Weekly E-Newsbrief
July 8, 2022
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 |
NIEHS Avian Influenza Training Tool: New Update Available
The updated tool provides updates on the latest information on materials disposal practices from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The updated training tool is available in PDF and PowerPoint format on the National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training. Spanish language version will be forthcoming.
NIEHS Program Recognized for Delivering Jobs, Environmental Justice
In June 2022, the White House selected the NIEHS Environmental Career Worker Training Program (ECWTP) to participate in the new Justice40 Initiative, a bold effort to promote economic opportunity in underserved communities while advancing environmental justice. The initiative aims to deliver 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments in climate change, clean energy, clean transportation, affordable housing, water infrastructure, workforce development, and pollution remediation to disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Call for Abstracts for the 2023 National Trainers’ Exchange
The 2023 Trainer’s Exchange will take place in Indianapolis, IN, May 2-4, 2023, and is hosted by OAI, Inc. in conjunction with the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP). The National Trainers’ Exchange will bring together safety and health trainers and training stakeholders from the Department of Energy and the NIEHS WTP to exchange ideas about how to make training for hazardous materials and emergency response workers more effective and empowering. Through participatory workshop sessions, participants will share best practices, training techniques, and ways to overcome challenges. The deadline for submission is Wednesday, August 31, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Missouri Governor Weakens Hazardous Waste Rules, Cuts Regulation for ‘Advanced Recycling’
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation Friday weakening the state’s hazardous waste regulations and opening the door for a controversial type of recycling backed by the plastic industry and decried by environmentalists. The bill also removes a permit requirement for chemical recycling facilities, often referred to as “advanced recycling.”
Missouri Independent [Author: Allison Kite]
A Clunky Mask May Be the Answer to Airborne Disease and N95 Waste
The government’s tentative approach to elastomeric respirators during the pandemic has largely escaped public scrutiny, even as American mask producers, health policy experts and nursing unions have been pressing federal officials to promote them more aggressively. The masks, they note, are an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective alternative to N95s.
New York Times [Author Andrew Jacobs]
| Calendar Features | Back to Top |
Webinar on Respiratory Protection for Workers Without RPPs
This virtual webinar will help provide a shared understanding of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee’s proposed framework for meeting the respiratory protection needs of workers without respiratory protection programs (RPPs) and an opportunity to engage with federal agencies and other key stakeholder organizations on practical considerations for implementation. The event will be held on July 20, 2022, at 1:30- 4:00 p.m. EDT
APHA Webinar: Pesticides and Environmental Injustice
The American Public Health Association (APHA) Occupational Health and Safety Section is hosting a webinar on the impact of pesticides exposure, problematic regulation of pesticides and worker health. The speakers include a worker affected by pesticide exposure and researchers presenting their recent BMC Public Health publication on the topic. The webinar will be held on July 28, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
2022 National Tribal Health Conference & 50th Anniversary, Registration Open
The National Tribal Health Conference (NTHC) explores health policy and its impact on Tribes, advances Tribal capacity to expand policy work, and serves as a forum to discuss policy and political work in the arenas of Tribal health care, public, behavioral, and environmental health. The conference will be held on September 26-28, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
| On The Web This Week | Back to Top |
More Companies Are Trying Out the 4-Day Workweek. But it Might Not be for Everyone
A 4-day work week may be better suited for the office environment where schedules can be more flexible. Many manufacturing jobs may not have the scheduling bandwidth to accommodate the shorter work week. However, experiments with healthcare workers showed happier staff and lower healthcare costs when given shorter hourly shifts.
NPR [Author: Jeevika Verma]
Researchers Can Now Explain How Climate Change is Affecting Your Weather
Some types of weather are so complex that it is still difficult for scientists to pinpoint the influence of climate change on individual events, even if the overall connection to climate change is well-understood. For more common types of dangerous weather, more detailed data can be helpful because they tell people how often they'll need to cope with certain events.
NPR [Author: Rebecca Hersher]
| Federal Agency Update | Back to Top |
U.S. Department of Labor Awards $121M in Apprenticeship Building America Grants to Expand, Diversify, Modernize Registered Apprenticeship Programs
To better equip disadvantaged workers for high quality jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced up to $140 million in available Quality Jobs, Equity, Strategy and Training grants funding to states to provide jobs and employment training and services for America’s unemployed and underemployed workers.
OSHA Extends National Emphasis Program to Protect High-Risk Workers from Coronavirus
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is extending its Revised National Emphasis Program for COVID-19 until further notice. The program focuses enforcement efforts on companies that put the largest number of workers at serious risk of contracting the coronavirus, and on employers who engage in retaliation against workers who complain about unsafe or unhealthful conditions or exercise other rights under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
NIOSH Extramural Research and Training Program Annual Report Released Awardee Highlights/Online Learning
The data in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Extramural Research and Training Program, Annual Report of Fiscal Year 2020 reflect the work of the extramural community of researchers supported by NIOSH and the NIOSH Office of Extramural Programs. This report looks at how NIOSH invested in its multidisciplinary centers, investigator-initiated research projects, and cooperative research agreements. It also focuses on training project grants, state surveillance programs, and small business innovation research.
| Awardee Highlights/Online Learning | Back to Top |
Green Door Initiative Awarded Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize From DOE
Part of the American-Made Challenges series and sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, the prize aims to fund organizations for ongoing and/or proposed activities related to climate and clean energy that support, build trust, and strengthen relationships and partnerships with disadvantaged communities.
Midwest Consortium for Hazardous Waste Worker Training Newsletter
| Job Openings | Back to Top |
The University of Minnesota, School of Public Health is Seeking an Associate Professor for Division of Environmental Health Sciences
The successful candidate must have extensive knowledge and experience in research that relates to industrial hygiene, with particular focus on novel and emerging areas of interest that complement existing division expertise. Areas of interest include, exposure science, implementation science, qualitative research and community engaged research.
| We Want Your Feedback | Back to Top |
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