Using mobile technology to increase safety awareness among dairy workers in the United States

Background: Modern U.S. dairy farm operations present multiple safety hazards which may result in worker injuries, illnesses and fatalities. The U.S. industry trend towards large-herd milking operations, especially in the Western U.S., necessitates an increased number of workers on each farm. The U.S. dairy workforce is comprised of an increasing percentage of immigrant workers with limited English proficiency which presents a safety training challenge. Our objective was to develop, deliver and evaluate safety awareness training to U.S. dairy farm workers using mobile tablets as a personal learning environment. Methods: A non-random sample of 1,436 dairy workers received safety awareness training on a mobile device platform. Kirkpatrick Levels 1, 2 and 3 training effectiveness evaluations were performed. Results: Approximately 58.7% of training participants received a middle school education, and 22.7% were from Guatemala who reported K’iche’ as their native language. A statistically significant large effect size suggests safety knowledge was gained among training participants when comparing post-test scores to pre-test scores (Level-2). Training participants rated their training experience favorably (Level-1), and applied knowledge gained in their daily work activities three months after training (Level-3). Conclusion: Our findings suggest the utilization of mobile learning techniques is an effective means to deliver safety awareness training content to dairy workers. Dairy worker safety training should be culturally, linguistically, and literacy appropriate and comprehensive in nature to include all applicable dairy safety hazards. Our observations support the use of mobile devices as just one component of a more comprehensive health and safety management program on farms.     

Assessment of Tribal Bison Worker Hazards Using Trusted Research Facilitators

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Agriculture is one of the most hazardous industries in the United States. Within agriculture, livestock handling is particularly dangerous. While injury and fatality rates for bison handlers have not been reported, workers in many of the newly established tribal bison herds have limited safety training and animal handling experience, making this a vulnerable workforce. Veterinarians and herd managers, working with tribal bison herds, recognized the need for improvement in the working environment and for worker safety training. In response, partnerships were established and a pilot project was developed in order to characterize risks and hazards associated with bison handling under contemporary reservation field conditions. Individuals and organizations working as change agents included veterinarians at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln School of Veterinary Medicine, a tribal advocacy organization, the Intertribal Buffalo Council and researchers at the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Methods: This is a mixed-methods study and data were gathered through closed and open-ended questions pertaining to bison worker safety hazards. A veterinarian gathered data through observational safety audits at bison herding locations. American Indian bison herd managers completed surveys using a convenience sampling method. Results: Findings indicate that the most common worker safety risks are associated with the use of high-stress handling methods and substandard facilities and equipment. Adverse environmental conditions also contribute to worker health risks. Most common causes of injuries included those caused by equipment and tools, adverse weather, and direct contact with animals. Conclusion: This collaborative research study contributes to a better understanding of hazards faced by tribal bison workers. Findings from this research influenced the ITBC in their decision to add worker safety and health training to the agenda of their yearly conference and promote tailgate trainings for their workers. UNL veterinarians have taken the lessons learned from this research and provided safety and health information to mangers of other non-tribal bison herds. This research partnership will continue with a 5-year research study focusing on best management practices and establishing training to improve the health and safety bison workers.     

Avoiding injury in the workplace. National Safety Council

This article considers the dangers posed to workers by their work environment--from hazardous substances to poor workplace design--and gives commonsense management solutions for worker safety.     

Adequacy of health and safety training among young Latino construction workers

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the adequacy of safety training provided to young Latino immigrant construction workers. The study posited that, because of their youth and immigrant status, these workers would be less likely to receive adequate training. METHODS: We interviewed 50 youths aged < or =21 who had worked at least 10 days in construction in the previous year. The in-person interview included 140 questions covering a range of construction work and health and safety experiences. RESULTS: Participants reported performing a range of hazardous tasks, some while under the age of 18. Of these, 68% to 72% reported receiving some training, but median training time was only 1 hour. Only 24% reported receiving written training material. Those with less English ability received less training. CONCLUSIONS: Young Latino immigrants in this study received inadequate training given the hazardous work they performed. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Results of this research, especially the relatively low level of English communication skills among young Latino workers, point to the need for increased bilingual services not just in worker safety training programs, but also in medical clinics and emergency rooms that treat Latino workers.     

