tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/occupational-safety-35418/articlesOccupational safety – The Conversation2024-01-03T13:46:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135352024-01-03T13:46:21Z2024-01-03T13:46:21ZWorkers in their teens and early 20s are more likely to get hurt than older employees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565551/original/file-20231213-23-vn4jgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=149%2C223%2C2777%2C1763&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some teens get tendinitis from scooping ice cream.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/morgan-jackson-18-of-scarborough-scoops-ice-cream-while-news-photo/958440620?adppopup=true">Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Think about your first job. Maybe it was delivering pizza, bagging groceries, busing tables or doing landscaping work. Did you get enough training to avoid potential injuries? Chances are, you didn’t – and your boss or supervisor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2018.12.003">just told you to get to work</a>.</p>
<p>Employing young people helps them in many ways. They can learn a trade, develop job skills, become more responsible and earn money. But there’s danger, too: Americans between 15 and 24 years old are up to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6935a3">2.3 times more likely</a> to get injured on the job than workers who are 25 and over.</p>
<p>In 2021, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf">398 workers under 25</a> died after getting injured on the job. </p>
<p>In my research about the unique <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cI_ixlIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">occupational safety hazards young workers face</a>, I’ve identified <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-014-9565-9">three common causes of this susceptibility to injury</a>: their lack of experience, developing bodies and brains, and reluctance to speak up. </p>
<h2>Physical and cognitive limitations</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/class-of-2023-young-people-see-better-job-opportunities/">19 million young people employed</a> today make up <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/civilian-labor-force-summary.htm">approximately 13% of the U.S. workforce</a>. </p>
<p>Work is more dangerous for young people because they’ve simply had less time to become aware of many common workplace hazards than their older co-workers.</p>
<p>And yet this problem isn’t typically addressed during onboarding: Even those who have been trained to do a specific job may not be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2018.12.003,%20https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.10304">taught ways to avoid common injuries</a>. These include tendinitis from scooping ice cream for hours on end, burns from operating a deep fryer, lacerations from sharp objects, and slips, trips and falls.</p>
<p>It’s also important to remember that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892678/">bodies and brains continue to develop</a> well into adulthood – up to age 25. This can make some tasks riskier before that point for the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/youth.pdf">55% of individuals between the ages of 16 and 24</a> who work.</p>
<p>For example, workers in their teens and early 20s may be smaller and weaker than older workers. Furthermore, some safety equipment, such as gloves and masks, may not properly fit.</p>
<p>In addition to physical changes that occur during adolescence, <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/933-the-adolescent-brain-a-second-window-of-opportunity-a-compendium.html">the brain is</a> also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.04.012">developing and restructuring into early adulthood</a>. The frontal cortex, which is used for decision-making and helps you to think before you act, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3177">continues to develop into adulthood and can lead to risky behaviors</a>.</p>
<p>Young people are inclined to seek approval and respect, which influences their decision-making. </p>
<p>They also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2010.08.007">engage in risky behaviors</a> both on and off the job that may affect their performance at work. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0847-0">many young workers are reluctant to speak up</a> if they have concerns, or to ask questions if they don’t know what to do, because they don’t want to lose respect from their boss or supervisor. To avoid appearing unqualified, they may not want to admit that they need help. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Baskin-Robbins shop in a strip mall with its trademark pink branding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563427/original/file-20231204-29-26qjf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like many Americans, President Barack Obama scooped ice cream in his youth. He was employed at this Honolulu Baskin-Robbins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObamaFirstJob/626981cdb54c4a11aefeb5a48e487ce5/photo?Query=(renditions.phototype:horizontal)%20AND%20(category:a%20OR%20%20category:i)%20AND%20%20(teen%20jobs)%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=81&currentItemNo=34">AP Photo/Marco Garcia</a></span>
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<h2>Weaker protections in some states</h2>
<p>Despite these inherent risks, <a href="https://theconversation.com/states-are-weakening-their-child-labor-restrictions-nearly-8-decades-after-the-us-government-took-kids-out-of-the-workforce-205175">Arkansas, Iowa and other states have recently weakened labor laws</a>, loosening restrictions about the kinds of work teens can do and increasing the number of hours they can work. </p>
<p>This is happening at a time when the number of child labor violations are rising and more children are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html">dying or getting injured</a>, especially when they do tasks that <a href="https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230217-1">violate federal labor laws</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/16-old-worker-killed-meat-203946508.html">Duvan Tomas Perez</a>, for example, died on the job while cleaning machinery in the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in August 2023. Perez was 16. So was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-boy-dies-sawmill-child-labor-8ae0c9fc09b9355dd7f12640eaefff2d">Michael Schuls</a>, who died in June 2023 while attempting to unjam a wood-stacking machine at Florence Hardwoods, a Wisconsin lumber company. <a href="https://www.kake.com/story/49078450/16yearold-boy-dies-in-workplace-accident-at-kansas-cityarea-landfill">Will Hampton</a>, another 16-year-old, also died that month in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, while working at a landfill.</p>
<p>Teachers at a Nebraska middle school figured out that students who had trouble staying awake at school were working night shifts at a slaughterhouse, doing dangerous cleaning work that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/09/nebraska-slaughterhouse-children-working-photos-labor-department">caused chemical burns</a>.</p>
<p>Enacted in 1938, the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/compliance-assistance/handy-reference-guide-flsa">Fair Labor Standards Act</a> established federal standards to ensure workplace safety for workers under 18 and bars employers from interfering with their educational opportunities. This law sets 14 as a minimum age for formal employment, restricts when and how many hours children may work, and outlines the type of work children may safely perform. </p>
<p>Some of the new state labor laws <a href="https://www.iowadivisionoflabor.gov/child-labor">allow children to work in more dangerous jobs</a> and limit their employers’ liability for <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/child-labor-laws-under-attack/">injury, illness or even death on the job</a>.</p>
<p>When state labor laws are less restrictive than the federal law, however, the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules/young-workers">federal standards apply</a>.</p>
<p>The federal government is also ramping up enforcement efforts. The <a href="https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20230727">Labor Department found 4,474 children employed in violation</a> of federal child labor laws between Oct. 1, 2022, and July 20, 2023. Employers, including McDonald’s and Sonic fast-food franchisees, owed more than $6.6 million in penalties as a result.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iyT2rT2t2T0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In an interview with “60 Minutes,” a Labor Department investigator relayed how the government determined that Packers Sanitation Services Inc. employed more than 100 children in violation of child labor laws.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3 steps employers can take</h2>
<p>In addition to following the law, I believe that employers and supervisors need to address the unique risks to young workers by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare4030055">taking these necessary steps</a>: </p>
<p>• Provide training on how to do tasks safely and supervise young workers until key tasks have been mastered. Training should not only occur right before a new employee gets ready for their first shift, but whenever new tasks are assigned, when there is a new hazard in the workplace, and after an injury or near miss occurs in the workplace. </p>
<p>• Model safe behaviors. Remember that young workers often learn by watching their bosses and co-workers, whose actions can reinforce safety expectations and build a <a href="https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/culture-safety">culture of safety</a>. </p>
<p>• Take into account a worker’s abilities when assigning tasks, and check in on them regularly, especially when switching tasks. Ask open-ended questions, such as, “What are the steps you are going to take when you do this task?” as opposed to questions that can be answered with a yes or no, like, “Do you know how to do this task?” Be sure to let workers know how to report concerns and who they can talk to if they have questions about workplace procedures and policies. </p>
<p>These strategies are easy to implement and cost little to follow.</p>
