Investigator Opening for BTMed
CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training is seeking a Principal Investigator (PI) for The Building Trades National Medical Screening Program (BTMed). BTMed provides free medical screening services to construction workers formerly employed at the Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites, who may be at risk for occupational illnesses. The PI is responsible for the ethical and technical conduct of BTMed. Candidates should be located in the Washington, DC metro area with access to the CPWR office in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Keene State College Seeking Faculty Member in Safety and Occupational Health
Keene State College is looking to fill a faculty position in the Department of Safety and Occupational Health Applied Sciences beginning in August 2024. The role involves teaching undergraduate and potentially graduate courses in various formats, including classroom, laboratory, and online. Responsibilities also include curriculum development, laboratory management, student advisement, and college service. Candidates should be committed to mentoring a diverse student body, including many first-generation college students, and fostering critical thinking, civic engagement, and sustainability.
| We Want Your Feedback | Back to Top |
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