A tale of two limits

As they do with other potentially hazardous agents, occupational health and safety professionals in the United States take a two-pronged approach to controlling noise exposure. We assure compliance with OSHA's regulatory limits to satisfy lawyers and compliance officers while using TLVs to protect worker health. Unfortunately, using both the TLV and OSHA limits for noise exposure may involve considerably more work than for most chemical exposures. Using both limits for noise may require different measuring equipment or multiple measurements of exposure. Using the TLV also may require noise measurement at the abdomen, as well as the ear and consideration of concomitant chemical exposures. Finally, using the TLV requires the OHS professional to confront the fact that no exposure value can claim to protect all workers and that employee rotation may result in more hearing loss than would exposing a smaller group of workers to more noise. These facts make it clear why OHS professionals should never use exposure limits as just numbers. Rather, we strive to understand the basis for the limits we are using, to be sure we understand the limitations of those limits and how they might uniquely affect our workers in their work environments.     

How Goal Orientation Match Between Social Workers and Their Supervisors Impacts Social Workers' Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Social workers' perceptions of their supervisors' dispositional goal orientations towards learning and performing act as powerful situational influences—in interaction with their own goal orientations— to affect social workers' job satisfaction. Social workers perceiving their supervisors' goal orientation to align with their own will experience greater job satisfaction. Supervisors cognizant of supervisees' goal orientations are more able to provide individually motivating tasks, support, and rewards. Such inquiry offers a promising direction for improving the work conditions of social workers. An increase in job satisfaction should be correlated with an increase in improved client outcomes and reduction in social worker turnover.     

Critical aspects of the management of "hazardous" health care workers. Consensus document

BACKGROUND: A worker is considered to be hazardous to others when, in the course of performing a specific work task, his/her health problems (e.g., substance dependence, emotional disorders, physical disability, transmissible diseases) pose a risk for other workers' or the public's health and safety, or begins to interfere with ability to function in profession life. The presence of certain illnesses or the fact that a health care worker is impaired because of them do not necessarily imply that he, or she, is hazardous for others. Working in health care increases the probability that an impaired worker being hazardous for others. Management of hazardous workers requires new techniques and procedures, and specific policies. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: An interdisciplinary group of experts from medical, bioethical, legal and administrative disciplines, together with trade union and employers' representatives, is currently attempting to define a way to put prevention measures into practice in accordance with state laws and individual rights. RESULTS: A consensus document is presented, covering critical aspects such as: social responsibility of the employer, risk management, informed consent, non compliance, confidentiality, responsibility of workers, disclosure of risk to patients, non-discrimination, counselling and recovery of impaired workers, effectiveness of international guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: Occupational health professionals are obliged to adhere to ethical principles in the management of "hazardous" workers; the assessment of ethical costs and benefits for the stakeholders is the basis for appropriate decisions.     

Empowerment-based health and safety training: evidence of workplace change from four industrial sectors

BACKGROUND: Empowerment-based health and safety training programs posit that training workers to take action on health and safety issues is key to improving work environments. This article assesses how two union-led, empowerment-based hazardous materials training programs impacted health and safety workplace conditions across four industrial sectors. METHODS: A cross-sectional telephone interview survey was conducted with 362 workers and managers, six to twelve months following training. RESULTS: Participants reported increased attempts and successes in advocating for workplace health and safety changes, as well as individual changes in awareness and work practices. The training also appeared to influence two organizational factors key to worker-initiated changes in the workplace: manager support and union involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Empowerment-based training approaches appear to be effective in fostering workers' ability to initiate change in the workplace. Future evaluations should further refine training evaluation measures of workplace change processes, and consider them in the unique contexts in which they operate.     

