COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake Among Firefighters: An Application of the Health Belief Model.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess COVID-19 vaccination prevalence and explore whether health beliefs were associated with vaccination among firefighters.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was distributed to Minnesota firefighters in March-April 2022. Survey questions included demographics, vaccination status, and beliefs about COVID-19 and vaccines.

Examining Excess Mortality Among Critical Workers in Minnesota During 2020-2021: An Occupational Analysis.

To understand the occupational risk associated with COVID-19 among civilian critical workers (aged 16-65 years) in Minnesota. We estimated excess mortality in 2020 to 2021 for critical occupations in different racial groups and vaccine rollout phases using death certificates and occupational employment rates for 2017 to 2021. Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher for workers in critical occupations than for noncritical workers.

Reducing avoidable hospital readmissions effectively: a statewide campaign.

Background: The Reducing Avoidable Readmissions Effectively (RARE) Campaign was designed to engage hospitals and care providers in Minnesota across the continuum of care to prevent avoidable hospital readmissions within 30 days of hospital discharge.

Methods: Support for hospitals was provided on a one-on-one basis by a RARE resource consultant, as well as through the campaign website and a monthly newsletter. Hospitals had the opportunity to participate in any of three learning collaboratives-Care Transitions Intervention, Project RED (ReEngineered Discharge), or SAFE Transitions of Care.

Implementation of CDC refugee blood lead testing guidelines in Minnesota.

The state of Minnesota undertook a trial of the 2005 recommendations for blood lead testing in refugees developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New refugee children younger than 16 years of age receiving health screening at an urban clinic were tested for elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) and nutritional status. Follow-up lead tests were obtained three to six months after the first test.

Lead poisoning in Minnesota Medicaid children.

This article presents data on blood-lead testing in Minnesota children from 1999 through 2003. The number of Minnesota children younger than 6 years of age who were tested for blood lead increased from approximately 38,000 in 1999 to 61,000 in 2003. The rate of blood-lead testing in 9- to 30-month-old children enrolled in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare, the state's Medicaid programs for children, increased from 17% to 29% between 1999 and 2003.

Thyroid cancer and employment as a radiologic technologist.

The association between chronic occupational ionizing radiation exposure in the medical field and thyroid cancer is not well characterized. Thyroid cancer incidence was ascertained for 2 periods in a cohort of radiologic technologists certified for a minimum 2 years and enumerated in 1983: (i) cases identified prospectively in 73,080 radiologic technologists who were free of thyroid cancer at the baseline survey and completed a second questionnaire a decade later (N = 121), and (ii) cases occurring prior to cohort enumeration among 90,245 technologists who completed the baseline survey and were thyroid cancer free 2 years after certification (N = 148). Survival analyses estimated risks associated with employment as a radiologic technologist, including duration of employment, period of employment, types of procedures and work practices.

Prevalence of elevated blood lead levels and evaluation of a lead-risk-screening questionnaire in rural Minnesota.

The objectives of the study reported here were to determine the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels in rural Minnesota and to evaluate a lead-risk-screening questionnaire. Blood lead tests and lead risk questionnaires were obtained for a sample of 1,090 children younger than 48 months of age (72 percent of the eligible population) from three rural counties of west-central Minnesota between September 1, 2001, and August 31, 2002. It was found that overall, 2.

Effects of aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated early life stage toxicity on lake trout populations in Lake Ontario during the 20th century.

Lake trout embryos and sac fry are very sensitive to toxicity associated with maternal exposures to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) and structurally related chemicals that act through a common aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR)-mediated mechanism of action. The loading of large amounts of these chemicals into Lake Ontario during the middle of the 20th century coincided with a population decline that culminated in extirpation of this species around 1960. Prediction of past TCDD toxicity equivalence concentrations in lake trout eggs (TEC(egg)s) relative to recent conditions required fine resolution of radionuclide-dated contaminant profiles in two sediment cores; reference core specific biota--sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) for TCDD-like chemicals in lake trout eggs; adjustment of the BSAFs for the effect of temporal changes in the chemical distributions between water and sediments; and toxicity equivalence factors based on trout early life stage mortality.