Occupational Health

Background: While the cultivation and the use of cannabis continues to be illegal at the federal level in the United States, states and districts that have made medicinal and recreational use legal have seen dramatic increases in the number of workers being employed by cannabis-related companies.

Background: Legalization of recreational cannabis in multiple states, including Washington, has scaled up cultivation of this plant. This rise in cultivation also raises health and safety concerns for workers in this emerging industry.

In early February 2018, a contractor performing restoration work on a communications tower in Seattle, 

The investment casting environment poses many health risks to workers, including exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new final comprehensive rule in 2016 that lowered the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) of respirable crystalline silica to 50μg/m3 for any combination of quartz, cristobalite, or tridymite.

Precarious work, work that differs from the typical model of standard full-time, year-round employment, exposes its workers to adverse occupational health and safety outcomes such as increased occupational injury rates, higher hazardous exposures, and inadequate safety training and resources.

Research on

Introduction: The primary objectives of this research were to: 1) assess the relationship between heat exposure and occupational traumatic injuries in Washington State; and 2) assess heat exposure and the relationship between heat stress and psychomotor vigilance and balance in a population at high risk for injuries and heat related illness.

BACKGROUND: Opioids and benzodiazepines are central nervous system (CNS) depressants with sedating effects that can adversely impact cognitive as well as motor performance thereby potentially increasing the risk of occupational injury.

Background: Salmonellosis is a common food-borne gastrointestinal infection causing diarrhea, upset stomach, and sometimes vomiting. Each year there are 600-800 cases of salmonellosis reported to the Washington State Department of Health.