Volume 7 Number 11 March 2010

From the Director's Desk

Please Join Us at the Summit

NIOSH eNews Web page To subscribe, click here

Down in the Trenches: March Training for KY

Small Excavator & Plumbing Contractors

Western Mining Training RFA (RFA-OH-10-001) NIOSH Announces Charles C. Shepard

Nominations

Vacancy Announcement: Director, National

Center for Environmental Health Just Announced! National Occupational Injury

Research Symposium 2011

Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis in Workers at

an Indium Processing Facility NIOSH Seeks Assistance From Pesticide

Handlers

NIOSH Requests Comments

2010 Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss

Three New Health Hazard Evaluation Reports Prevention AwardsTM Presented

Now Available

News from Our Partners

Iowa Targets Occupational- and

Agricultural-related Injury

r2p Corner

National Fire Service Seat Belt

Pledge

New NIOSH Training Features

Survivors of the Farmington Coal

Mine Disaster

Look for Us on the Road!

Occupational Safety and Health

on Telemundo

NORA

NIOSH Science Blog

What’s New on the NIOSH Blog?

Upcoming Conferences

& Workshops

Loss Prevention Foundation

Helps Implement the National

WRT Agenda

New Communication

Products

New Bilingual Posters and Cards

Word of the Month

Charles C. Shepard

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Show Proper Disposable

Respirator Use

From the Director's Desk

--John Howard, M.D. Director, NIOSH

March eNews 2010

Please Join Us at the Summit

In 1970, the year in which the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, there were 9.6 million

Latinos in the U.S., comprising 4.7 percent of this country's population. By 2008, that number had grown

dynamically to 46.7 million, or about 15 percent of the total population. The U.S. Census Bureau predicted in

2008 that by 2050, the Latino population will further triple to 132.8 million. In that projection, native-born and

foreign-born Latinos or Hispanics are expected to comprise a third of the U.S. population.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html

Only time will tell whether the projection for 2050 will hold true, but it seems safe to predict one thing.

Whether or no matter how the numbers may fluctuate, Latinos will continue to comprise a significant and

ever-increasing share of our population and our workforce. This diversity is welcome. It refreshes, invigorates,

and enriches our culture. However, it also poses a professional challenge for the occupational safety and

health community.

From research and observation, we know that Latino workers are employed disproportionately in jobs that

involve heavy machinery, physically challenging work conditions, pesticides and other potentially toxic

substances, and other elements of risk. We also know that low-wage, low-skilled, and immigrant workers-as

Latino workers often are-are at further disadvantage for additional reasons. They often lack access to safety

training, and even if training is offered, it may not be in a language they understand and may be culturally

meaningless for them. Often, they have limited recourse to legal protections. If they are injured on the job, the

economic impact on their families is likely to be even more disruptive than for workers who have better wages

and benefits.

We all want the U.S. to benefit from the enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication of men and women who

believe in the American dream. For that to happen, we have an obligation to do all we can to help keep them

safe and healthy on the job.

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To address these and related concerns about safety, health, and Latino workers, the Occupational Safety

and Health Administration (OSHA) will hold a National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety-la

Cumbre de Acción Nacional para la Salud y Seguridad del Trabajador Latino-on April 14-15 in Houston,

Texas. NIOSH is pleased to be a cosponsor of this meeting.

The Summit will focus on construction, the industry that accounts for the highest proportion of fatal traumatic

injuries among Latino workers (34 percent of such deaths from 2003-2006). It will also include other industries

with large numbers of Hispanic workers in which traumatic injuries and illnesses are of major concern. These

include building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, production (food processing, manufacturing), food

preparation and serving, transportation and material moving, farming, fishing and forestry, and personal care

and services. (An excellent article by NIOSH researchers and outside colleagues examines, in further detail,

trends from 1992-2006 in work-related deaths among Hispanic workers.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5722a1.htm)

The Summit is designed to showcase effective partnerships and educational programs that reach Latino

workers with critical health and safety information and to raise awareness of occupational health and safety

risks for Hispanic workers, ways of preventing injury and illness, and safeguards under the law. The Summit

is designed to stimulate a working agenda to prevent injury and death among Latino Workers.

NIOSH has worked closely with the Latino community and other partners in business, labor, government, and

social services to better identify risk factors for Latino workers and the reasons for disparities in risk.

