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SynergistNOW

Free blog for members and non-members alike. Two posts a week covering non-technical topics, showcasing resources, sharing opinions, and more.

Currently featured in the December 2023 Synergist

Rethinking the Lead Standard

Recent and Pending Regulations Reflect Greater Understanding of Lead’s Health Effects

Lead has been in the industry-to-hospital pipeline for generations and has become a ubiquitous part of many trades. OEHS professionals need to understand that regulatory authorities across the United States are changing their requirements for lead, and that community exposures may affect the workforce as well.

Battle of the Bands

Alternative Strategies for Risk Management in the Workplace

As IH professionals, we love the details: data, measurements, numbers. The ability to measure something elusive in a quantitative way feels like taking control; we make sense of the chaos, squeezing logic out of the mess. But what happens when this approach fails due to lack of data or exposure limits? Enter “the bands”: hazard banding, control banding, and occupational exposure banding.

Protecting Against Engineered Nanomaterial Exposures

Considerations for PPE Selection

Nanoparticles have at least one dimension less than 100 nanometers. The great scientific interest of nanoparticles stems from their unique properties, which bridge bulk materials and molecular structures, but these properties also lead to increased health concerns. Therefore, selection of appropriate personal protective equipment for protection against dermal exposure to nanoparticles is increasingly important in the workplace.

Features from the November 2023 Synergist

Meeting an Urgent Need

A New Respirator Performance Standard for Canada

Canada had never had a national standard defining respirator performance, but this changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Health Canada published an interim order setting requirements for filtering facepieces and elastomeric half-mask particle filtering respirators specifically for use in healthcare. As soon as the order was issued, CSA Group began to consider developing a new performance standard.

A New Domain

Advancing Protection for Susceptible Workers

A new AIHA technical framework defines worker susceptibility as “the combination of genetic factors or exposome that impact the severity of exposure to a given agent.” The right steps to protect against health effects from worker susceptibility will vary by organization, but the principles on which these considerations are established apply to all cases.

Healthy Work Strategies for a “Coronanormal” Society

Addressing Economic Insecurity, Stress, Sleep Deprivation, and Fatigue

These four risks were pervasive before the COVID-19 pandemic, became especially pronounced during the worldwide public health emergency, and are predicted to persist. Evidence-based healthy work design suggestions drawn from NIOSH can help employers better safeguard members of their workforces as they work and live in the new “coronanormal” present.

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