Protecting frontline workers

Protecting Workers At Composting Facilities

All material is copyrighted and can only be used for purposes of this training. © 2008 The JG Press, Inc. MOST attention given to health aspects at composting facilities in the past has concerned public health, particularly bioaerosols, odor emissions and heavy metals in the finished product. Federal and state regulations have not dealt with worker health. For example, the federal 40 CFR Part 5...

Distance education for tobacco reduction with Inuit frontline health workers

BACKGROUND Tobacco reduction is a major priority in Canadian Inuit communities. However, many Inuit frontline health workers lacked the knowledge, confidence and support to address the tobacco epidemic. Given vast distances, high costs of face-to-face training and previous successful pilots using distance education, this method was chosen for a national tobacco reduction course. OBJECTIVE To ...

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Risk for Frontline Health Care Workers

To determine whether frontline health care workers (HCWs) are at greater risk for contracting pandemic (H1N1) 2009 than nonclinical staff, we conducted a study of 231 HCWs and 215 controls. Overall, 79 (17.7%) of 446 had a positive antibody titer by hemagglutination inhibition, with 46 (19.9%) of 231 HCWs and 33 (15.3%) of 215 controls positive (OR 1.37, 95% confidence interval 0.84-2.22). Of 8...

Protecting patients, protecting healthcare workers: a review of the role of influenza vaccination

AIM Many health authorities recommend routine influenza vaccination for healthcare workers (HCWs), and during the 2009 A (H1N1) pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended immunization of all HCWs worldwide. As this remains an important area of policy debate, this paper examines the case for vaccination, the role of local guidelines, barriers to immunization and initiatives to inc...

Exposure to metals: are we protecting the workers?