Together we have also worked to develop better communications and training products designed to meet the

need for language-appropriate and culturally appropriate materials. Some of these efforts include:

Extramural funding of a program of community-based participatory research projects aimed at creating

partnerships between communities and universities to improve outreach and community capacity

building and to develop model intervention programs. Several of these projects were highlighted in a

special issue of the American Journal of Public Health devoted to Environmental and Occupational

Justice, published in November 2009. Successful interventions for Hispanic workers in agriculture,

domestic work, poultry processing, and home healthcare were highlighted.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/content/vol99/issueS3/

Initiating a series of targeted surveillance programs to better track injuries and illnesses among

Hispanic workers through a variety of state-based surveillance programs (e.g., Fatality Assessment

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and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program) and through collaboration with the National Agricultural

Workers Survey administered through the U.S. Department of Labor. Many of these programs were

highlighted in a February 2010 special issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine dedicated

to Occupational Health Disparities. This special issue included a foreword by U.S. Labor Secretary

Hilda Solis. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-02-04-10.html

Establishing an intramural research and dissemination program portfolio-under the National

Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)-focused on eliminating occupational health disparities.

Emphasis areas include the development of model training programs for Hispanic construction and

home healthcare workers and innovative outreach materials and dissemination channels (e.g., the

Mexican and Guatemalan consulates and telenovelas [or televised Spanish language soap operas]).

NIOSH was honored to collaborate with the Spanish-language television network Telemundo and other

colleagues in 2008 to incorporate an occupational health message into a popular dramatic series.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-03-31-08.html

NIOSH also offers many resources for Latino workers, their employers, and others who work with the Latino

community. Many products on the NIOSH Web site are also available in Spanish on our NIOSH en español

Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/spanish/niosh/index.html), such as our latest, How to Properly Put On and

Take Off a Disposable Respirator (card http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-131 and poster

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-133/), and other documents of interest, including Simple Solutions

Ergonomics for Construction Workers (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2007-122) and Simple Solutions

Ergonomics for Farm Workers (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2001-111/default.html).

We hope you will join OSHA, NIOSH, and other colleagues next month at la Cumbre de Acción Nacional.

Registration is open and there is no charge to attend

(https://www2.ergweb.com/projects/conferences/osha/register-osha-lwhs.asp). Additionally, a call for

abstracts and an opportunity to present education materials are open through March 5 for those who wish to

participate (http://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/events.cfm?id=2491).

If you cannot attend but are interested in getting future information on this topic, please go to the registration

page above, submit your email address, and check the box for more information. We hope the Summit will be

a significant step ahead in addressing our shared concerns, and we value your interest in being involved in

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future efforts. ¡Espero verle en la Cumbre!

NIOSH Announces Charles C. Shepard Nominations

This year NIOSH is proud to nominate Dr. Hongwei Hsiao for the Charles C. Shepard Lifetime Scientific

Achievement Award. Also nominated for other categories under the award were nine peer-reviewed articles

published by NIOSH authors in 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-02-23-10.html

Just Announced! National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2011

The National Occupational Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS) 2011 is scheduled for October 18-20, 2011,

in Morgantown, West Virginia. NOIRS is the only national symposium focusing solely on occupational

traumatic injury research and prevention. Please check the NOIRS Web site for future updates and additional

information. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/noirs/noirsmain.html

NIOSH Seeks Assistance From Pesticide Handlers

NIOSH wants to hear your concerns about personal protective equipment (PPE) for pesticide handlers.

NIOSH is seeking assistance from pesticide handlers in the agriculture sector to learn about potential

barriers to the proper selection and use of PPE by agricultural pesticide handlers and their employers.

Additional information is available under "Spotlights" at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/default.html or email

KFaulkner@cdc.gov.

2010 Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention AwardsTM Presented

NIOSH, in partnership with the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA), is pleased to announce

the recipients of the 2010 Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention AwardsTM, honoring those

who have shown their dedication to the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss through innovative or

excellent hearing loss prevention practices in the work environment. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd02-24-10.html

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Back Row: Captain Margaret Kitt and SiS Award Committee members, Noah Seixas, Ph.D., Deanna Meinke,

Ph.D., Lee Hager, James Lankford, Ph.D., Pam Graydon M.S., Thais Morata Ph.D. Front Row Award

Winners: Erich Thalheimer, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. and New York Department of Environmental

Protections, Mead Killion, Ph.D., Etymotic Research Inc., and Kris Chesky, Ph.D., College of Music,

University of North Texas.

Down in the Trenches: March Training for KY Small Excavator & Plumbing Contractors

NIOSH's Small Business Program and its partners, Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Kentucky and

Kentucky OSHA , will bring an innovative trench training course to small businesses on March 16 and 17.

