Working Safely in the Trades as Women: A Qualitative Exploration and Call for Women-Supportive Interventions.

Background: Construction work offers women economic advancement and self-fulfillment opportunities, but multiple barriers prevent their increased representation in the industry. This study used qualitative methods to identity key physical and psychosocial safety hazards affecting tradeswomen.

Methods: Three focus groups were held in 2015 with 19 tradeswomen in Washington State.

Identification of processes that mediate the impact of workplace violence on emergency department healthcare workers in the USA: results from a qualitative study.

Objectives: Violence towards emergency department healthcare workers is pervasive and directly linked to provider wellness, productivity and job satisfaction. This qualitative study aimed to identify the cognitive and behavioural processes impacted by workplace violence to further understand why workplace violence has a variable impact on individual healthcare workers.

Design: Qualitative interview study using a phenomenological approach to initial content analysis and secondary thematic analysis.

Green chemistry & chemical stewardship certificate program: a novel, interdisciplinary approach to green chemistry and environmental health education.

The Green Chemistry & Chemical Stewardship Certificate Program was designed using the Community of Inquiry (COI) model as a framework for developing curriculum that engages students across the entire program to meet interdisciplinary, professional development program outcomes. The COI framework allows faculty and course developers to develop courses that consider cognitive, social, and teaching presence as equal components of successful learning experiences. In this program, students focus on systems thinking around green chemistry, business, environmental health, chemical alternative assessment tools, and social and environmental justice.

Gendered Safety and Health Risks in the Construction Trades.

Objectives: Despite women's increased representation in the overall workforce, construction remains a male-dominated industry. Prior studies have noted that the hazardous workplace environment combined with a culture that can be discriminatory and openly hostile can threaten women workers' health and safety. However, little information exists about the current physical and psychosocial hazards at work affecting tradeswomen.

The Molecular Design Research Network.

Herein, we provide an overview of a research network that is aimed at fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between chemists and toxicologists with the goal of rationally designing safer commercial chemicals. The collaborative is the Molecular Design Research Network (MoDRN) that was created in 2013 with funding from the EPA-National Science Foundation Networks for Sustainable Molecular Design and Synthesis (NSMDS) program. MoDRN is led by 4 universities, Baylor University, University of Washington, The George Washington University, and Yale University.

Toward the Design of Less Hazardous Chemicals: Exploring Comparative Oxidative Stress in Two Common Animal Models.

Sustainable molecular design of less hazardous chemicals presents a potentially transformative approach to protect public health and the environment. Relationships between molecular descriptors and toxicity thresholds previously identified the octanol-water distribution coefficient, log D, and the HOMO-LUMO energy gap, ΔE, as two useful properties in the identification of reduced aquatic toxicity. To determine whether these two property-based guidelines are applicable to sublethal oxidative stress (OS) responses, two common aquatic in vivo models, the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), were employed to examine traditional biochemical biomarkers (lipid peroxidation, DNA damage, and total glutathione) and antioxidant gene activation following exposure to eight structurally diverse industrial chemicals (bisphenol A, cumene hydroperoxide, dinoseb, hydroquinone, indene, perfluorooctanoic acid, R-(-)-carvone, and tert-butyl hydroperoxide).

Differences in the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among female and male custodians.

Background: The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among custodians is high. We sought to compare musculoskeletal symptoms between female and male custodians and to explore how task might affect this relationship.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among 712 custodians who completed a survey assessing upper extremity, back, and lower extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and exposure to cleaning tasks.

Proactive Risk Assessment for Ebola-Infected Patients: A Systematic Approach to Identifying and Minimizing Risk to Healthcare Personnel.

Performing patient care while wearing high-level personal protective equipment presents risks to healthcare providers. Our failure mode effects analysis identified 81 overall risks associated with providing hygienic care and linen change to a patient with continuous watery stool. Implementation of checklists and scheduled pauses could potentially mitigate 76.