Work accident victims: a comparison between non-standard and standard workers in Belgium

Background: The fast growth of non-standard employment in developed countries highlights the importance of studying the influence of contract type on worker’s safety and health.

Objective: The main purpose of our study is to investigate whether non-standard workers are more injured than standard workers or not. Additionally, other risk factors for occupational accidents are investigated.

Methods: Data from the Belgian surveys on work ability in 2009 and 2011 are used. During their annual occupational health examination, workers were asked to fill in a self-administered questionnaire. In total, 1886 complete responses are collected and analyzed using logistic regression.

Results: Temporary workers did not have higher injury rates than permanent workers [OR 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.2–1.2]. Low-educated, less-experienced workers and those exposed to dangerous conditions are more frequent victims of occupational accidents.

Conclusion: The present data do not support the hypothesis that non-standard workers have more injuries than standard workers. Our results about occupational accidents derived from a non-representative sample of the Belgian workforce and cannot be generalized due to the heterogeneity in job organization and labor regulations between countries. Further research is needed to extend our findings and to seek other factors that may be associated with work accidents.     

Pollution prevention and the work environment: the Massachusetts experience

In 1989, Massachusetts enacted the Toxics Use Reduction Act. The Act defined toxics use reduction, also referred to as pollution prevention, as "in-plant changes in production processes or raw materials that reduce, avoid, or eliminate the use of toxic or hazardous substances or generation of hazardous by-product per unit of product ... without shifting risks between workers, consumers or parts of the environment." The investigators sought to understand to what extent worker health and safety concerns have been integrated into toxics use reduction activities and how these activities have affected the work environment. The authors reviewed 35 published case studies of toxics use reduction in Massachusetts companies and interviewed key personnel including the staff of the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction. Overall, between 1990 and 1997, Massachusetts companies decreased their use of toxic chemicals by 24 percent and decreased their volume of toxic by-product by 41 percent. In almost 50 percent of the cases analyzed, improved worker health and safety was cited as a benefit of the toxic use reduction projects. Solvents were eliminated or reduced in 63 percent of the cases. Forty-six percent of the companies profiled introduced water-based chemicals in place of more volatile ones; and acids and caustics were reduced or eliminated in 20 percent of the cases. The investigators concluded that toxics use reduction activities have resulted in improvements to the work environment, but that such improvements were rarely a direct concern of these efforts, thus creating the potential for new negative worker health and safety impacts and missed opportunities to coordinate environmental and worker health and safety improvements. The authors recommend that technical assistance agencies and companies better integrate worker health and safety issues and pollution prevention activities.     

Automated entry technologies for confined space work activities: A survey

Work in confined spaces poses a significant risk to workers and rescuers involved in the emergency response when an accident occurs. Despite several standards and regulations define the safety requirements for such activities, injuries, and fatalities still occur. Furthermore, the on-site inspections after accidents often reveal that both employers and employees fail to implement safe entry procedures. Removing the risk is possible by avoiding the worker entry, but many activities require the presence of the operator inside the confined space to perform manual tasks.

The following study investigates the available technologies for hazardous confined space work activities, e.g., cleaning, inspecting, and maintenance tasks. The aim is to provide a systematic review of the automated solutions for high-risk activities in confined spaces, considering the non-man entry as the most effective confined space safety strategy. Second, this survey aims to provide suggestions for future research addressing the design of new technologies.

The survey consists of about 60 papers concerning innovative technologies for confined space work activities. The document review shows that several solutions have been developed and automation can replace the workers for a limited number of hazardous tasks. Several activities still require the manual intervention due to the complex characteristics of confined spaces, e.g., to remove the remains of the automatic cleaning process from the bottom of a tank. The results show that available technologies require more flexibility to adapt to such occupational environments and further research is needed.     