Four 4-hour classes will cover safe trenching and excavation techniques and include both classroom

instruction and outdoor demonstrations on the grounds of Bluegrass Community and Technical College in

Lawrenceburg, KY. To register or for more information go to http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/events/kyosha2010/ or

contact AGC of Kentucky at 1(800)456-0215 or Ronnie Perkins at rperkins@agcky.org. For information about

the NIOSH Small Business Assistance and Outreach Program, contact Ray Sinclair at Rsinclair@cdc.gov.

Western Mining Training RFA (RFA-OH-10-001)

NIOSH is inviting extramural funding applicants to apply for a new cooperative agreement program, Miner

Safety and Health Training Program-Western United States. The purpose of the program is to reduce the

number of injuries and illnesses among workers who are involved in mining operations, through a focused,

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relevant, and comprehensive training program that expands the number of qualified mine safety and health

trainers in the U.S. and educates mine workers regarding how best to protect themselves from risks and

hazards in the mining environment. NIOSH intends to fund 1-3 awards in response to this announcement. The

announcement and instructions for submitting an application can be found in RFA-OH-10-001: Miner Safety

and Health Training Program-Western United States (U60) (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFAOH-10-001.html). For more information contact Viji Potula at VPotula@cdc.gov.

Vacancy Announcement: Director, National Center for Environmental Health

The Centers for Disease Control Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, is seeking

applicants for the position of Director, National Center for Environmental Health. Applications must be

submitted by March 11, 2010. http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=86127315.

Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis in Workers at an Indium Processing Facility

The March 1, 2010, issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

(http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/) contains a report authored by NIOSH investigator Kristin Cummings et al.

describing two cases of the rare disease pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, including one death. These occurred

in workers at a facility producing indium-tin oxide (ITO), a compound used in recent years to make flat panel

displays. These cases suggest that inhalational exposure to ITO can cause pulmonary alveolar proteinosis,

perhaps via an autoimmune mechanism.

NIOSH Requests Comments on the Following:

Draft current intelligence bulletin (CIB), Asbestos Fibers and Other Elongate Mineral Particles: State of the

Science and Roadmap for Research Version 4, NIOSH Docket Number NIOSH 099-C. Comments will be

accepted through April 16, 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/review/public/099-C/default.html

Ten-Year Review of the NIOSH Radiation Dose Reconstruction Program, NIOSH Docket 194. Comments will

be accepted through June 4, 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/review/public/194/

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Three New Health Hazard Evaluation Reports Now Available

Evaluation of Heat and Carbon Monoxide Exposures to Border Protection Officers at Ports

of Entry

Evaluation of Magnetic Field Exposures to Office Employees From an Electrical

Transformer

Evaluation of Potential Exposures at an Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide Processing Plant

Click here to read about these recent releases and access the full HHE reports.

News from Our Partners

Iowa Targets Occupational- and Agricultural-related Injury

As part of its state-based occupational health surveillance activities, the Iowa Department of Public Health

(IDPH) Occupational Health & Safety Surveillance Program (OHSSP) participated in the recent update to the

Iowa Administrative Code IAC [641] Chapter 1. The IAC now includes a requirement for mandatory reporting of

a patient's employer name for reportable cases linked to the workplace

(www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/ACODocs/DOCS/2-10-2010.641.1.pdf). Agricultural-related injury reporting was

also included in Chapter 1 for the first time, although reporting has existed since the late 1990s utilizing a

variety of data collection venues, including the Iowa Trauma Registry and manual report forms

(www.idph.state.ia.us/ems/common/pdf/farm_injury_report_form.pdf). These updates are expected to improve

the quality of the data collected by OHSSP as the program establishes an occupational focus within public

health programming in the state. Additional information is available at

www.idph.state.ia.us/strategic_plan/common/pdf/programs_profiles/Occupational_Health.pdf.

Occupational Safety and Health on Telemundo

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), a longstanding NIOSH partner, is taking steps to

address occupational health disparities. Jordan Coriza, director of Ethnic Media Engagement in the

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Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Health Communications Office, prepared a series of "health

spots" for the local Telemundo TV station that include a variety of health messages. One of these "health

spots" focuses on occupational health and safety, now posted on the MDPH blog

(http://publichealth.blog.state.ma.us/2010/02/salud-y-seguridad-en-el-trabajo.html).