Characterization of Urinary Phthalate Metabolites Among Custodians.

Phthalates, a ubiquitous class of chemicals found in consumer, personal care, and cleaning products, have been linked to adverse health effects. Our goal was to characterize urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and to identify work and nonwork sources among custodians using traditional cleaning chemicals and 'green' or environmentally preferable products (EPP). Sixty-eight custodians provided four urine samples on a workday (first void, before shift, end of shift, and before bedtime) and trained observers recorded cleaning tasks and types of products used (traditional, EPP, or disinfectant) hourly over the work shifts.

Traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and health symptoms in custodians.

Background: We investigated the associations between traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure and dermal, respiratory, and musculoskeletal symptoms in a population of custodians.

Methods: We analyzed associations between symptoms and exposure to traditional and environmentally preferable cleaning product exposure among 329 custodians.

Results: We observed increased odds of dermal (P < 0.

Exposure to volatile organic compounds in healthcare settings.

Objectives: To identify and summarise volatile organic compound (VOC) exposure profiles of healthcare occupations.

Methods: Personal (n=143) and mobile area (n=207) evacuated canisters were collected and analysed by a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer to assess exposures to 14 VOCs among 14 healthcare occupations in five hospitals. Participants were volunteers identified by their supervisors.

Transitioning from traditional to green cleaners: an analysis of custodian and manager focus groups.

Custodians represent one of the largest occupational groups using cleaning agents, and yet their voices are infrequently heard in relation to the introduction of "green" cleaners and the laws regarding environmentally preferable products (EPP). This study reflects worker voices on use and effectiveness of chemicals, as well as incentives and obstacles for green cleaning programs. Sixty-four custodians and staff participated in 10 focus groups.

Estimated use of industrial chemicals in Connecticut.

Background: Chemical exposures in the workplace are poorly documented and researched, yet appear to be widespread and with significant potential for impacting worker health. There are few reporting requirements for chemical usage on a national level.

Methods: Chemical usage reports and employment data from Massachusetts were categorized by manufacturing subsector.

Human health risk assessment of synthetic turf fields based upon investigation of five fields in Connecticut.

Questions have been raised regarding possible exposures when playing sports on synthetic turf fields cushioned with crumb rubber. Rubber is a complex mixture with some components possessing toxic and carcinogenic properties. Exposure is possible via inhalation, given that chemicals emitted from rubber might end up in the breathing zone of players and these players have high ventilation rates.

Synthetic turf field investigation in Connecticut.

The primary purpose of this study was to characterize the concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC), semivolatile organic compounds (SVOC), rubber-related chemicals such as benzothiazole (BZT) and nitrosamine, and particulate matter (PM(10)) in air at synthetic turf crumb rubber fields. Both new and older fields were evaluated under conditions of active use. Three types of fields were targeted: four outdoor crumb rubber fields, one indoor facility with crumb rubber turf, and an outdoor natural grass field.

Training health and safety committees to use control banding: lessons learned and opportunities for the United States.

Control banding (CB) is a control-focused risk management model that has received international attention. CB strategies are designed to control workplace chemical exposures after the completion of a qualitative risk assessment. Connecticut was one of the first states to provide training on how to use this control-focused tool.

Characterization of mold and moisture indicators in the home.

As studies increasingly support the presence of health risks associated with mold and moisture, understanding fungal concentrations and physical measurements as they relate to the microenvironment becomes more important. We conducted a cross-sectional study in the homes of 64 subjects. The primary objective of this study was to use trained inspectors' list of indicators in rooms (bathroom, bedroom, and basement) and determine whether these indicators are associated with higher fungal levels or physical measurements.

Residential arsenic and lead levels in an agricultural community with a history of lead arsenate use.

Lead arsenate (PbHAsO4) was used as an insecticide in Washington fruit orchards from 1905 to 1947. We examined exposure potential for children living in an agricultural community with historic PbHAsO4 use. Soil and housedust samples were collected from 58 residences.