NORA Symposium 2006: NORA Awards

The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Liaison Committee
in cooperation with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC) presented two awards at the fifth biannual NORA Symposium held in Washington, DC on April 18-20, 2006.

2006 National Occupational Research Agenda Innovative Research Award

The NORA Innovative Research Award for Worker Health and Safety honors innovative and creative occupational health and safety research in a NORA priority area. The purposes of the award are to recognize the development of or encourage continued work with a new approach to prevent and/or reduce occupational illness and injuries. Candidates may be affiliated with a university, industry, government agency, labor union, or a private organization.

The 2006 Award recipient is Reducing the Impact of Green Tobacco Sickness Among Latino Farmworkers.

Reducing the Impact of Green Tobacco Sickness Among Latino Farmworkers

Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) often affects farm workers who handle wet tobacco leaves and may lead to symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, and vomiting that can lead to life-threatening dehydration. Latino tobacco workers are especially at risk since they supply the majority of the tobacco labor in the US and small farmers who cultivate much of the tobacco grown abroad. Physicians believe that the number of patients seen with these symptoms is only a small proportion of the actual number of cases. The project consisted of three related research projects with Latino farm workers, tobacco growers, and medical personnel. The partners conducted an epidemiological study to document the prevalence of symptoms in a cohort of farm workers, examined cases in depth to determine risk factors for illness, and used this information as a basis for recommended interventions. The result was the first such extensive body of scholarly work on GTS epidemiology and the production of culturally appropriate education materials for both farm workers and medical personnel who treat GTS. The materials include a video/DVD on agricultural chemical safety; a fotonovela on GTS and its prevention, of which 10,000 copies have been distributed to workers in the US and another 2,000 to workers in Canada; a safety comic on GTS; and papers and conference presentations to education medical professionals.

 Reducing the Impact of Green Tobacco Sickness Among Latino Farmworkers (full project description)  [PDF – 100 KB]

Awarded To:

Thomas A. Arcury, PhD
Professor and Research Director, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Sara A. Quandt, PhD
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

2006 National Occupational Research Agenda Partnering Award for Worker Health and Safety

The National Occupational Research Agenda Partnering Award for Worker Health and Safety honors groups who have demonstrated exemplary teamwork, innovative thinking, and strong science in their collaborative partnerships on occupational health and safety research.

The 2006 Award recipients are Slip, Trip, and Fall (STF) Prevention in Health Care Workers and Collaborative Partnerships and Products of the NIOSH Hazardous Drug Working Group

Slip, Trip, and Fall (STF) Prevention in Health Care Workers

This collaborative effort brought together a first of its kind collaboration between private and public sector U.S. hospitals, organized labor, private and public sector health and safety researchers, and international researchers with cooperation from manufacturers of footwear, flooring and floor wax, to research, develop and test a program that would help to prevent Slip, Trip and Fall injuries among health care workers. Worldwide, falls are the second leading cause of accidental death and the third leading cause of disability. The US health services sector, with over 10 million workers, is the leading private employer and in 2002 alone accounted for more injured workers than the construction and mining industries combined. With a large number of workers at risk and the frequent occurrence of incidents, this is a substantial problem. Through historical analyses of incidence surveillance, telephone interviews of injured workers, lab studies evaluating flooring and shoes and a range of contaminants, and field studies in select hospitals, the group was able to establish a “best practices” injury prevention program. As a result, one of the main partners in the project reported an estimated 25 percent reduction in workers’ compensation costs attributed to the same level incidents after implementation of the prevention program. A layman’s document is in development for distribution to all US hospitals and the results of various component studies have been presented at multiple national and international conferences.

 Slip, Trip, and Fall (STF) Prevention in Health Care Workers (full project description)  [PDF – 120 KB]

Partners Include:

Academia:

Bradley Evanoff, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
Gary S. Sorock, Johns Hopkins University , School of Public Health

Government:

Jennifer L. Bell, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Sharon S. Chiou, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
James W. Collins, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Eugene DeMaster, Veteran's Health Administration
Raoul Grönqvist, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Mary Matz, Veteran's Health Administration
Audrey Nelson, Veteran's Health Administration

Health Care Industry (private non-profit hospital):

Laurie Wolf, BJC Health Care

Insurance Industry:

Melanye J. Brennan, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Wen-Ruey Chang, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Theodore K. Courtney, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
David A. Lombardi, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Santosh K. Verma, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Helen M. Wellman, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety

Collaborative Partnerships and Products of the NIOSH Hazardous Drug Working Group

