June is National Safety Month

The Safety Month’s 10th anniversary theme, Making Our World a Safer Place, reflects the National Safety Council’s mission to prevent unintentional injury and death by educating and influencing people to adopt and maintain safe and healthy practices and behaviors in all aspects of their lives. Visit the National Safety Council Web site to look for information and/or be added to an e-mail list for updates.

EPA Hispanic Environmental Health

EPA has a new Hispanic environmental health page on pesticides in its Spanish-language portal. The new page discusses health and environmental issues associated with the proper use of pesticides and informational resources in Spanish and English. This Hispanic Web site is part of the agency's continuing expansion of outreach to the Hispanic community in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Hispanic environmental health page, "El medio ambiente y su salud,"
focuses on the agency's overall efforts to educate Hispanics, researchers, and health care providers on how environmental health issues affect the different Hispanic communities. The page is updated regularly with new information on developments and policy. Since its launch last year, this popular page has covered issues such as asthma, mold and carbon monoxide. This segment of EPA's Spanish-language portal will feature other environmental issues such as green technology and drinking water in the near future.

• New edition on pesticides
• Information on "El medio ambiente y su salud"

Summer Safety Tips for Kids & Working Teens

• American Academy of Pediatrics has tips for keeping kids safe in the summer
• National Safety Council – Summer Safety Tips from A to Z
• Summer Fun Brings More Emergency Room Visits

Many kids will find jobs during the summer. NIOSH offers a publication that covers Young Worker Safety & Health. Past issues of SN&N have also addressed this topic. To find those links, enter ‘youth workers’ in the search block on the Florida AgSafe home page.

The Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign, sponsored by OSHA, is a multi-year project to increase awareness about workplace hazards, and provide possible solutions to those hazards, for young workers and their parents. The campaign will focus on industries in which young people are likely to work during their high school and college years. The first year will target the landscaping industry. The kick-off event also highlighted the Department of Labor's YouthRules! Initiative to bring teens, parents, educators, employers, government, unions and advocacy groups together to ensure young workers have safe and rewarding work experiences.

Links to the materials can be found in the OSHA news release.

Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers

Farm work is hard work, and farm workers feel the results. Farm workers get backaches and pains in the shoulders, arms, and hands more than any other health problem. A third of the injuries that cause them to miss work are sprains and strains, and a quarter are back injuries. These materials provide information about early intervention to prevent such injuries. Many of these interventions are simple, practical and inexpensive solutions.

• Backaches and pain in the shoulders, arms, and hands are the most common symptoms that farm workers report.
• These injuries can be disabling, which can affect the worker’s earnings and the grower’s profits.
• There are cost effective ways to prevent or reduce these symptoms.

The “tip sheets” in "Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers" show how to make or order inexpensive new tools or to modify existing ones to reduce the risk of pain.
Solutions discovered for one type of crop can be modified for use with other kinds of crops. Worker management ergonomics teams can be formed to discover your own simple solutions.

• Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers
• Soluciones Simples: Ergonomía Para Trabajadores Agrícolas

(I do have a limited number of printed copies on hand which I would be happy to send out).

Protecting Poultry Workers from Avian Influenza

Workers who could be at risk include poultry growers and their employees; service technicians of poultry processing companies; caretakers, layer barn workers, and chick movers at egg production facilities; and workers involved in disease control and eradication activities, including state, federal, contract, and company employees. This Safety & Health Bulletin from OSHA provides information about protecting workers in the Poultry Industry.

West Nile Virus

Even with avian influenza as an ever-popular news topic, we still need to keep in mind the efforts being made to combat West Nile Virus (WNV). As a human health concern, it only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to transfer the disease.  
 
The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) now has a completed WNV Issue page. This is an informative page that provides an overview of the virus and answers the following questions:

• How many kinds of mosquitoes are in the United States?
• Why do mosquitoes bite?
• What disease-causing microorganisms can mosquitoes transmit?
• What is the most effective way to prevent mosquito bites and control mosquitoes at home?

A number of helpful and informative resources are accessible through this page, including a report by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) titled “Public Health Confronts the Mosquito: Developing Sustainable State and Local Mosquito Control Programs.”

Find Your Lost Pet & Avoid Scams

While searching for information about pets in disasters, I came across several stories of people being scammed while searching for their pets. These typically involved instances of people at a distant location saying they found the pet (may have gotten into a moving van, etc.) and of course they want the owner to send money to help with the return travel costs, air fares, etc. (For examples of stories, just search the Internet). These people would find out about the lost pet from flyers, posters, and from ads on the Internet. They know that people who have lost a pet are usually vulnerable and emotional about getting their pet back. It is advised that on any public information provided, just have a phone number, do not include your name and address. Petrescue.com offers a publication that provides extensive tips and information about how to go about finding a lost pet.

Trench Safety Awareness Training

Trenching safety materials were offered in the September 2005 issue of SN&N. New Web-based information was just released by NIOSH, so I am providing it as an update.

Also, trenching is not just for construction workers. The principles of soil stability and collapse are the same when digging to bury water lines or utilities on the farm. Others who may not think about there being a hazard are those who may be involved with digging a hole for soils judging teams or even archeological digs. Then, of course, there is the occasional cave-in on someone who is digging a hole in the sand at the beach.

• An Online Guide to Health and Safety for Archaeologists (including excavation requirements)

Mold & Dust Related Respiratory Hazards & Solutions

When working around such items as hay or grain, keep in mind the respiratory hazards that may be involved, especially when cleaning out the ‘old’ to make way for the new crop. Old hay or grain may have the added risk of being moldy as well as dusty. The following publications provide information about these hazards with recommendations for avoiding illness.

• Causes and Symptoms of Mold & Dust Induced Respiratory Illnesses
• Organic Dust: Organic dust comes from hay, grain, fuel chips, straw, and livestock. Organic dust includes molds, pollens, bacteria, pesticides, chemicals, feed and bedding particles, and animal particles including hair, feathers, and droppings.
• Engineering and work practice controls are generally regarded as the most effective methods of controlling exposure to hazardous airborne substances. Respiratory equipment is designed to prevent or lessen the severity of injuries to workers when engineering the administrative controls is not feasible or effective in reducing exposures to acceptable levels. The references contained in Respiratory Protection: Possible Solutions provide possible solutions for respiratory hazards.