Weekly E-Newsbrief
March 8, 2024
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 |
WTP Spring Grantee Meeting and Workshop Registration Page Is Now Live!
The registration page for the Worker Training Program (WTP) Grantee Meeting and Workshop, titled “Closing the Gaps: Designing Training with Occupational Health Disparities in Mind,” is now available. The grantee meeting will be held on April 30, 2024, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. EDT. The workshop will take place on May 1, 2024, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. EDT, and May 2, 2024, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. EDT. Registration will close on Friday, April 12, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
CDC Drops 5-Day Isolation Guidance for Covid-19, Moving Away from Key Strategy to Quell Infections
People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important to controlling the spread of the infection. The agency says it’s updating its recommendations for Covid-19 to bring them in line with its advice for other kinds of respiratory infections, including influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV). The CDC now says people who have Covid-19 should stay home until they’ve been fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours.
CNN [Author: Brenda Goodman]
UN Environment Assembly Calls for Action to End the Use of the World’s Most Toxic Pesticides by 2035
In a historic move for safer food and farming, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) called for action by 2035 to eliminate the use of the world’s most toxic pesticides globally. These highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) are known to cause significant environmental damage and pose serious threats to health. Exposures to HHPs have been linked to cancer, impaired neurodevelopment in children, reproductive health effects, and endocrine disruption, among other serious conditions.
The Hong Kong Convention Is Ratified – What Next?
The Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships has been ratified and will enter into force on June 26, 2025. Shipbreaking has been called the most dangerous job in the world. Due to the terrible death rate in shipbreaking yards, the primary focus has been on improving worker safety – both from accidents and industrial disease – and subsequently on precarious work, low wages and poor working and living conditions. While the Convention doesn’t guarantee a transformed industry, we believe that we can use its ratification as a starting point to improve these aspects.
EPA Moves to Limit Frequent Chemical Accidents
Hundreds of chemical facilities around the U.S. must implement new procedures to try to better safeguard communities from accidents that are happening with alarming frequency and jeopardizing human and environmental health. New measures announced Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require industrial operators to prevent accidental releases of dangerous chemicals that could otherwise cause deaths and injuries, damage property and the environment, or require surrounding communities to evacuate or shelter-in-place. The new requirements are expected to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents, building on revisions proposed in 2022.
The New Lede [Author: Shannon Kelleher]
| Calendar Features | Back to Top |
Just Play it Cool: Community Health Center Resources to Address Heat and Climate Change
Extreme heat kills more people than hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and lightning combined. As climate change becomes more severe it is predicted that extreme heat days and heat-related deaths will increase substantially. There is a growing need for strategies and resources for clinicians and health centers on the front lines of our climate crisis. The Migrant Clinicians Network will be hosting an extreme heat webinar series with sessions taking place on March 13, April 10, May 8, and June 12. Topics include health equity, resilient infrastructure, chronic conditions, and mental health.
Workers On the Line: Improving Jobs in Meat and Poultry Processing
Meat and poultry processing are core to our food supply chain, but the health and safety hazards are pervasive and workers in these sectors face some of the harshest conditions in the U.S. These conditions affect some of our most vulnerable compatriots, including undocumented workers and even children who have been found to be working in these facilities. The Aspen Institute’s Food & Society Program and Economic Opportunities Program is hosting a webinar on March 19, 2024, at 2 p.m. EDT that will discuss the challenges workers face, ideas for improving their jobs and well-being, and the policies and practices to reshape this industry.
Safe Ladder Use in Construction Webinar
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that fatal injuries in the construction industry due to ladders decreased 12.6% from 2021 to 2022. However, there is still work to be done when it comes to ladder safety – 90 fatal falls occurred from ladders in 2022. CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training – is hosting a webinar on ladder safety on March 19, 2024, at 2 p.m. EDT. Webinar topics include choosing the right ladder, inspecting ladders, and maintaining three points of contact.
Understanding Heat Stress and How to Stay Safe
With a changing climate, the public, especially those exposed to occupational heat, are facing increased risk for heat injury and illness. This presentation will educate environmental public health professionals on the physiological responses of workers exposed to heat and about the dangers, causes, and mitigation of heat stress while on the job. The webinar will take place on March 21, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
AI for the Rest of Us: How Equitable Is the Future of Work for Front-Line Workers?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how work will get done on the front-line in retail, health care, construction, and food services. However, the front-line workers may not necessarily understand how their job is being reshaped or the implications of this reshaping. This webinar will discuss research needs to enhance frontline worker's understanding of AI as a workplace partner. It will take place on April 2, 2024, from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EDT.
| On The Web This Week | Back to Top |
Q&A: Robert Bullard Says 2024 Is the Year of Environmental Justice for an Inundated Shiloh, Alabama
As the director of the Robert D. Bullard Center for Climate and Environmental Justice and a distinguished professor at Texas Southern University, Robert Bullard is widely known as the father of environmental justice, but he’s not resting on his laurels that include honorary degrees and many awards. Right now, he is busy working on a case that brought him to his roots in Coffee County, Alabama. Shiloh, Alabama, has been proudly kept by Black landowners since the Reconstruction era, but the widening and elevation of nearby Highway 84 has caused repeatedly destructive flooding for the past six years, with no signs of stopping. This disaster has become a personal mission for Bullard.
Inside Climate News [Author: Steve Curwood]
New Native American Health Alliance to Address Physician Shortages in Tribal Communities
Twenty-four urban and rural tribal organizations, medical schools, health plans, teaching hospitals, medical residencies, and physician advocates launched the American Indian Medical Education Strategies (AIMES) Alliance. The AIMES Alliance, whose mission is to address physician shortages in tribal communities, is the first funded policy and communications organization singularly focused on advancing and advocating for federal policies that bring graduate medical education partnerships to more urban and rural Tribal medical facilities.
Study Explores the Effect of Irregular Work Hours on Sleep
People with irregular work schedules are more likely to have problems sleeping than those who work a typical 35- to 40-hour week, according to a recent study. The research team used data from 2012-2017 from more than 25,000 workers. They found that participants who worked more than 55 hours a week had shorter sleep (less than seven hours a night) and more sleep disturbances than those who worked 35-40 hours a week. Additionally, working all or most weekends was shown to contribute to worse sleep quality than not working weekends.
| Federal Agency Update | Back to Top |
US Department of Labor Launches Tool to Help Miners, Mining Communities
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that its Mine Safety and Health Administration has unveiled an online platform to help miners and their families navigate the process of finding healthcare providers, facilities and related resources. Accessible through the agency’s website, the “Health Resource Locator Tool” includes care options tailored specifically for miners. The tool enables miners to search for resources easily and anonymously in a chosen area using a mine name or mine identification number; or a city, state or zip code.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $90 Million to Improve Building Efficiency, Increase Resilience, and Lower Costs for American Families and Businesses
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced $90 million in funding to support building energy code adoption, training, and technical assistance at the state and local level. Building codes, and in particular building energy codes, have a significant impact on building resilience and occupant safety, helping increase the amount of time people can shelter in place during and following extreme weather and power outages, including extreme heat and cold events that are increasing in severity and frequency as a result of climate change.
EPA Adds Sites to the Superfund National Priorities List in Illinois, Iowa, Navajo Nation, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding five sites and proposing to add three additional sites to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is a list of known sites throughout the U.S. and its territories where historic releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environment. The five added sites and one of the proposed additions to the NPL are in communities historically overburdened by pollution. These sites raise potential environmental justice concerns based on income, demographic, education, linguistic, and life expectancy data.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Launch of Nearly $50 Million Initiative to Support Opioid Treatment and Recovery Services in Rural Communities
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced the launch of nearly $50 million for HRSA’s Rural Opioid Treatment and Recovery Initiative. Funding will support establishing and expanding comprehensive substance use disorder treatment and recovery services in rural areas, including by increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder. Opioid use disorder is particularly concerning in rural communities and accessing treatment can be challenging due to geographic isolation, transportation barriers, and limited substance use disorder providers.
| Awardee Highlights/Online Learning | Back to Top |
Collective Bargaining for Health and Safety Guide
This practical, “how-to” guide provides resources to win health and safety improvements through collective bargaining and strengthen the union in the process. Union leaders, activists and negotiating committees who bargain with employers over health and safety issues can use this guide to build a contract campaign around health and safety, draft new contract language, or bargain on health and safety between contracts.
University of California, Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program
Electric Vehicle Fires: Best Practice and Free Training for First Responders
New resources from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service are intended to help first responders safely confront fires and other emergencies resulting from electric vehicles and energy storage systems. The resources include free training programs on Electric Vehicle Safety for the First Responder and Lithium-Ion Response Awareness.
Current Practices: Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Systems
| Job Openings | Back to Top |
U.S. Department of Agriculture Seeking Construction Control Inspector
This position is in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, Kentucky State office. This position is responsible for performing work involving on-site inspections of construction in support of rural communities specifically Appalachian Regional Commission administered projects. Many of these projects include the use of "Green Technology" and Renewable Energy. The Construction Control Inspector’s will be asked to; review and interpret construction plans and specifications, perform on-site inspections of construction in support of rural communities, and inspect all electrical, mechanical, civil and architectural materials delivered to the construction site to ensure they meet specifications.
Central Intelligence Agency Seeking Firefighter
Firefighters protect Central Intelligence Agency personnel, facilities, and information by providing fire suppression, prevention, emergency rescue, and provision of emergency medical assistance. Firefighters at this level work under direct supervision, responding to fire alarms and other emergency calls to protect life and property; driving emergency apparatus, including an advanced life support unit; working to combat, extinguish and prevent fires; participating in rescue extrication operations; and providing emergency medical care to the sick or injured.
University of California, Los Angeles Seeking Disaster/Climate Project Coordinator
The University of California, Los Angeles Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) is seeking a project coordinator to oversee LOSH training initiatives related to emergency preparedness and response to climate-related disasters. LOSH’s initiatives promote hazard awareness and skills building for climate-impacted workers and communities in Southern California and aim to build the climate resiliency of worker and community organizations. The project coordinator will work in close collaboration with other LOSH staff and with a network of community-based partners.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations Seeking Senior Safety and Health Specialist
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) safety and health department advocates and works for stronger worker safety and health protections and worker rights primarily through federal and state regulatory and legislative activities. The department plays a leadership role in the safety and health community in the development of safety and health policies and initiatives. Job responsibilities include assisting the safety and health director, responding to requests for information on safety and health issues, and monitoring safety and health developments, among others.
Pacific Northwest Hospitality Training Program Seeking Inaugural Executive Director
The Pacific Northwest Hospitality Training Program is looking for its inaugural executive director. The founding executive director will be responsible for creating and guiding the organization by helping to develop its mission, strategic goals, and all operational structures. They will also be responsible for developing programming and for stewarding external relationships. The Pacific Northwest Hospitality Training Program is a newly established nonprofit organization and labor-management partnership between hospitality employers and the union for hospitality workers in the Pacific Northwest.
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