A Commentary on the Unique Developmental Considerations of Youth: Integrating the Teenage Cortex into the Occupational Health and Safety Context

Abstract

This commentary responds to Sudhinaraset and Blum's article in this issue, and seeks to integrate a growing body of development research into existing occupational health and safety (OHS) research, policy and practice. We suggest that it is useful to distinguish between research questions regarding minimum age restrictions for hazardous tasks and jobs from research questions about the degree to which developmental factors contribute to elevated work injury risk for youth compared to adults. Epidemiological evidence indicates that known OHS risk factors adversely affect workers of all ages to a similar extent; a balanced approach is needed to integrate emerging developmental research with existing epidemiological research so that the abilities of young workers are not prejudged solely on the basis of age and brain maturation. Further, the heterogeneity of cognitive and self-regulatory functioning at any age suggests that architectural principles of Universal Design be employed in OHS training and hazard reduction.     

Identifying those worker populations that are at higher levels of risk

In summary, much information is available to help the employer identify which workers should receive safety and health information, education, and training and which workers should receive it before others. In addition, research has identified the following variables as being related to a disproportionate "share" of injuries and illnesses at the work site. 1. The age of the worker (younger employees have higher incidence rates of injury) 2. The length of time on the job (new employees have higher incidence rates) 3. The size of the firm (medium-size firms have higher incidence rates than smaller or larger firms) 4. The type of work performed (incidence and severity rates vary significantly by standard industrial classification [SIC] code) 5. The use of hazardous substances (by SIC code)     

The Boston Safe Shops Project--preliminary findings of a case study in applying the 10 essential services of public health to building environmental health capacity

Boston's more than 500 automotive shops, located primarily in low-income communities of color, are a source both of well-paying jobs and of potential hazardous exposures to employees and residents. The Safe Shops Project works to reduce occupational and environmental health hazards without having to close these businesses. Combining inspections, in-shop trainings, outreach, and technical/financial assistance, it brings shops into compliance with laws and promotes use of safer practices and alternative products. After 18 months, 254 workers at 61 of 124 participating shops had received training. Surveys showed improved worker knowledge: Pre-training, 24.2 percent of the worker survey respondents stated that they knew what an MSDS was, and post-training, 75 percent stated that they knew. The surveys also found improvement in work practices: Pre-training, 48 percent of workers indicated that they used safety goggles in their work, while post-training, 70 percent indicated proper use of safety goggles. The results also showed shops investing in capital improvements such as replacement of PCE-based brake cleaners with aqueous cleaners. The Safe Shops Project has a successfully modeled application of the 10-essential-services framework to the building of public health capacity and community collaboration, and this model can be adapted to other locations and industries.     

Methodology in Industrial Health Studies

Because there is very little information on the subject and because petroleum asphalt has been suspected of being hazardous to man, a survey was made of the health of 462 asphalt workers in 25 oil refineries and was compared to that of 379 controls. Each worker had been engaged in asphalt work for at least five years, the average being 15.1 years. A physical examination, include ing a detailed medical and occupational history, was done on each subject. No significant differences in health were found between the two groups. Additional information concerning the health of their workers was obtained from paving companies, roofing manufacturers, and interstate truck operators who drive over asphalt highways. The health of these groups also gave no evidence that petroleum asphalt constituted a health hazard.     

On the line: worker democracy and the struggle over occupational health and safety

In this article we present a qualitative analysis of worker involvement in a participatory project to improve occupational health and safety at a Canadian manufacturing site. Based on interviews with workers in the plant, we consider the manner and degree to which workers experienced meaningful participation in the intervention process and some of the main barriers to worker participation. Findings emphasize the importance of the social and political context in conditioning the dynamics of joint management labor ventures specifically in relation to health initiatives. Interviews revealed few instances in which workers felt included in the participatory initiative; most often they felt marginalized. In the absence of structural change in the plant, workers described the health initiative as seriously limited in its ability to render meaningful worker participation. These results extend beyond this analysis of a participatory workplace health initiative, offering insights into the dynamics of institutional participatory process, and into participatory research practice generally.     

Evaluation of worker safety and health training

BACKGROUND: Few studies of worker training have addressed the impact on participant's health and safety behaviors and efforts to change health and safety conditions at the workplace. The present study is an evaluation of these impacts as reported by workers and managers. METHODS: The UAB/CLEAR program has trained over 1,000 participants since 1992. A survey was mailed to a sample of workers and all participating managers. RESULTS: The results revealed that both groups reported increasing personal safety and health behavior, both contributed to emergency preparedness, and both influenced the elimination of hazardous chemicals. Managers reported greater influence on health and safety which may be explained by their relatively more powerful position. However, an impressive percentage of workers reported influencing changes. CONCLUSIONS: This pattern indicates that when the environment supports joint decision making by workers and management, initiating changes becomes easier.     

Tuberculin Reaction Trends And BCG Vaccination

The problems of refining metallic mercury as they relate to the health of the worker are described. The reliability of several methods for assessing the work environment is shown and a relationship between high mercury environment, increased body load of mercury (as evidenced by urinary excretion), and symptoms of mercurialism in exposed mill workers is demonstrated. Because of the poor reliability of urine mercury levels in determining impending or early mercury poisoning, several biochemical analyses on blood of mill workers were performed. Support is given to the current threshold limit value (TLV) for mercury. However, the data show that this level contains no more than a safety factor of 2.     

Systematic Review of Respiratory Health Among Dairy Workers

ABSTRACT

The dairy industry is changing on a global scale with larger, more efficient operations. The impact of this change on worker health and safety, specifically, associations between occupational lung disease and inhalation exposures, has yet to be reported in a comprehensive review of the scientific literature. Therefore, a three-tier process was used to identify information using a keyword search of online databases of scientific literature. Of the 147 citations reviewed, 52 met initial screening criteria, and 30 were included in this review. Dairy workers experience lung conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, chronic bronchitis, and cancer. Recent pulmonary function studies have identified obstructive lung changes among dairy farm workers. The increased scale of dairy production with significant changes in technology and work practices has altered inhalation exposure patterns among dairy workers. The inhalation exposure in the dairy work environment may elicit differing inflammatory responses in relation to timing of initial exposure as well as to repeated exposures. Few studies have measured inhalation exposure while simultaneously assessing the impact of the exposure on lung function of dairy farm workers. Even fewer studies have been implemented to assess the impact of aerosol control technology to reduce inhalation exposure. Future research should evaluate worker exposure to aerosols through a task-based approach while utilizing novel methods to assess inhalation exposure and associated inflammatory responses. Finally, potential solutions should be developed and tested to reduce inhalation exposure to inflammatory agents and respiratory diseases in the dairy farm work environment.     

Workers' right-to-know legislation: does it work?

Workers' right-to-know (WRTK) laws and regulations were established to empower workers to protect their health by providing them with information about the hazards to which they are exposed while at work. The present study was conducted to examine the implementation of WRTK regulations in Israel. We interviewed 552 workers and 33 safety officers from a random sample employed at 50 industrial plants. The workers' questionnaire included items on awareness and self-management of workplace hazards, and the safety officers answered questions about job experience and hazards communications to workers. In 36% of cases workers and their safety officers disagreed about the existence of hazards in the workplace (p < 0.001). Most (78%) of the workers' knowledge about work hazards was based on informal sources, i.e., not those stipulated by the regulations. There were also discrepancies between worker and safety officer reports regarding the provision of safety training upon employment (p < 0.001), recent instructions about special risks and distribution of relevant printed material. We found that more than 5% of workers were unable to read the language in which the hazards material was written and 22% had levels of education below that required to comprehend the technical terms used. There are serious problems in the implementation of WRTK regulations in Israel. We recommend that employers be made aware of the importance of these laws and of their proactive duty to comply with them and that the material distributed to workers be written in simpler terms and/or explained orally in a language they understand. These findings have important implications for all countries with similar legislation and should form the basis for further and more comprehensive studies world-wide.