Liz Borkowski : Occupational Health News Roundup at, of course, The Pump Handle

NB: The name is a reference to John Snow and the Broad Street pump handle, not as some have surmised, “the pump [which] don’t work ’cause the vandals stole the handle,” in the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Nanotube SNURs: Nano step forward, nano step back

“Yes Sir, she got her safety training” Mark Catlin (SEIU and APHA OHS Section) finds another amazing collection of historical films with worker safety themes.

FDA to Finally Reconsider Safety of BPA (Liz Borkowski) 

Celeste Monforton on Learning OHS from Sir Thomas Legge, a review of

the collection assembled by John W. Ward and Christian Warren entitled “Silent Victories : The History and Practice of Public Health in 20th Century America”  (Oxford, 2007.)  Our colleagues Tony Robbins and Phil Landrigan wrote a chapter on occupational disease and injury prevention, and in it, introduce me to Sir Thomas Legge.

He was the UK’s first medical Inspector of Factories (appointed in 1897) and he capitalized on his title and training to expose occupational hazards, propose interventions and demonstrate their effectiveness at reducing harm.  Robbins and Landrigan offer one little gem from Legge that is too good to keep to myself.  Legge proposed several axioms to reduce workers’ risk of lead poisoning, but with just a little tweaking, they seem quite appropriate for other workplace hazards:

Read Monforton’s complete piece at Learning OHS from Sir Thomas Legge.