New Solutions-A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy最新文献

This study investigated nanomaterial safety management through semistructured interviews with 14 subject matter experts across industry, research, and regulatory domains. Expert perceptions, practical implementation of exposure controls, and barriers to effective safety management in Singapore's nanotechnology sector were examined. Thematic analysis using MAXQDA software identified 6 key themes: information management and organizational practices (28%), training and knowledge management (26%), documentation and risk management (21%), advanced manufacturing and implementation insights (14%), geographic and regulatory framework variations (11%), and measurement and characterization challenges (6%). The study identified significant variations in how organizations approach safety management, particularly in information sharing, training delivery, and control measure implementation. Technical challenges in exposure measurement and characterization emerged as critical barriers, while documentation and risk management practices varied considerably across different organizational contexts. This research contributes to nanomaterial safety management by providing insights into practical implementation challenges across diverse organizational contexts.

Climate change implies that the health challenge associated with environmental heat stress will increase in intensity, and its direct as well as indirect negative effects will spread geographically. Adverse consequences of high environmental temperatures are currently experienced by approximately half the global population. They particularly affect health and quality of life for the most vulnerable citizens in developing countries, with children, older adults, and people living in poverty at highest risk of death and disease during extreme heat events. However, it is important to address the major negative health and productivity effects experienced by millions of manual workers exposed to workplace heat stress on a daily basis. These effects may affect not only individual livelihoods, but also family income and jeopardize the reduction of poverty-particularly in regions highly dependent on manual work, such as the agriculture, construction, and fishing sectors.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) was an essential turning point in reducing workplace morbidity and mortality. It has remained a keystone of worker protection. While the OSH Act has saved an estimated 690,000 lives through its regulations, inspections, research, and training, recent years have seen a new effort aimed at eliminating these successes: the Nullify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act (NOSHA). This bill, originally introduced in 2023, was revived in January 2025. Unlike the bill's first introduction, its second comes during a Presidential Administration that has deregulation as a primary goal, as evidenced by executive orders that support the revocation of regulations at a rapid pace. The barriers protecting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration continue to be removed, threatening the safety of workers across the United States.

Since 2010, 12 states and three cities in the United States have enacted Domestic Worker Bills of Rights (DW BoR), codifying minimum wage, overtime, anti-harassment protections, and more for many domestic workers (eg, private household childcare, home health, personal care, and housekeeping workers). We used repeated cross-sectional nationally representative 2006-2019 American Community Survey data and difference-in-differences methods to compare changes in domestic workers' hours and earned income in eight states that enacted DW BoR versus 12 politically similar states that did not. Enacting DW BoR was associated with reductions in overtime and extremely long hours in Years 6-9 post-enactment, without negatively impacting earnings. Agency-employed domestic workers and home health, personal care, and childcare workers experienced larger reductions in hours than informally employed or housekeeping workers, respectively. Results suggest potential benefits and challenges of using legislation to improve domestic working conditions and are highly relevant to policy advocacy and enforcement efforts.

Healthcare staff deserve the same on-the-job protections as other workers. An updated Canadian standard finally should change some long-standing differences. Proposed updates to the Canadian Standards Association Z94.4 respiratory protection standard are a critical step toward protecting healthcare staff from airborne hazards, including viruses. The revisions clearly say the standard applies to healthcare (where it has been ignored historically). They require specific assessments for airborne pathogens (to determine minimum respiratory protection), and recognize the ethical obligation to apply the precautionary principle in decisions. Adoption, expected in 2026, will set a professional standard of care and avoid the mistakes of SARS-1 and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The updates got overwhelming and international support, including a statement from the Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition, signed by 1700-plus individuals, professional and grassroots organizations, and unions, including the Canadian Labour Congress, most Canadian and Quebec healthcare unions, and the US National Nurses United.

Although there is a high prevalence of mental ill-health among university faculty, we know little about how universities have responded to growing concerns about faculty mental health. In this paper, we examine typical mental health interventions implemented in universities. We conducted semistructured, qualitative interviews with 34 academic workers and 20 nonacademic workers and administrators employed at Canadian universities. We identify three main features of university interventions and document their impact on the work and health of academic workers. First, interventions tend to take a "wellness" approach, focusing on individual solutions. Second, interventions tend to rely on generic content from corporate and nonprofit organizations to manage faculty mental health. Third, despite messaging that encourages help-seeking, faculty experience pressure to maintain productivity while ill. Drawing on insights from the literature on neoliberal managerialism and the gendered organization of the university, we show how the focus on the generic individual obfuscates the health consequences of rising expectations, high work demands, and the gendered organization of university labor. Meaningful interventions must address workload and work conditions, while considering the health consequences of the gendered organization of university work.

We explored how Canadian academics manage their mental ill-health while at work and whether they do so informally, seek formal help or workplace accommodations, or take leaves of absences. Results from a survey of 342 academics (71% women) indicated that mental ill-health was common. A higher percentage of women reported having experienced mental health issues over their careers. Less than a quarter of those who experienced mental health issues took formal leaves of absence because they felt their issues were not severe enough to warrant leave. They were concerned about stigma and the impact that taking a leave would have on their colleagues' workload. More often, respondents manage the occupational stressors themselves by using sick days and vacations to retreat from work, reduce their workload, and seek help from health professionals. Using this information, the authors recommend specific interventions for academics experiencing mental ill-health.

In our qualitative study, we interviewed 45 Canadian teachers about mental health issues, taking a leave of absence, and their subsequent return to work. We found that doctors, supportive principals, supportive colleagues, supportive human resource departments, supportive school boards, and the teaching unions were facilitators for taking a leave, while stigma, unsupportive administration, preparation, and the process of taking a leave were barriers. In returning to work, principals and administrators, and preparation to return were cited as barriers, while colleagues, principals and administrators, doctors, unions and a change in work were facilitators. We interpret these findings through a synthesized framework combining Allegro and Veerman's theory of sickness absence and D'Amato and Zijsrtra's theory of work resumption, highlighting individual, organizational, and societal factors shaping leave and return decisions. With the high cost of teacher absences and critical staffing shortages, we discuss the impacts of these facilitators and barriers and make recommendations for practice for a healthy teaching workforce.

This interview explores the remarkable journey of Nazrul Islam Khan, a prominent labor leader in Bangladesh whose activism and leadership have shaped the labor movement for decades. From his early experiences as a worker to his pivotal role in the 1969 labor uprisings and his later contributions to postindependence labor rights, Khan's insights provide a historical and contemporary analysis of labor struggles in Bangladesh. The discussion sheds light on key moments, including the impact of industrial policies, the formation of labor unions, the role of trade unions in the Bangladeshi Liberation War, and the evolving challenges faced by workers in a rapidly changing economic landscape. His reflections offer valuable lessons on labor activism, policy reform, occupational health and safety, and the future of workers' rights in Bangladesh. The interview ends with his views on how to extend labor rights and protections to teachers.

Jim Howe's contribution to the worker safety movement was enormous. Jim worked in a factory in Chicago, where he was the union safety representative. This was followed by a career with the United Auto Worker health and Safety department. After that, he served as president of Safety Solutions consulting. During his long career, Jim had many accomplishments including collective bargaining victories and the creation of innovative training and incident investigation systems. Jim was an early leader in the COS Committee on Occupational Safety and Health] movement as chair of the first COSH group in Chicago, CaCOSH.