Documents Quinn, Margaret M. 8 results

"Background
The Cleaning and Disinfecting in Healthcare Working Group of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Occupational Research Agenda, is a collaboration of infection prevention and occupational health researchers and practitioners with the objective of providing a more integrated approach to effective environmental surface cleaning and disinfection (C&D) while protecting the respiratory health of health care personnel.
Methods
The Working Group, comprised of >40 members from 4 countries, reviewed current knowledge and identified knowledge gaps and future needs for research and practice.
Results
An integrated framework was developed to guide more comprehensive efforts to minimize harmful C&D exposures without reducing the effectiveness of infection prevention. Gaps in basic knowledge and practice that are barriers to an integrated approach were grouped in 2 broad areas related to the need for improved understanding of the (1) effectiveness of environmental surface C&D to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases and colonization in health care workers and patients and (2) adverse health impacts of C&D on health care workers and patients. Specific needs identified within each area relate to basic knowledge, improved selection and use of products and practices, effective hazard communication and training, and safer alternatives.
Conclusion
A more integrated approach can support multidisciplinary teams with the capacity to maximize effective and safe C&D in health care."

"The role of the private sector in funding academic research is increasing and the well-developed guidelines for government-sponsored research do not apply to the academic-industry arena. Good Practice Guidelines for privately funded occupational health research are necessary. Industry sponsors and academic researchers belong to differing systems with differing goals and means to achieve and evaluate them. As a result, problems are inherent in the relationship. Guidelines would benefit industry by providing criteria against which industry-funded research could be judged and evaluated. Guidelines would help university researchers assure their work is examined and critized on its merits. Such protection would foster quality research over the long term. "

Background Several researchers have proposed fiber size ranges representing hypotheses about the biological activity of fibers. Each of these indices has a biologically plausible rationale, yet they propose different fiber dimensions. Methods Four biologically based and one standard fiber analytic method index, the NIOSH 7400 method with B rules, were evaluated in air monitoring data collected in a variety of fiber glass (FG) manufacturing settings to determine their impact on an assessment of fiber exposure for an epidemiologic study of the risk of respiratory cancer among FG production workers. Results All indices varied considerably within and among the range of fiber size distributions sampled in the FG factories. Conclusions The asymptotic relative efficiencies (R2) calculated among the five indices indicate a potentially important loss of power from the use of the standard method index, if one of the biologically based indices is more closely related to the disease outcome in an epidemiologic study.

"Environmental policies that do not consider global gender dimensions often create benefits for some people and ecosystems but result in costs for others, in particular women, at some point along the global chain of production and consumption. This article is intended to begin a dialogue about the importance of including gender analysis in the design of cleaner production strategies. We review global development policy and its critiques that have identified a need for gender awareness and analysis. This examination provides a backdrop for a discussion of how to include gender analysis in cleaner production planning and implementation. We invite researchers and practitioners to enter this dialogue to further the field and develop effective tools and policies to analyze gender dynamics, support gender equity, and find environmentally sound solutions that are sustainable for the long-term."

"A joint China-U.S. symposium entitled "Integrating Occupational and Environmental Health" was organized by the Department of Science and Technology of Hebei Province, PRC, and the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, U.S.A. A framework called "Sustainable Production" was proposed by U.S. participants to link environmental and worker protection. Sustainable production focuses on systems of production that integrate concerns for the long-term viability of the environment, worker health and safety, the community, and the economic performance of firms and other enterprises. The disciplines of environmental and occupational health and safety were brought together by Chinese participants under the unifying theme of the development, implementation, and impact of new technologies. As production processes are increasingly concentrated in China, collaboration among U.S. and Chinese environmental and occupational health and safety professionals is ever more essential."

"Background: Sharps injuries (SI) and other blood/body fluid exposures (BBFE) present bloodborne pathogen risks for home healthcare (HHC) workers. While SI and BBFE are sufficiently frequent in HHC to be serious public health concerns, even moderately large surveys can still have insufficient power to identify risk factors. In this study, a new conceptual model for using near-misses for SI and BBFE was developed and its utility in statistical analyses of SI and BBFE risk factors was evaluated.
Methods: A survey of HHC nurses (n?=?787) and aides (n?=?282) gathered data on the numbers of SI, BBFE, and near-misses in the past year. Questions focused on the circumstances leading up to the SI, BBFE, and near-misses. After evaluating the hypothesis that near-misses and events lie along the same causal pathway, we combined these outcomes to estimate their association with an important risk factor: employment status.
Results: There were similar frequencies of risk factors for the events SI, BBFE, and their near-misses, suggesting that they may share common causal pathways. Combined data on events and near-misses confirmed our hypothesis that part-time and temporary HHC aides were at higher risk than full-timers.
Conclusions: Analyses combining injuries and near-misses may be useful in risk factor investigations. "