Reports to OSHA of severe occupational injuries due to animals, 2015-2021.

Background: Workers can be injured by animals such as mammals and insects. Previous studies found that most animal-related occupational fatalities were caused by horses and cattle. We analyzed characteristics of recent nonfatal severe animal-related injuries in US workers.

Analysis of biomonitoring data to assess employer compliance with OSHA's permissible exposure limits for air contaminants.

Background: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates exposures to hazardous chemicals in workplace air. When contemporaneous exposure measurements are unavailable, retrospective analysis of biomarkers could provide valuable information about workers' exposures.

Methods: Single-compartment pharmacokinetic (PK) models were created to relate the concentration of a chemical in the air to the concentration of the chemical or its metabolite in workers' blood or urine.

Hospitalised heat-related acute kidney injury in indoor and outdoor workers in the USA.

Objectives: To characterise heat-related acute kidney injury (HR-AKI) among US workers in a range of industries.

Methods: Two data sources were analysed: archived case files of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Office of Occupational Medicine and Nursing from 2010 through 2020; and a Severe Injury Reports (SIR) database of work-related hospitalisations that employers reported to federal OSHA from 2015 to 2020. Confirmed, probable and possible cases of HR-AKI were ascertained by serum creatinine measurements and narrative incident descriptions.

An outbreak of work-related asthma and silicosis at a US countertop manufacturing and fabrication facility.

Background: Outbreaks of severe silicosis have affected workers who fabricate artificial stone countertops. Work-related asthma (WRA) has not been a prominent feature of those prior outbreaks.

Methods: This report describes an outbreak of WRA and silicosis at a facility that manufactures and fabricates chemical-resistant countertops comprised of sand, epoxy resin, and phthalic anhydride (PA), a known respiratory sensitizer.

A cluster of hypersensitivity pneumonitis associated with exposure to metalworking fluids.

Background: Workers exposed to metalworking fluids (MWF) can develop respiratory illnesses including hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP). These respiratory manifestations are likely due to microbial contamination of aerosolized MWF. This paper reports a cluster of HP and respiratory symptoms at a manufacturing plant where MWF and workplace air were contaminated with bacterial endotoxin despite frequent negative bacterial cultures of MWF.

The Heat Death Line: Proposed Heat Index Alert Threshold for Preventing Heat-Related Fatalities in the Civilian Workforce.

A threshold Heat Index (HI) can serve as the basis for advising the civilian workforce about the risk of heat-related illnesses. We conducted a systematic review and compiled reports of work-related fatalities from heat-related illnesses. We calculated the HI for each fatality.

Elucidating the Mechanism of Acquisition by Triatomine Insects: Evidence from a Large Field Survey of .

Blood-sucking triatomine bugs transmit the protozoan parasite , the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. We measured the prevalence of infection in 58,519 captured in residences in and near Arequipa, Peru. Among bugs from infected colonies, prevalence increased with stage from 12% in second instars to 36% in adults.

Actual and simulated weather data to evaluate wet bulb globe temperature and heat index as alerts for occupational heat-related illness.

Heat stress occupational exposure limits (OELs) were developed in the 1970s to prevent heat-related illnesses (HRIs). The OELs define the maximum safe wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) for a given physical activity level. This study's objectives were to compute the sensitivity of heat stress OELs and determine if Heat Index could be a surrogate for WBGT.

Evaluation of Occupational Exposure Limits for Heat Stress in Outdoor Workers - United States, 2011-2016.

Heat stress, an environmental and occupational hazard, is associated with a spectrum of heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke, which can lead to death. CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) publishes recommended occupational exposure limits for heat stress (1). These limits, which are consistent with those of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) (2), specify the maximum combination of environmental heat (measured as wet bulb globe temperature [WBGT]) and metabolic heat (i.

Risk Factors for Heat-Related Illness in U.S. Workers: An OSHA Case Series.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe risk factors for heat-related illness (HRI) in U.S. workers.

Occupational chemical exposures: a collaboration between the Georgia Poison Center and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Context: In the United States, regional poison centers frequently receive calls about toxic workplace exposures. Most poison centers do not share call details routinely with governmental regulatory agencies. Worker health and safety could be enhanced if regulators such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had the ability to investigate these events and prevent similar incidents.

Associations between Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Nasal and Sinus, Migraine Headache, and Fatigue Symptoms in Pennsylvania.

Background: Unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) produces environmental contaminants and psychosocial stressors. Despite these concerns, few studies have evaluated the health effects of UNGD.

Objectives: We investigated associations between UNGD activity and symptoms in a cross-sectional study in Pennsylvania.

Use of Individual-level Covariates to Improve Latent Class Analysis of Trypanosoma Cruzi Diagnostic Tests.

Statistical methods such as latent class analysis can estimate the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests when no perfect reference test exists. Traditional latent class methods assume a constant disease prevalence in one or more tested populations. When the risk of disease varies in a known way, these models fail to take advantage of additional information that can be obtained by measuring risk factors at the level of the individual.

A history of chagas disease transmission, control, and re-emergence in peri-rural La Joya, Peru.

Background: The history of Chagas disease control in Peru and many other nations is marked by scattered and poorly documented vector control campaigns. The complexities of human migration and sporadic control campaigns complicate evaluation of the burden of Chagas disease and dynamics of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission.

Methodology/principal Findings: We conducted a cross-sectional serological and entomological study to evaluate temporal and spatial patterns of T.