Archive for NIOSH
A Final Look at Our 50th Anniversary Commemoration
We hope you found a way to help us celebrate NIOSH’s 50th anniversary year. Commemorating a milestone such as this while the world—including NIOSH— fights a pandemic, has presented some unique challenges. NIOSH staff adjusted accordingly and produced a series of events and products worthy of our golden anniversary. If you missed any of these the first time around, please check them out as they contain a wealth of historical information on what has formed NIOSH into what it Read more [...]
The Secret Origins of NIOSH
While NIOSH’s 50th anniversary dates from its creation in its present form in 1971, it has a little-known history that stretches back much farther. NIOSH was in fact created from the Division of Industrial Hygiene of the U.S. Public Health Service, which has a continuous and eventful history going all the way back to 1914. Its path leads from Pittsburgh to D.C. to Bethesda, Maryland, where it was an integral part of NIH’s newly built campus and had a vital role in supporting worker Read more [...]
The Most-viewed NIOSH Products of 2021
It’s that time of year again when we take stock of the past year and what NIOSH information was most viewed on our channels. As the world and NIOSH continued to fight a pandemic it is not surprising that respirator information dominated on the NIOSH website and the NIOSH Science Blog. NIOSH continues to work diligently to protect workers from COVID-19 including certifying respirators. A blog post from last year summarizes additional aspects of the NIOSH COVID-19 response. As NIOSH marked Read more [...]
NIOSH in Denver
NIOSH has had a presence in Denver since the early 1970s shortly after NIOSH was created. While the name of the office and the functions have changed over time, a commitment to improving occupational health and safety conditions for those working in the Western United States has remained constant. In 2015, the Denver Office became part of the new NIOSH Western States Division. Together with the NIOSH Alaska Office and the Spokane Research Laboratory, the staff in the Denver Office work Read more [...]
Prevention Through Design
Prevention through Design, or PtD, is the process of designing OUT a hazard and it is the most reliable and effective way to protect workers. If a hazard doesn’t exist, there is no need to purchase protective equipment and establish ongoing programs to maintain it, inspect it, and train and supervise workers to use it. Since 2007, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has led the Prevention through Design National Initiative whose goal is to prevent or reduce Read more [...]
NIOSH in Cincinnati – 50 Years of OSH Research and Service
Occupational safety and health (OSH) research has a long history in Cincinnati, Ohio that pre-dates the creation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 1971 (see related blog). Today, NIOSH has facilities across the country including two in Cincinnati —the Robert A. Taft Occupational Safety and Health Laboratory on Tusculum Avenue and what is now known as the Alice Hamilton Laboratory for Occupational Safety and Health on Ridge Avenue. While the NIOSH Cincinnati Read more [...]
Santa’s Workshop Keeps Spirits Bright with Total Worker Health® Strategies
Before the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, everyone in the North Pole is busy preparing for the big night. Elves build toys at an escalating pace to help Santa stock up for the holiday. Santa’s Workshop may be magical but, like many workplaces, safety and health hazards can still be present. Fortunately, Santa doesn’t need magic to keep his workers safe. To protect elves and promote their well-being, he uses Total Worker Health (TWH) approaches. Santa thinks carefully about Read more [...]
NIOSH in Cincinnati-A Pictorial History Part 1
NIOSH in Cincinnati – How did it happen, and what has it looked like? How did federal industrial hygiene and occupational (and environmental) health research and service come to Cincinnati, and why did it stay? Interconnected stories of events, locations, buildings and artifacts provide glimpses of federal staff in Cincinnati investigating occupational health concerns and are a vital part of the history of NIOSH’s present. U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Stream Pollution Investigations Read more [...]
Learning from Workplace Fatality Investigations
Each day, on average, 15 U.S. workers die as a result of a traumatic injury on the job. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program is a research program designed to identify and study fatal occupational injuries. For nearly 40 years, the FACE program has worked to prevent occupational fatalities across the nation by identifying and investigating work situations at high risk for injury and then formulating and Read more [...]
Workplace Violence Research
In the 1980’s a series of shootings at post offices drew public attention towards the issue of workplace violence. While mass shootings receive a lot of media attention, they actually account for a small number of workplace violence events. NIOSH has been studying workplace violence since the 1980s. In 1993, NIOSH released the document Preventing Homicide in the Workplace. This was the first NIOSH publication to identify high-risk occupations and workplaces. The research revealed that Read more [...]
Respiratory Health Research at NIOSH
The history of protecting workers’ respiratory health pre-dates the creation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In 1967 the Appalachian Laboratory for Occupational Respiratory Disease (ALFORD) was established within the U.S. Public Health Service (see related blog). ALFORD subsequently joined NIOSH in 1971, became the Division of Respiratory Disease Studies in 1977, and then the Respiratory Health Division (RHD) in 2015. A comprehensive history Read more [...]
30 Years of the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Program
As NIOSH celebrates half a century of work in occupational safety and health, the Institute’s Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AgFF) Program reflects on 30 years of research and outreach designed to protect the people who produce our nation’s food and fiber. The AgFF Program began in response to a rise of farmer safety concerns from the Midwest and Northeast.1 To address long-standing high rates of fatalities, injuries, and illness in agriculture, Congress established a national Read more [...]
Center for Direct Reading and Sensor Technologies
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Center for Direct Reading and Sensor Technologies is the centralized hub for all things related to sensor and direct reading technology. The Center coordinates internal and external research to develop recommendations for 21st century sensing technologies in occupational safety and health. Established in 2014, the Center’s work on direct reading methodologies and sensors is based on decades of NIOSH research Read more [...]
Musculoskeletal Disorders Research at NIOSH
Throughout its 50 years, NIOSH has been at the forefront of efforts to protect workers from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). MSDs were recognized as having occupational causes as early as the beginning of the 18th century. However, it was not until the 1970’s that occupational factors were examined using epidemiologic methods, and the work-relatedness of these conditions began appearing regularly in the international scientific literature. By the 1990s, the literature has increased dramatically Read more [...]
Evolution of the NIOSH Logo
The NIOSH logo is recognized by workers, employers, and safety and health professionals worldwide. When the logo appears on a document, website, certified respirator, or other product it tells the user that the information or product is backed by NIOSH state-of-the-art research and expertise. The NIOSH logo has evolved over time. Figure 1 shows a logo used by the NIOSH predecessor, the Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health, in 1968. Figure 2 shows what was used on a NIOSH Technical report from Read more [...]
NOIRS
For almost 25 years, the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS) has been the only forum focused on work-related acute traumatic injury research. NOIRS provides an invaluable platform for researchers, academicians, labor union representatives, safety professionals, industry leaders, and students from a variety of disciplines and fields to showcase innovative and state-of-the-art approaches to occupational injury research and prevention. Held approximately every three to five years, Read more [...]
The OSH Act—A Response to Workplace Tragedies
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), we have highlighted many of the NIOSH successes and accomplishments through the years. This is also a time for reflection and looking back at our history. The roots of U.S. occupational safety and health regulation date back to the late 19th century. It was all too common then for state labor bureaus to report on horrific industrial tragedies [MacLaury 1981]. The large loss of life due Read more [...]
Students’ Contributions to Wikipedia: Making it easier for everyone to find, understand, and use health information
In 2018, we blogged about an exciting partnership between NIOSH and university graduate programs to improve occupational safety and health information on Wikipedia (see related blog). Using the Wiki Education platform and in coordination with NIOSH researchers, 15 courses were taught since 2016 involving 163 students at seven universities. The impact of these courses as of November 2021 is listed below. 182K Words Added 2.02K References Added 13.8 million Article Views 205 Articles Edited Read more [...]
Noise Myths Debunked – Fact and Fiction Behind all the Cicada Buzz
This is the first installment of a series of science blogs that will address common myths attributed to noise and hearing loss. For much of the eastern U.S., 2021 has been the year of the cicadas. The Brood X insects have made their presence known after 17 years of living underground, with their characteristic buzz that rises with the temperature each day. Ranking among the loudest insects in the world, their unique call has prompted a swarm of interesting articles discussing how loud these bugs Read more [...]
Mission Possible: Measuring Worker Well-Being
How can we measure worker well-being? Worker well-being is an important occupational health concern, but our current understanding is limited by the lack of a standard way to define and measure this concept. The development of a new tool, the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire – or NIOSH WellBQ, may help employers and workers overcome this limitation and answer this important question. In 2014, the NIOSH Total Worker Health® Program, in partnership with RAND Corporation, led an effort Read more [...]
Getting Creative
We are bombarded with information in various forms every minute of our day. How do you break through and get your messages to the appropriate audiences? How do you make information from scientific journals and technical documents understandable and appealing to workers and other non-scientists? NIOSH has a long history of communicating its research through a variety of communication channels. See the blog Getting the Word Out: NIOSH Publications and Products. In addition to our tried and true products, Read more [...]
World Trade Center Health Program: First Decade of Research
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the 10th year of the World Trade Center Health Program. Background The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City (NYC), the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and thousands of injuries. The devastation caused physical hazards as well as a massive dust cloud, consisting of pulverized building Read more [...]
Reducing Occupational Chronic Disease: CRC Cross Sector Program
Over the course of NIOSH’s 50-year history, occupational chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and adverse reproductive outcomes have always been a significant public health burden and source of economic costs. Since its inception in 2004, the Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, and Other Chronic Disease Prevention Program (CRC), within the NIOSH Program Portfolio, has provided leadership in the prevention of work-related chronic diseases and conditions. The CRC Program Read more [...]
Getting the Word Out: NIOSH Publications and Products
It’s an understatement to say that how the world communicates has changed over the course of this century, and certainly in the last 50 years. Over NIOSH’s 50-year history how the Institute communicates its research, and to whom, has also evolved. As a leading scientific agency, our research will always be published in peer-reviewed journals and internal scientific mechanisms such as Criteria Documents, which provide the basis for occupational safety and health standards, and Current Read more [...]
Work and Well-being: The Changing Face of Occupational Safety and Health
There is strong evidence that work, health and well-being are closely and powerfully linked and need to be addressed together. (Dame Carol Black) [1] The conjunctive phrase “…and well-being” is often used in the occupational safety and health (OSH) literature in the context of health and well-being. However, historically, well-being has not been defined, operationalized, prioritized or specifically considered. To gain perspective on the concept of well-being, it is useful Read more [...]
An Ancient Hazard in a 21st Century Workplace: The Power of Partnerships and Collaboration Investigating Respirable Crystalline Silica in Hydraulic Fracturing
In 2013, NIOSH researchers published exposure assessment results for respirable crystalline silica in oil and gas extraction (OGE) workers performing hydraulic fracturing. The results were noteworthy; a previously unidentified but serious occupational exposure hazard was discovered, and risks were significant‒in some cases, personal breathing zone exposures exceeded 10 times the occupational exposure limits. This research and resulting engineering and administrative control outcomes Read more [...]
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Work
As discussed in a previous NIOSH Science Blog, artificial intelligence (AI) is in the process of transforming almost all aspects of society. Whether using an application to determine the best route to drive, receiving recommendations from Netflix on what to watch, or using face detection to logon to a personal smartphone, the use of AI is already very much part of modern living. Specific to the workplace, work, and workforce, AI is fueling improvements in productivity and will likely be a significant Read more [...]
The Who, What, How and When of Implementing Fatigue Monitoring and Detection Technologies
Worker fatigue can result from a variety of sources, such as insufficient sleep, long work hours, physical exertion and stress. Fatigue can slow down reaction times, reduce attention or concentration, limit short-term memory, and impair judgment, affecting the health and safety of workers and their co-workers1,2. Worker fatigue has contributed to catastrophic industrial events with loss of life. Predicting or detecting fatigue can allow for the prevention of fatigue-related safety critical Read more [...]
Recognizing Exemplary Science and Service
Exemplary science is the foundation for all National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) research and prevention activities. Each year, NIOSH recognizes outstanding science and service from our employees. This year’s Science and Service Awards took place on April 29, 2021. The nominees, awardees, and honorable mentions can be found here. Please visit the link to learn more about the important science. While the awardees deserve praise and accolades, in honor of the NIOSH Read more [...]
Protecting Firefighters
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a long history of working to protect firefighters. Firefighting is an inherently dangerous and vitally important occupation. The United States Fire Administration reported that 1,955 firefighters died in the line of duty from 1998-2019. In addition to injuries and deaths occurring on the fireground, firefighters are at risk of cancer and other illnesses. NIOSH has multiple comprehensive projects and programs that aim to improve Read more [...]
NIOSH Program Portfolio: Promoting research collaboration for 16 years and counting
Throughout its 50-year history, NIOSH has been faced with a vast array of occupational safety and health issues across workplaces and a finite amount of resources to address them. In 2004, NIOSH developed the Program Portfolio as a way to select research priorities, communicate research findings, and evaluate the effectiveness of our research. The Program Portfolio consists of virtual research programs that focus on specific industries, health and safety issues, and other specialized areas. These Read more [...]
Lifejackets for Lobstermen
Falls overboard are the most frequent cause of death on the job for lobstermen in the U.S. The on-the-job death rate for fishermen nationwide is 31 times higher than any other industry. It is well-documented that wearing a personal flotation device (PFD) can help prevent these tragedies, but unfortunately most fishermen do not routinely wear a PFD. Staff from the Northeast Center for Occupational Safety and Health were determined to find out why and to identify promising strategies for increasing Read more [...]
Workers Memorial Day 2021: Recognizing NIOSH’s First 50 Years
Workers Memorial Day is recognized every year on April 28. It is a day established to honor workers injured or killed on the job, while reaffirming our commitment to safe and healthy workplaces for all. This date is also the anniversary of the date the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of 1970 went into effect, a law signed by President Nixon in December of 1970. The OSH Act started the process of establishing the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which Read more [...]
Recent News about Night Shift Work and Cancer: What Does it Mean for Workers?
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) recently released a report about how persistent night shift work is related to cancer risk (1). This report follows a similar evaluation released in July, 2019 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (2), an update of their 2007 report (3). Both agencies reviewed existing studies of night shift work and cancer and both convened experts in the fields of human, animal, and basic science research. In the recent NTP report, it was concluded that Read more [...]
NIOSH 50th Anniversary Honored by National Toxicology Program
This text was first published as an article in the April 2021 NIEHS newsletter Environmental Factor. Common goals and collaborative research signify the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s participation in the NTP. Marking a major milestone, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) acclaims its common goals and collaborative research with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This year is the 50th anniversary of NIOSH, which was created by the Occupational Read more [...]
Improving Our Understanding of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries
Counting and describing nonfatal occupational injuries are vital to understanding and prevention. However, this is very difficult to accomplish on a national level. There are large numbers of injuries that are captured, in part, by different sources, and some are not captured at all. There is no single, comprehensive national source of occupational injury data. Additionally, there are numerous issues with occupational injury surveillance because workers and employers underreport injuries as Read more [...]
Preventing Struck-by Injuries in Construction: Lift Zone Safety
The second annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Struck-by Incidents hosted by the NORA Construction Sector Council will take place April 26th, 2021, during National Work Zone Awareness Week (1). During this event, construction employers and employees will learn about best practices and methods to prevent struck-by incidents. Emphasis has been placed on the prevention of these types of incidents because they are the number one cause of injury and number two cause of death in the construction industry Read more [...]
