Ergonomic hazards; slips, trips and falls and exposure to toxic cleaning chemicals are just a few of the occupational health risks faced by the nation’s 400,000 hotel cleaners, according to a partnership put together by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to improve workplace practices.
The partners, collectively known as the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), collaborate to identify critical workplace issues in industry sectors. NORA has released a set of recommendations aimed at improving safety and health among hotel cleaners, who are mostly immigrant and minority women.
According to a recent academic study cited in DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 2011-194, , housekeepers had the highest rates of injury of all jobs studied in sampled hotels. Among that group, Hispanic females had the highest rate of injury
The publication identifies the following hazards for hotel cleaners: