Safe Workplace and Safety News

The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) now offers an online library to house resources from around the world related to the prevention of road traffic injuries and deaths while at work. The resources are stored in the "Road Safety at Work" online library, at www.roadsafetyatwork.org.

The online library contains information on the following:

• "Best practices" including engineering controls, policies, administrative procedures, and guidance to employers or workers about safety on roads.


• Materials that show evidence of implementation and evaluation of success.


• Statistics about worker injuries and fatalities on roads.

NIOSH is working with partners to reduce the toll of road traffic injuries at work, which are the leading cause of occupational fatalities in the U.S. (30%) and other high-income nations. In the general population, deaths from road traffic injuries are projected to increase from 1.2 million in 2002 to 1.9 million in 2030, with low- and middle-income nations bearing most of the increase. If effective interventions are not implemented, the World Health Organization and the World Bank estimate that by the year 2030, road traffic injuries will become the 8th leading cause of mortality worldwide.*

"Thank you to all who have contributed to this library," said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. "NIOSH and partners remind you that this library is in continuing development and welcome your materials."

To contribute to the online library, www.roadsafetyatwork.org, please contact Jane Hingston at JHingston@cdc.gov. Information is needed on all types of occupational drivers: (1) drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses (workers for whom driving is the primary job duty); (2) workers who use smaller trucks or passenger vehicles provided by their employer (workers whose primary occupation is something other than “driver”); and (3) workers who drive personal vehicles for work purposes. Workers who are pedestrians and those who are working on roads are also included.

NIOSH encourages use the online library, free of charge, and consider the best practices that may be useful in their workplace.

Labels: NIOSH, workplace safety

The following is an announcement from the NIOSH blog:

Hearing protectors only work if they fit your ears and you wear them properly. An earplug that doesn't quite fill your ear canal or an earmuff with a small crack in the padding will let lots of noise into the ears through any gaps, even tiny ones.

To help you get the most from your hearing protectors, researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory developed QuickFitWeb, an online tool to check your hearing protection in a minute or less.

Studies of hearing protector users have repeatedly shown that the average protection values in the real world are much lower than the labeled Noise Reduction Ratings (NRR) determined in laboratories with trained and motivated subjects. Even worse, many hearing protector users get virtually no protection at all because of poor fit. It's hard to tell if hearing protectors are working well just by looking at them. A more accurate approach is to check how much they block or "attenuate" noise. Hearing protectors vary in their attenuation characteristics, with most providing a maximum of 20 to 35 decibels of noise reduction when worn correctly. Any hearing protector that's suitable for use in noisy settings will attenuate noise by at least 15 decibels.

The NIOSH QuickFitWeb test first calibrates itself to your environment and then can be used to determine whether the ear protection you are using is adequate.

Labels: Industrial Health, NIOSH

Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report that studies in the U.S. and Europe suggest contingent workers such as part-time, temporary, or contract workers are at higher risk for occupational injuries and illnesses than workers in traditional employment situations,

Several possible reasons for the higher risk are suggested in the increasing scientific evidence, and warrant further scientific investigation, the researchers stated. The article, “Contingent Workers and Contingent Health: Risks of a Modern Economy,” by Kristin J. Cummings, M.D., M.P.H., and Kathleen Kreiss, M.D., was published in the January 30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among the evidence for higher risk among contingent workers, are the following data and reports from the U.S., the researchers said:

• The rate of fatal occupational injuries among self-employed workers is twice the national average for all workers, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  
  
• The rate of needlestick injuries among temporary nurses caring for AIDS patients in 11 U.S. hospitals was 1.65 times higher than the rate for staff nurses working in the same units.
  
  
• A 2004 survey of day laborers in the U.S. found that 19 percent of the day laborers reported work-related injuries that required medical attention in the previous year, compared with less than 5 percent of workers in all private industries and about 6 percent of all workers in construction.
  
  
• A preliminary analysis of 2000-2004 data shows that contract coal mine workers with at least 15 years of tenure had a higher prevalence of radiographic evidence for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (black lung) than non-contract coal mine workers.

“As the use of part-time, temporary, and contract work increases in today’s changing economy, it has become more and more important to understand the implications of the trend for occupational safety and health, and to address factors that may put these workers at unique risk,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “Studies such as these are important in suggesting evidence-based hypotheses in this complex area, and stimulating next steps in research to address unanswered questions.”

While contingent workers are a diverse group, ranging from well-paid independent consultants to low-skilled construction workers, they are more likely to be young, female, or Hispanic, and to have lower incomes and fewer benefits than workers in traditional employment, the NIOSH researchers found.

As a concern that also involves issues of personal health, the unpredictable schedule of some contingent positions may contribute to poor eating and exercise habits – factors in obesity and diabetes.

Studying a population of workers who are not affiliated with one single employer, a population that is transient and dynamic, poses challenges for researchers, the new study said.

However, it added, identifying potential risk factors and designing interventions for preventing injuries and illness, and promoting good health, are “of paramount importance to the health of the nation.”

Further information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh. Contact: Christina Bowles (202) 245-0633.

Labels: Industrial Safety, NIOSH

NIOSH is seeking public comment on a draft action plan that responds to issues and recommendations in an April 2007 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The IOM report, which represented findings from an independent review commissioned by NIOSH, addressed research at NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. The research aims at developing a modern, representative data base of facial sizes and shapes that will help in the design of respirator face masks for the increasingly diverse U.S. employee population.

The draft action plan, the IOM report, further details about the NIOSH research, and contact information for submitting public comments are available at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/review/public/111.

Labels: NIOSH