Scientists are finding that night shift work comes with a range of particular health risks, from heart disease to diabetes to breast cancer. This month, another study joined the pack — this one on the risk of traffic crashes among those who head home from work at sunrise.
These days, there’s a lot of attention on finding new and creative ways to turn around the nation’s opioid abuse and overdose problem. And it’s attention that’s very much needed because the problem is only getting worse.
Public Health Practice
If we want to advance equity in public health practice, we must address race and power
To address health inequities more effectively, public health practitioners must not only address the determinants of health, but also the causes of inequities in the determinants including multiple forms of racism and the distribution of power.
ProPublica offers a disturbing look inside the extravagant workers’ comp industry; workers speak up about conditions inside hospital hotels; New York’s governor announces plan to raise minimum wages for state university workers; and a worker is killed at a Ford Motor Company plant in Chicago.
Re-run from May 27, 2015: For more than a decade, biologist Mariam Barlow has been working on the theory that administering antibiotics on a rotating basis could be a solution to antibiotic resistance. After years of research, Barlow had lots of data, but she needed a more precise way to make sense of it all — something that was so specific it could easily be used to treat patients. So, she joined forces with a team of mathematicians. And the amazing results could help solve an enormous, worldwide problem.
Education
Mapping technique reveals spatial clustering of workplace injuries and potential new venues for outreach
A re-run from June 26, 2015: A common hurdle in the field of occupational health and safety is delivering what can sometimes be life-saving information to the people who need it most. After all, not all employers are amenable to workplace health and safety education. But what if safety advocates could find and connect with the most at-risk workers out in the community? Perhaps even reach vulnerable workers with safety education before they experience an injury at work?
Education
Chicago organizers take on domestic worker health and safety: ‘We start with the idea that everyone deserves dignity and respect’
Re-run from May 26, 2015: After 18 years as a professional house cleaner in the suburbs of Chicago, Magdalena Zylinska says she feels very lucky. Unlike many of her fellow domestic workers, she hasn’t sustained any serious injuries.
Reporters at the Center for Public Integrity investigate the nation’s third wave of asbestos disease; garment workers in Bangladesh continue to fight for safety and dignity in the workplace; Seattle becomes the first U.S. city to allow Uber drivers to organize; and OSHA sends its silica rule to the White House.
The Hesperian Foundation’s new publication “Workers’ Guide to Health and Safety” offers practical information for workers to identify hazards and use collective action to improve their environment at work.
Environmental Health
Researchers map risk of gun violence, pinpoint prevention opportunities: ‘No one is destined to meet violence’
Researcher Douglas Wiebe first started studying gun violence as a doctoral student, investigating how having a firearm in one’s home affected the risk of injury. The work only heightened his interest in exploring gun violence from a public health perspective. Eventually, he decided to officially take on a question he’d been mulling over for almost a decade: Among people who’ve experienced a violent assault, are there any commonalities in their experiences just prior to the incident, and can we map those experiences in a way that reveals optimal intervention opportunities?