NIOSH eNews - January, 2017

NIOSH eNews - January, 2017

In This Issue

Director’s Desk NIOSH Experts Join Vice President Biden on Cancer Moonshot NIOSH and Partners Renew Alliance ISO Nano Working Group Update One-year Anniversary of Behind the Wheel at Work! December MMWR Articles Feature NIOSH Research In Memoriam: Dennis J. Viscusi

Monthly Features

NIOSH Congratulates NORA News From our Partners r2p Corner Face Reports Health Hazard Evaluations (HHE) New NIOSH Communication Products Federal Register Notices Call for Abstracts Conferences & Workshops This Month in History

Volume 14 Number 9 January 2017

From the Director’s Desk John Howard, M.D., Director, NIOSH Reaching Our Audience Where They Are: Our Work with Wikipedia Wikipedia is one of the most widely read websites in the world. In fact, it is read by hundreds of millions of people around the world every year. Chances are, you have used Wikipedia to look up something that has slipped your mind, or just for fun. After all, it seems to have an article on just about everything. But did you know that people also use Wikipedia to look up information on occupational safety and health? In fact, the Wikipedia article on occupational hazards is read 4,622 times per month and the article on occupational lung diseases is read 2,546 times per month, just to name a couple. Read More... NIOSH Experts Join Vice President Biden on Cancer Moonshot On December 13, NIOSH experts joined Vice President Joe Biden to provide expertise and input to the Cancer Moonshot project. This bold initiative seeks to end cancer as we know it by advancing cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. NIOSH's work with first responders, including 9/11 responders, prompted the invitation to meet with Vice President Biden. Participants discussed how to share assets and experience that could help achieve the Cancer Moonshot. In attendance included Dr. Dori Reissman and Jessica Bilics from the World Trade Center Health Program; Dr. Teresa Schnorr from Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies; and advocates for 9/11 responders Jon Stewart and John Feal. NIOSH and Partners Renew Alliance On November 28, at the 2016 OSHA Oil and Gas Safety and Health Conference, representatives from NIOSH, OSHA, and the National STEPS Network signed a five-year extension of their alliance, which began two years ago. ISO Nano Working Group Update NIOSH researchers Eileen Kuempel, PhD, and Vladimir Murashov, PhD, were primary authors and co-chairs of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group, which released ISO/TR 18637:2016, Nanotechnologies—Overview of available frameworks for the development of occupational exposure limits and bands for nano-objects and their aggregates and agglomerates (NOAAs), on November 21. One-year Anniversary of Behind the Wheel at Work! The NIOSH Center for Motor Vehicle Safety released the December issue of its quarterly eNewsletter, Behind the Wheel at Work. Highlights from the newsletter—which marks one year for the publication—includes an article on law enforcement officer motor vehicle safety, a new NIOSH infographic that answers the question Why does workplace motor vehicle safety matter? and a reader-requested, user-friendly tutorial helping employers find and interpret crash data that can help make the case for program resources. December MMWR Articles Feature NIOSH Research NIOSH researchers authored two MMWR articles in December: State Asthma Rates Among Workers. The frequency of workers with asthma is higher among those working specific jobs and in specific industries. A new study shows that out of an estimated 74 million workers in 21 states, 7.7% had current asthma and over 2 million may have asthma caused by or exacerbated by conditions in their workplace. Workers in healthcare support occupations in Michigan and in the information industry in Massachusetts were identified as having the highest rates. Learn more by going to CDC’s December 2 MMWR. Lung Disease in Coal Miners Identified at Alarming Numbers. “Black lung” is an occupational disease caused by overexposure to respirable coal mine dust. The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act established dust limits for U.S. coal mines and created the NIOSH Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program with the intention of reducing the number of miners with black lung and eliminating its most severe form, progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), which can be fatal. While the prevalence of PMF fell after implementation of the Coal Act, the disease has reappeared at alarming numbers in the United States. A new report describes a cluster of cases in Kentucky. Learn more by going to CDC’s December 16 MMWR. In Memoriam: Dennis J. Viscusi NIOSH was saddened by the death of former CDC/NIOSH employee Dennis J. Viscusi. Dennis was a chemist in NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL). Dennis spent 18 years as an analytical chemist with a NIOSH contractor prior to continuing his career as a full-time NIOSH employee in 2001. Dennis served as a chemist on important respiratory protection research projects such as Laboratory Tests for Total Inward Leakage, Development of Computer-Aided Face Fit Evaluation Methods, and Frequency of Fit Testing research before retiring from federal service. He contributed to many NPPTL projects related to fit and reuse. He was also a first-author of eight manuscripts that were published in peer-review journals. In addition, Dennis was either the author or co-author on more than 20 abstracts, presentations, and manuscripts. Read More...