Environmental Health and Safety

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New workplace safety and health issues continue to emerge around the relatively new fields of nanotechnology, advanced materials, and additive manufacturing, which makes updated on information a challenge for safety professionals and others. Because many people turn to Wikipedia for information, scientists with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) gathered with “Wikipedians” from across the Midwest to expand and improve Wikipedia articles about nanotechnology OSH.

The New York Times has an article about failure of most hotel guests to give low-paid, hard-working housekeepers a much appreciated tip. Aside from the hard work they do, the Times also notes the hazards of the job. Angela Lemus, a housekeeper at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill who makes $19.91 per hour, said through a translator that in addition to scrubbing tubs and taking out trash, she sometimes has to clean blood or other medical waste from rooms.

Before the end of World War II, there was little interest in fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of the working population—a scientific practice known as ergonomics. By the 1970s, NIOSH researchers were pioneering the study of musculoskeletal health as professional ergonomists, examining physical and social components of work environments (such as conveyer belt height and lunch break routines, respectively) to mitigate musculoskeletal injury risks.

With wildfires posing a current and – no doubt – future threat to California’s residents and its environment, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is urging California Governor Jerry Brown to turn to the experts – industrial hygienists – when it comes to protecting the health and safety of residents and recovery workers. “AIHA and its members are ready now, and we will remain ready to assist you in recovery efforts throughout the days to come,” wrote AIHA President Deborah Imel Nelson PhD, CIH and California Industrial Hygiene Council President Pamela Murcell, CIH in a letter to Brown.

Climate change is already harming human health in ways that are “far worse than previously understood,” according to a new report in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal. "Climate change is happening, and it's a health issue today for millions worldwide,” said Anthony Costello, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown, the commission that produced the report.

Two months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, residents of the U.S. territory are still being told to boil water from rivers and streams before using it to drink, bathe, wash or cook with. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that if it’s not possible to boil water – for at least a minute - water may be disinfected with bleach. That warning is part of an EPA update on Hurricane Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico.