CDC/NIOSH works in partnership with The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), Hollywood, Health and Society, and the Spanish-language network Telemundo to develop and evaluate this new approach to disseminating workplace safety and health information.
The storyline, part of Telemundo's hit show Pecados Ajenos (weeknights at 10 PM), is intended to raise awareness among Spanish-speaking construction workers, and their friends and families, about the safety risks they often face at work and how to prevent them.
The focus of the storyline was determined by a few basic facts:
• More than 2 million Latinos work in construction in the U.S.
• Every day, four construction workers die on the job, and one of them is Latino.
• Falls are the most common cause of fatal injuries to construction workers.
• The consequences of a fall affect not only the worker, but also his family and community.
Construction falls can be prevented. Contractors and foreman can do many things to organize the worksite to be safer for their employees. But workers themselves can also make some inexpensive, simple changes to the way they work that can save their lives.
Ladders are one of the most common pieces of equipment on a construction site. But that doesn't mean they are safe. There are construction workers who are injured or killed falling from a height every day. Using ladders more safely is one way to start preventing falls at your work site.
Your co-workers can learn a lot from you.
At first, you might be the only one who is concerned with safety at your worksite. But over time, other workers will see that the foreman will give you the time you need to be safe. They will see how many little things add up to big effects on safety. And they will see how they, too, can help to make your worksite safer.
So, set an example!
Don't worry about being the first—they'll thank you for it later.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Workers Memorial Day
Workers Memorial Day, April 28, was established to recognize workers who died or were injured on the job. On average, 16 workers in the United States die each day from injuries sustained at work , and 134 are estimated to die from work-related diseases .
Daily, an estimated 11,200 private-sector workers have a nonfatal work-related injury or illness, and as a result, more than half require a job transfer, work restrictions, or time away from their jobs .
An estimated 9,000 workers are treated in emergency departments each day because of occupational injuries, and approximately 200 of these workers are hospitalized . In 2005, workers' compensation costs for employers totaled an estimated $89 billion .
Workers Memorial Day 2008 also will commemorate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the creation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor.
While much progress has been made in preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths since NIOSH and OSHA were created in 1971, more remains to be done. The occasion of Workers Memorial Day encourages us to think of ways in which we all can help to achieve the goal of safer and healthier workplaces.
Daily, an estimated 11,200 private-sector workers have a nonfatal work-related injury or illness, and as a result, more than half require a job transfer, work restrictions, or time away from their jobs .
An estimated 9,000 workers are treated in emergency departments each day because of occupational injuries, and approximately 200 of these workers are hospitalized . In 2005, workers' compensation costs for employers totaled an estimated $89 billion .
Workers Memorial Day 2008 also will commemorate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the creation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor.
While much progress has been made in preventing work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths since NIOSH and OSHA were created in 1971, more remains to be done. The occasion of Workers Memorial Day encourages us to think of ways in which we all can help to achieve the goal of safer and healthier workplaces.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Firefighters at risk for Cancer
A new study suggests that firefighters face higher-than-average risks of several types of cancer, adding to evidence that the job carries hazards beyond the fires themselves.
A number of studies have found that firefighters have elevated cancer rates, though they have not always been consistent in the specific types of cancer.
In the current study, researchers found that professional firefighters had higher-than-expected rates of colon cancer and brain cancer. There was also evidence, albeit weaker, that they had elevated risks of bladder and kidney cancers, as well as Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Dr. Letitia Davis with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues report the findings in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
Firefighters are exposed to many potentially cancer-causing chemicals released from burning materials. At the scene of the fire, toxic substances such as benzene, lead, uranium and asbestos can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
Though firefighters wear a breathing apparatus and other protective equipment while battling blazes, they typically do not wear the gear when they're merely in the vicinity of the fire. There can also be health hazards at the firehouse, where idling trucks expose firefighters to diesel exhaust.
For their study, the researcher combed through nearly two decades' worth of data from the Massachusetts cancer registry. Between 1986 and 2003, the registry recorded 2,125 cancer diagnoses among professional male firefighters.
The researchers found that, compared with men in other occupations, firefighters had nearly twice the risk of brain cancer and a 36 percent higher risk of colon cancer. They also showed higher risks of bladder cancer, kidney cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma, but the evidence was weaker due, in part, to the relatively small number of cases.
Other researchers have called for greater efforts to protect firefighters from the toxic substances that may be fueling these elevated cancer rates -- including less cumbersome protective equipment that firefighters can keep on when they are near a fire.
Experts also recommend that firefighters shower as soon as they return to the firehouse, in order to remove contaminated soot from their skin.
A number of studies have found that firefighters have elevated cancer rates, though they have not always been consistent in the specific types of cancer.
In the current study, researchers found that professional firefighters had higher-than-expected rates of colon cancer and brain cancer. There was also evidence, albeit weaker, that they had elevated risks of bladder and kidney cancers, as well as Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Dr. Letitia Davis with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues report the findings in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
Firefighters are exposed to many potentially cancer-causing chemicals released from burning materials. At the scene of the fire, toxic substances such as benzene, lead, uranium and asbestos can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
Though firefighters wear a breathing apparatus and other protective equipment while battling blazes, they typically do not wear the gear when they're merely in the vicinity of the fire. There can also be health hazards at the firehouse, where idling trucks expose firefighters to diesel exhaust.
For their study, the researcher combed through nearly two decades' worth of data from the Massachusetts cancer registry. Between 1986 and 2003, the registry recorded 2,125 cancer diagnoses among professional male firefighters.
The researchers found that, compared with men in other occupations, firefighters had nearly twice the risk of brain cancer and a 36 percent higher risk of colon cancer. They also showed higher risks of bladder cancer, kidney cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma, but the evidence was weaker due, in part, to the relatively small number of cases.
Other researchers have called for greater efforts to protect firefighters from the toxic substances that may be fueling these elevated cancer rates -- including less cumbersome protective equipment that firefighters can keep on when they are near a fire.
Experts also recommend that firefighters shower as soon as they return to the firehouse, in order to remove contaminated soot from their skin.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
At the end of life, a turn to "slow medicine"
Edie Gieg, 85, strides ahead of people half her age and plays a fast-paced game of tennis. But when it comes to health care, she is a champion of "slow medicine," an approach that encourages less aggressive — and less costly — care at the end of life.
Slow medicine encourages physicians to put on the brakes when considering care that may have high risks and limited rewards for the elderly, and it educates patients and families how to push back against emergency-room trips and hospitalizations designed for those with treatable illnesses, not the inevitable erosion of advanced age.
Slow medicine, which shares with hospice care the goal of comfort rather than cure, is increasingly available in nursing homes, but for those living at home or in assisted living, a medical scare usually prompts a call to 911, with little opportunity to choose otherwise.
At the end of her husband's life, Gieg was spared these extreme options because she lives in Kendal at Hanover, a retirement community affiliated with Dartmouth Medical School that has become a laboratory for the slow-medicine movement. At Kendal, it is possible — even routine — for residents to say "No" to hospitalization, tests, surgery, medication or nutrition.
Charley Gieg, 86 at the time, was suffering from a heart condition, an intestinal disorder and the early stages of Alzheimer's disease when doctors suspected he also had throat cancer.
A specialist outlined what he was facing: biopsies, anesthesia, surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Edie Gieg doubted he had the resilience to bounce back. She worried, instead, that such treatments would accelerate his downward trajectory, ushering in a prolonged period of decline and dependence. This is what the Giegs said they feared even more than dying, what some call "death by intensive care."
Many people in their 80s and 90s — and their boomer children — want to pull out all the stops to stay alive. The costliest patients — the elderly with multiple chronic illnesses — are the only group with universal health coverage under Medicare, leading to huge federal expenditures that experts agree are unsustainable as boomers age.
Dr. Tom Rosenthal, UCLA's chief medical officer, said aggressive treatment for the elderly at acute-care hospitals can be "inhumane," and that once a patient and family were drawn into that system, "it's really hard to pull back from it."
"The culture has a built-in bias that everything that can be done will be done," Rosenthal said, adding that the pace of a hospital also discourages "real heart-to-heart discussions."
Beginning that conversation earlier, he said, "sounds like fundamentally the right way to practice."
That means explaining that elderly people are rarely saved from cardiac arrest by CPR, or advising women with broken hips that they may never walk again, with or without surgery, unless they have the stamina for physical therapy.
"It's almost an accident when someone gets what they want," said Dr. Mark McClellan, a former administrator of Medicare.
The term slow medicine was coined by Dr. Dennis McCullough, a Dartmouth geriatrician and author of "My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing Slow Medicine, the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved One."
Among the hard truths is that nine of 10 people who live past 80 will wind up unable to take care of themselves, either because of frailty or dementia.
"Everyone thinks they'll be the lucky one, but we can't go along with that myth," McCullough said.
Slow medicine encourages physicians to put on the brakes when considering care that may have high risks and limited rewards for the elderly, and it educates patients and families how to push back against emergency-room trips and hospitalizations designed for those with treatable illnesses, not the inevitable erosion of advanced age.
Slow medicine, which shares with hospice care the goal of comfort rather than cure, is increasingly available in nursing homes, but for those living at home or in assisted living, a medical scare usually prompts a call to 911, with little opportunity to choose otherwise.
At the end of her husband's life, Gieg was spared these extreme options because she lives in Kendal at Hanover, a retirement community affiliated with Dartmouth Medical School that has become a laboratory for the slow-medicine movement. At Kendal, it is possible — even routine — for residents to say "No" to hospitalization, tests, surgery, medication or nutrition.
Charley Gieg, 86 at the time, was suffering from a heart condition, an intestinal disorder and the early stages of Alzheimer's disease when doctors suspected he also had throat cancer.
A specialist outlined what he was facing: biopsies, anesthesia, surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Edie Gieg doubted he had the resilience to bounce back. She worried, instead, that such treatments would accelerate his downward trajectory, ushering in a prolonged period of decline and dependence. This is what the Giegs said they feared even more than dying, what some call "death by intensive care."
Many people in their 80s and 90s — and their boomer children — want to pull out all the stops to stay alive. The costliest patients — the elderly with multiple chronic illnesses — are the only group with universal health coverage under Medicare, leading to huge federal expenditures that experts agree are unsustainable as boomers age.
Dr. Tom Rosenthal, UCLA's chief medical officer, said aggressive treatment for the elderly at acute-care hospitals can be "inhumane," and that once a patient and family were drawn into that system, "it's really hard to pull back from it."
"The culture has a built-in bias that everything that can be done will be done," Rosenthal said, adding that the pace of a hospital also discourages "real heart-to-heart discussions."
Beginning that conversation earlier, he said, "sounds like fundamentally the right way to practice."
That means explaining that elderly people are rarely saved from cardiac arrest by CPR, or advising women with broken hips that they may never walk again, with or without surgery, unless they have the stamina for physical therapy.
"It's almost an accident when someone gets what they want," said Dr. Mark McClellan, a former administrator of Medicare.
The term slow medicine was coined by Dr. Dennis McCullough, a Dartmouth geriatrician and author of "My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing Slow Medicine, the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved One."
Among the hard truths is that nine of 10 people who live past 80 will wind up unable to take care of themselves, either because of frailty or dementia.
"Everyone thinks they'll be the lucky one, but we can't go along with that myth," McCullough said.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Too much, too little sleep tied to ill health in CDC study
People who sleep fewer than six hours a night - or more than nine - are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.
The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.
The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
"The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don't do so well," Kramer said.
The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so - for example - it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study's lead author.
It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems.
Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours also were big puffers, with 26 percent smoking.
The overall U.S. smoking rate is about 21 percent. For those in the study who sleep seven to eight hours, the rate was lower, at 18 percent.
Results were similar, though a bit less dramatic, for obesity: About 33 percent of those who slept less than six hours were obese, and 26 percent for those who got nine or more. Normal sleepers were the thinnest group, with obesity at 22 percent.
For alcohol use, those who slept the least were the biggest drinkers. However, alcohol use for those who slept seven to eight hours and those who slept nine hours or more was similar.
In another measure, nearly half of those who slept nine hours or more each night were physically inactive in their leisure time, which was worse even than the lightest sleepers and the proper sleepers. Many of those who sleep nine hours or more may have serious health problems that make exercise difficult.
Many elderly people are in the group who get the least sleep, which would help explain why physical activity rates are low. Those skimpy sleepers who are younger may still feel too tired to exercise, experts said.
Stress or psychological problems may explain what's going on with some of the lighter sleepers, experts said.
Other studies have found inadequate sleep is tied to appetite-influencing hormone imbalances and a higher incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure, noted James Gangwisch, a respected Columbia University sleep researcher.
"We're getting to the point that they may start recommending getting enough sleep as a standard approach to weight loss and the prevention of obesity," said Gangwisch, who was not involved in the study.
The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.
The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
"The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don't do so well," Kramer said.
The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so - for example - it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study's lead author.
It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems.
Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours also were big puffers, with 26 percent smoking.
The overall U.S. smoking rate is about 21 percent. For those in the study who sleep seven to eight hours, the rate was lower, at 18 percent.
Results were similar, though a bit less dramatic, for obesity: About 33 percent of those who slept less than six hours were obese, and 26 percent for those who got nine or more. Normal sleepers were the thinnest group, with obesity at 22 percent.
For alcohol use, those who slept the least were the biggest drinkers. However, alcohol use for those who slept seven to eight hours and those who slept nine hours or more was similar.
In another measure, nearly half of those who slept nine hours or more each night were physically inactive in their leisure time, which was worse even than the lightest sleepers and the proper sleepers. Many of those who sleep nine hours or more may have serious health problems that make exercise difficult.
Many elderly people are in the group who get the least sleep, which would help explain why physical activity rates are low. Those skimpy sleepers who are younger may still feel too tired to exercise, experts said.
Stress or psychological problems may explain what's going on with some of the lighter sleepers, experts said.
Other studies have found inadequate sleep is tied to appetite-influencing hormone imbalances and a higher incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure, noted James Gangwisch, a respected Columbia University sleep researcher.
"We're getting to the point that they may start recommending getting enough sleep as a standard approach to weight loss and the prevention of obesity," said Gangwisch, who was not involved in the study.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Train Quarantined in Ontario
Authorities quarantined a train in Ontario Friday after a woman died and several others reported being ill. But a doctor later ruled out a serious infectious disease and said the train would likely soon resume its journey.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer, said that an elderly woman who died on the train did not have an infectious disease and the illnesses were unrelated.
A passenger who was airlifted to a hospital and five others who reported being sick had unrelated minor illnesses, Williams said. He called it a confluence of three different events.
One person was hospitalized in stable condition, said Laurel Ostfield, a spokeswoman for Ontario's minister of health.
"The origin of the illness that caused the passenger death is unknown at this time," Williams said. "Lab tests have to date have eliminated a number of serious infectious illnesses."
Williams anticipated that the train will continue onto Toronto later Friday.
Officials were keeping passengers from leaving the train, said Steve Trinier, the director of ambulance services in the area.
The train, carrying 269 passengers and 30 crew members, was being held in the station in the town of Foleyet, 500 miles northwest of Toronto. The station was evacuated.
The cross country Via passenger train was headed from Vancouver to Toronto when emergency officials received a call Friday morning and met the train in Foleyet.
Health officials were on the alert for norovirus, which can cause stomach flu and can be caught through contact with infected people or by touching or ingesting contaminated items.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer, said that an elderly woman who died on the train did not have an infectious disease and the illnesses were unrelated.
A passenger who was airlifted to a hospital and five others who reported being sick had unrelated minor illnesses, Williams said. He called it a confluence of three different events.
One person was hospitalized in stable condition, said Laurel Ostfield, a spokeswoman for Ontario's minister of health.
"The origin of the illness that caused the passenger death is unknown at this time," Williams said. "Lab tests have to date have eliminated a number of serious infectious illnesses."
Williams anticipated that the train will continue onto Toronto later Friday.
Officials were keeping passengers from leaving the train, said Steve Trinier, the director of ambulance services in the area.
The train, carrying 269 passengers and 30 crew members, was being held in the station in the town of Foleyet, 500 miles northwest of Toronto. The station was evacuated.
The cross country Via passenger train was headed from Vancouver to Toronto when emergency officials received a call Friday morning and met the train in Foleyet.
Health officials were on the alert for norovirus, which can cause stomach flu and can be caught through contact with infected people or by touching or ingesting contaminated items.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Who Gets Treated in a Pandemic?
Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.
Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.
The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health-care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux. She is a critical-care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task-force report.
The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task-force members said.
Their recommendations appear in a report appearing today in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.
"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.
To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the godlike task of deciding who will and who won't get lifesaving care, the task force wrote. Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:
Georgetown University public-health-law expert Lawrence Gostin, who was not on the task force, called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."
If strictly followed, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said.
Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.
The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health-care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux. She is a critical-care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task-force report.
The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task-force members said.
Their recommendations appear in a report appearing today in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.
"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.
To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the godlike task of deciding who will and who won't get lifesaving care, the task force wrote. Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:
- People older than 85
- Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.
- Severely burned patients older than 60.
- Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.
- Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.
Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency-operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force. He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.
Georgetown University public-health-law expert Lawrence Gostin, who was not on the task force, called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."
If strictly followed, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said.
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