NORA

Loss Prevention Foundation Helps Implement the National WRT Agenda

The NORA Wholesale and Retail Trade (WRT) Sector Council developed a National WRT Agenda

(http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/nora/) that calls for partnerships between researchers and trusted organizations to

educate employers and workers about accepted prevention strategies. The Loss Prevention Foundation (LPF)

trains and certifies loss prevention professionals in preventing both theft and occupational injuries and

illnesses. Read about a new partnership between NIOSH and LPF to improve the quality and quantity of

safety and risk management resources available to the retail loss prevention industry at

http://www.losspreventionfoundation.org/PR_NIOSH_021910.htm. Contact the NORA coordinator

(noracoordinator@cdc.gov) with any questions.

r2p Corner

National Fire Service Seat Belt Pledge

NIOSH has reaffirmed its support and participation in the United States Fire Administration’s (USFA)

National Fire Service Seat Belt Pledge Program. Certificates are awarded to fire departments that have 100%

of their firefighters pledging to wear their seat belts. Recently, NIOSH participated in a ceremony in honor of

the Amarillo Fire Department’s 100% participation in the Seat Belt Pledge. More information about the Seat

Belt Pledge can be found at http://www.trainingdivision.com/seatbeltpledge.asp.

NIOSH Science Blog

What’s New on the NIOSH Blog?

Share your thoughts on the latest NIOSH Blog: Balancing Open Government and Privacy Protection.

https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2010/03/01/privacy/

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New Communication Products

New Bilingual Posters and Cards Show Proper Disposable Respirator Use

Download or order copies of the How to Properly Put On and Take Off a Disposable Respirator: card

(http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-131/) or poster (English http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-133/ or

Spanish http://www.cdc.gov/spanish/niosh/docs/2010-133_sp/).

New NIOSH Training Features Survivors of the Farmington Coal Mine Disaster

The deadly Farmington, WV, coal mine disaster in November 1968 spurred historic coal mine safety

legislation, including provisions that created the forerunner of NIOSH's mining safety and health program. The

disaster continues to provide valuable lessons for recognizing unsafe conditions inside mines and safely

escaping an underground catastrophe. A new NIOSH safety training module on self-rescue and escape builds

on interviews with two miners who survived the Farmington disaster.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pubreference/outputid3308.htm

More...

To see other new NIOSH communication products, including documents and new and updated topic pages,

go to the NIOSH “What’s New” page. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/whatsnew/

Look for Us on the Road!

The NIOSH exhibit will be at the following meetings in March:

American Alliance For Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, March 16-20, at the

Indianapolis Convention Center, Booth #1237. www.aahperd.com

Mid-America Trucking Show, March 24-30, at the Louisville Kentucky Exposition Convention Center,

Booth #40353. www.truckingshow.com

Annual Safe Patient Handling & Movement Conference, March 29-April 1, at Lake Buena Vista, FL,

Booth #721. www.cme.hsc.usf.edu/sphm

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Upcoming Conferences & Workshops

Small particles-Big Questions!

With NIOSH's participation and support, the government's National Nanotechnology Initiative will hold a

workshop March 30-31 in Arlington, VA, on risk management methods for-and the legal, ethical, and societal

implications of- nanotechnology. http://nano.gov/html/meetings/capstone/index.html

National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety

NIOSH is cosponsoring the National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety, sponsored by the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, on April 14-15 in Houston, Texas.

http://www.osha.gov/latinosummit/index.html

Nanomaterials and Worker Health

NIOSH and the Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center will hold a conference, Nanomaterials

and Worker Health: Medical Surveillance, Exposure Registries, and Epidemiologic Research, July 21-23 in

Keystone, Colorado. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/nanotech/keystone2010/

National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fourth Annual National Conference on Health

Communication, Marketing, and Media, August 17-19, 2010, Omni Hotel in Atlanta, GA.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing/NCHCMM2009/

A comprehensive list of upcoming conferences can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/exhibits.html.

Word of the Month

Charles C. Shepard - Dr. Charles C. Shepard was a CDC scientist, whose career was marked by the

pursuit of scientific excellence. The CDC Charles C. Shepard Awards honor Dr. Shepard and recognizes

excellence in science achievement by CDC authors of outstanding scientific papers. The awards began in

1986 and are presented annually.

NIOSH eNews on the Web: www.cdc.gov/niosh/enews/

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NIOSH eNews is Brought to You By:

Director John Howard, M.D.

Editor in Chief Max Lum

Story Editor

Copy Editor

Public Affairs Officer

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Technical Support Kevin Whaley

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