Convened in 2000, this group consisted of representatives from government, labor, pharmacy, nursing, academia, research, pharmaceutical and safety equipment manufacturing, and trade associations. With approximately 5.5 million US healthcare workers at risk for potential exposure to hazardous drugs, which current studies suggest can cause both acute and chronic health effects ranging from skin rashes to cancer, this group charged themselves to develop a NIOSH policy document that made a clear statement about the presumed health effects associated with hazardous drugs. They also identified the need for better information on glove material selection and for informative resources on the selection and use of engineering controls for protection against hazardous drug exposures. The products and impacts of this collaboration include: a NIOSH Alert summarizing known health risks and guidelines for safe handling and administration; in partnership with the FDA, an update of the safe handling warning on the FDA package inserts for antineoplastic drugs; several NIOSH Workplace Solution documents in development on safe handling of hazardous drugs; and a document in collaboration with NIH Surface Contamination of Chemotherapy Drug Vials and Evaluation of New Vial-Cleaning Techniques: Results of Three Studies. This partnership nurtured a comprehensive culture of safety in healthcare that protects both patients and the caregivers who treat them.

 Collaborative Partnerships and Products of the NIOSH Hazardous Drug Working Group (full project description)  [PDF – 56 KB]

Partners Include:

Academia:

Melissa McDiarmid, University of Maryland

Accrediting Bodies:

Berek Britton, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

Consultants:

Allan Ader, SafeBridge Consultants, Inc.
Charlotte Smith, PharmEcology Associates, LLC
Sandi Yurichuk, Consultant, Oncology Business Development

Government Agencies:

Edward Burroughs, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Thomas Connor, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Barbara Coyle, Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene
Gayle DeBord, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Robert DeChristoforo, National Institutes of Health
Mandy Edens, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Caroline Freeman, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Duane Hammond, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Bruce Harrison, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Mark Hatch, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Lee Hathon, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Amber Hogan, Becton-Dickinson (formerly with OSHA)
Hye-Joo Kim, Food and Drug Administration
Chiu S. Lin, Food and Drug Administration
Barbara MacKenzie, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Ken Mead, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Kristina Meson, Environmental Protection Agency
Martha O'Lone, Food and Drug Administration
Jerry Phillips, Food and Drug Administration
Angela Presson, retired (formerly with OSHA)
Laurence Reed, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Melody Sands, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Anita Schill, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Teresa Schnorr, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Dionne Williams, Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Health Care Worker Labor Unions:

Bill Borwegen, Service Employees International Union
Jim Lane , Service Employees International Union
Diane Matthew-Brown, American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees

Home Health Care:

Nancy Kramer, Coram Healthcare
Melissa Leone, Apria Healthcare

Nursing:

Butch deCastro, University of Chicago (formerly with American Nurses Association)
Marty Polovich, Oncology Nursing Society
Pamela Hagen, American Nurses Association

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers:

Marc Abromovitz, Johnson & Johnson (formerly with GlaxoSmithKline)
Lucy O. Crane, Johnson & Johnson
Janice Frobel, Baxter Healthcare
Larry Hecker, Hospira, Inc.(formerly with Abbott Laboratories)
Donna S. Heidel, Johnson & Johnson
David R. Lauper, SuperGen, Inc.
Mary McConnell-Meachen, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
William McGrath, Bristol Myers Squibb Company
Bruce Naumann, Merck & Co.
Denise Proulx, Sanofi -Aventis
Lucy Reinke, Johnson & Johnson
Edward Sargent, Merck & Co.
Charles Sawyer, Eli Lilly and Co.
Debora Van der Sluis, Genentech, Inc.

Oncology Centers:

Philip Dugger , US Oncology
Dori Greene , US Oncology

Pharmacy:

Roger Anderson, Medco Health Solutions, Inc.(formerly with MD Anderson Cancer Center)
Joseph Deffenbaugh, retired (formerly with American Society of Health-System Pharmacists)
L.D. King, International Academy of Compounding Pharmacy
Luci Power, University of California San Francisco Medical Center

Protective Equipment Manufacturers:

Tito Aldape, Microflex
Cliff Colby, Baker Company, Inc.
Agneta Ekblad, Carmel Pharma, Inc.
Larry Griffin, Palestine Regional Medical Center (formerly with Carmel Pharma, Inc.)
William Peters, NuAire, Inc.
Hank Rahe, Containment Technologies Group, Inc.
Dave Stuart, Baker Company, Inc.