Occupational Health

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, which is a federal plan enforceable throughout the United States. Any state can have an approved state plan as long as the safety and health rules and regulations in the state plan are either as stringent or more stringent than OSHA rules and regulations.

This project involved conducting an exposure assessment in the paint shop at Seattle City Light to evaluate

Immigrants face a number of unique challenges when migrating to the United States. One of the most important concerns is securing employment. For decades, Human Capital Theory has been the prevailing framework supporting the idea that types of human capital such as education, skills, English-proficiency, and other attributes are important for individuals to succeed in the labor market.

Background: Terpenes are a broad class of volatile and semi volatile organic compounds with over 40,000 different known structures, that are emitted by a wide variety of flora. Terpene concentrations vary in different forest settings.

Background: JP-8, Jet A-1, and Jet A are kerosene-based aviation fuels. Jet fuel combustion produces complex pollutant mixtures including VOCs, CO2, CO, NOx, SOx, PAHs and PM. Particles are characterized by size, with ultrafine particles (UFPs -- those particles < 100 nm in diameter) typically quantified by particle number concentration.

The complex interplay between routine antibiotic use and zoonotic pathogen presence makes livestock farming environments unique nexuses for the potential emergence of zoonotic diseases and/or antibiotic resistant bacteria and their resistance genes.

Aim – The primary aim of this study is to direct future research and guide interventions for the prevention of workplace violence [WPV] in the emergency department [ED] using a multidisciplinary approach and qualitative evidence of perceived facilitators and barriers of WPV.

Objective: This study characterizes determinants of depression and anxiety among U.S. Mariners during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies areas for intervention on these outcomes.

Background: Ozone is a popular water sterilization agent utilized in marine mammal husbandry to maintain the pool water in the animal enclosures. The health hazards posed by ozone are well understood, but its role as an occupational hazard, especially in marine mammal husbandry, is understudied and not well characterized.

Introduction: The expansion of the U.S. cannabis industry has created thousands of new jobs in cultivation, processing and distribution. While little is known about occupational hazards in the Cannabis industry, pilot studies suggest an increased risk of respiratory exposures and associated adverse health outcomes, including immunologic sensitization to Cannabis.

Introduction: Occupational exposure surveillance has historically been of limited focus in the United States (US). However, understanding the burden of occupational exposures is critical for the primary prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses.

Introduction: Infection control is important in the veterinary care setting due to the risk of zoonotic illness1–4, however research has consistently shown that veterinary workers tend to underestimate their risk and have lower rates of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) use5–9.

Background: There are a little under a million U.S. early childhood education (ECE) workers in 2020, and the ergonomic risk factors pertinent in this workforce is understudied. The purpose of the study was to conduct detailed worksite observations to comprehensively describe prevalence, durations, and frequencies of workplace exposures.

Background: Particulate matter (PM)-related health effects have been studied extensively, yet wildfire smoke-specific PM health effects and its dose-response relationship have not reached a consensus due to variations in exposure scenarios and health outcome measurements.

Objective: This study investigates the role that union women’s committees have in reducing gendered psychosocial exposures and mental health outcomes among tradeswomen in the sheet metal industry.

The Bristol Bay, Alaska drift gillnet fishery is unique due to its intensity and short time frame. Spanning just eight weeks, gillnet fishers participate in the world’s largest sockeye salmon run. The days are long and the conditions extremely variable, but fishers return season after season. As an industry, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations.

Exposure to zoonotic disease is a significant occupational risk in veterinary medicine. In this study, we characterized PPE use, injury frequency, and Bartonella seroreactivity in Washington State veterinary workers.

Workers who come into contact with tuberculosis (TB) patients are at elevated risk of TB infection and disease. Tongue swabbing is an alternative diagnostic sample collection approach that was designed to mitigate this risk. This study assessed risk perceptions among healthcare workers (HCWs) using tongue swabs for TB diagnosis in South Africa during a respiratory virus pandemic.

Objective: Firefighters are exposed to occupational hazards including carcinogens working in states like Washington with laws that provide line-of-duty benefits for certain cancers; however, research on exposure-disease relationships is inconsistent for covered cancers like malignant melanoma (MM).

Background: Adverse health effects of extreme heat in occupational settings are substantial, particularly among outdoor workers who perform physical labor. Core body temperature (CT) is a critical indicator of heat strain. Excessive increase in CT negatively affects physical and cognitive performance and can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Tongue swabs have shown promise as alternatives to sputum for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Some of the most promising results have come from studies that used manual quantitative PCR (qPCR) to analyze swabs.

Objectives: To characterize grocery store health and safety controls implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic across stores in different cities, areas of differing levels of income, and types of stores.Methods: This longitudinal, observational study of 16 stores between Seattle, WA (n=9) and Portland, OR (n=7) was conducted from May 2020 to January 2021.

Environmental contamination of pathogenic viruses is a common occurrence and leading to a number of skin, enteric, and respiratory infections in occupational, nosocomial, and community settings. Viruses with environmental transmission routes have varied abilities to survive and persist in environmental mediums to aiding in their transmission to susceptible hosts.

Background: Efficacy-driven assessments of culturally and linguistically appropriate occupational health and safety training (OHS) for workers who speak English as a second language remain uncommon. This study analyzes predictors of performance on a dairy safety knowledge test using pre-and-post knowledge assessments.

This study hypothesized differences would exist in NIHL markers among veterans compared to non-veterans. Methods A data set of 10,000 NHANES records, dating from 2015 to 2016, was obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services website. Records with a complete audiometric exam were examined to exclude subjects with ear disease that would invalidate the audiometric exam.

Artificial stone countertops are the centerpiece of countless modern kitchen remodels, but the process of fabricating these surfaces has recently gained attention due to high occupational exposures to fine silica dust, known as respirable crystalline silica (RCS). This report summarizes OSHA State Plan health compliance inspections of stone countertop fabricators in King County, WA.

Process Safety Management (PSM) is the safe and systematic management of highly hazardous chemicals that have the potential for catastrophic release that could result in toxic exposure, fire, or explosions.

Social, economic, political and technological trends over the past several decades have caused a number of adaptive changes in the labor market, including the fundamental transformation of the nature and organization of employment.

Compassion fatigue has been described in various “caring professions” across the human medical field. Recently, compassion fatigue has been identified as a concern in animal care professions, specifically veterinary medicine.