Nurses, construction workers, and cleaning industry employees have some new resources available to them:

• The American Nurses Association launched a “Safe Staffing Saves Lives” website to help nurses become advocates for safe levels of staffing in hospital units (via Occupational Health & Safety)
• NIOSH has issued “Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Construction Workers,” which includes tip sheets for 20 common construction tasks (via the NIOSH Science Blog)
• OSHA has put up a Safety and Health Topics Page for the cleaning industry; it includes links to resources regarding bloodborne pathogens, cleaning chemicals, ergonomics, hazardous/toxic substances, personal protective equipment, and other issues (also via Occupational Health & Safety)

In other news:

Committee to Protect Journalists: 2007 was the deadliest year for the press in more than a decade; 64 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work, and another 22 deaths are under investigation as possibly being work-related.

New York Times: The Ethiopian government is forcing untrained civilians to fight rebels in the country’s Ogaden region, according to Western officials and people who have fled the country to avoid conscription.

Bloomberg: An investigation by the nonprofit National Labor Committee found that Christmas ornaments made in China and sold at Wal-Mart were produced under sweatshop conditions.

Associated Press: Bush’s nominee for the Department of Energy post of assistant secretary for fossil energy is a former executive for Massey Energy, which has long history of mine safety violations.

Newsday: A Johns Hopkins University study of poultry workers found an elevated risk for being colonized with gentamicn-resistant E. coli. (The study is available free from Environmental Health Perspectives.)