Occupational Health

Objectives: Suicide and unintentional deaths related to firearms are a problem in the United States. Findings cited by the National Center for Health Statistics show a 33% increase in the U.S. suicide rate over the past two decades.

Prolonged and/or frequent exposures to whole-body vibration (WBV) are known factors for musculoskeletal disorders. Although forklift operators are heavily exposed to WBV, there is still a lack of studies that systematically evaluate different interventions for mitigating WBV exposures.

Background: Many studies have linked childhood farm exposures to a protective effect against allergy and asthma. Although continued exposure in adulthood may maintain this effect, little work has been done looking specifically at adult occupational exposures.

Introduction: Exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) has been associated with increased prevalence of low back pain in occupational settings. Not only does exposure to WBV have a high personal cost for workers who experience chronic pain, but it also has a high impact on the costs of workers’ compensation claims.

  This study explored the perceived occupational exposures and health impacts of disaster scientists and experts that performed reconnaissance in Ridgecrest, CA, following the magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes that occurred on July 4 and 5, 2019.

Background: Alpha diketones such as diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione have been used as artificial flavorings in a variety of industries and are produced naturally when food products such as coffee beans are roasted.

Typhoid fever continues to be a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries with limited access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

An occupational noise exposure assessment aboard a U. S.

Video Exposure Monitoring (VEM) is an underutilized tool within the field of industrial hygiene. In the past four decades there have been several systems developed for VEM around the world. Technology continues to evolve and there are new opportunities for VEM. Newer software and equipment are improving and modernizing VEM to make it more available for practicing industrial hygienists.

Introduction

Introduction to Laboratory Animal Allergy

Background: Women are an underrepresented group in the construction trades; as such, they experience high levels of gendered stressors such as sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

Purpose: This study assessed how a job video together with a written job description, compared to a job description alone, affects occupational health providers’ knowledge about the job of injury and return to work (RTW) practices.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) are one of the 84,000 chemicals regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that have yet to be tested for potential respiratory toxicity.

Introduction: Characterization of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) exposure is important for the development and evaluation of mitigation strategies for occupational WBV. Traditional gold standard accelerometer (GSA) systems can be bulky, expensive, and difficult to implement in real world testing.

Background: Studies have reported that agricultural workers have elevated rates of respiratory health issues; however, the literature on respiratory function in dairy workers is limited and contradictory. Dairy work involves more exposure to dust and gases when compared to other occupations.

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.