<p>And they surely make it safer for workers in their teens and early 20s to gain the valuable work experience they want and need, while helping their employers to maintain safe, productive workplaces that nurture the workers our <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/productiveaging/default.html">economy will increasingly depend upon</a> in the years ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Rohlman receives funding from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. </span></em></p>Better training and supervision make younger workers less vulnerable to injuries.Diane Rohlman, Associate Dean for Research, Professor and Endowed Chair of Rural Safety and Health, University of IowaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2142642023-10-25T02:16:38Z2023-10-25T02:16:38ZDoctors are being sexually harassed at work. This needs to stop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555689/original/file-20231024-17-7qggzi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C5615%2C3682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-sad-female-caucasian-uk-us-1701457318">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/24/the-system-teaches-you-to-be-quiet-doctor-indecently-assaulted-by-senior-colleague-identifies-herself">Dominique Lee</a> was training in radiation oncology when she was invited to join her supervisor to discuss a training opportunity. Instead, she was drugged and sexually assaulted. </p>
<p>Lee reported the crime, and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/oncologist-john-kearsley-jailed-after-drugging-and-indecently-assaulting-doctor-20160826-gr1q75.html">John Kearsley</a> was sentenced two years later. Kearsley has since been sentenced for another <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-27/oncologist-john-kearsley-sentencing-hearing-for-indecent-assault/8748338">sexual assault</a> against the daughter of a patient. </p>
<p>For Lee, the impact of that assault has been profound. “It’s taken almost ten years to look at myself in the mirror and not feel shame and hate,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/24/the-system-teaches-you-to-be-quiet-doctor-indecently-assaulted-by-senior-colleague-identifies-herself">she says</a>. “All I wanted to do was stop him from hurting other women, and that was my one agenda. I wasn’t set out to destroy his career. He did that on his own.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1705811088150008043"}"></div></p>
<p>Lee is not alone. It is always <a href="https://wordpress.com/post/ofdoctorsbydoctors.com/1119">difficult to measure</a> how often sexual harassment and assault occurs, but <a href="https://www.sap2.org.ar/i2/archivos/2224.pdf">global estimates</a> suggest around 33% of doctors in training have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Women are at higher risk and <a href="https://www.asmofnsw.org.au/images/ASMOFNSW/ASMOF%20submission%20to%20National%20Inquiry%20into%20Sexual%20Harassment%20in%20the%20Workplace%20.pdf">especially women in training</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p2090#:%7E:text=News-,Nearly%20a%20third%20of%20female%20surgeons%20have%20been,by%20a%20colleague%2C%20survey%20finds&text=Almost%20a%20third%20of%20female,a%20UK%20survey%20has%20found.">recent study</a> of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00258172231194926">surgeons in the United Kingdom</a> found 63.3% of female surgeons and 23.7% of male surgeons had been sexually harassed by colleagues. </p>
<p>One of the study authors, Tamzin Cummings, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/12/female-surgeons-nhs-sexually-assaulted-metoo">The Guardian</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one should need to call for a code of conduct that says, in essence, ‘please do not molest your work colleagues or students’, and yet this is one of the actions our report recommends.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This week, I convened a meeting of medical leaders in Canberra to explore why doctors in Australia are vulnerable to sexual harassment. And we drafted a set of safety standards to prevent this in future. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-sexism-is-rife-in-surgery-and-its-time-to-do-something-about-it-38715">Yes, sexism is rife in surgery – and it's time to do something about it</a>
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<h2>What is it about the culture of medicine?</h2>
<p>Doctors work in a rigid hierarchy, and train for more than 12 years to obtain their specialist qualifications. They have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/10/hospital-hierarchies-are-fostering-sexual-harassment-against-young-doctors">a lot to lose</a> from disclosing assault and harassment. </p>
<p>In Lee’s victim impact statement, she acknowledged how differences in power made junior doctors vulnerable:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Before pleading guilty to these assault charges, the perpetrator used to hold a high position in a well-known cancer centre and he was a respected member of the community. I, on the other hand, was still a trainee. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Medicine can be a brutal profession. The work is long, arduous and high stakes. The suicide rate is <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/reducing-risk-suicide-medical-profession">high</a>, <a href="https://bjgp.org/content/68/669/168">particularly in women</a>, and <a href="https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2023/19/every-doctor-has-a-right-to-a-safe-workplace/">violence</a> at work <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7531183/#:%7E:text=Violent%20events%20ranged%20from%2015.0,spread%20SARS%2DCoV%2D2.">is increasing</a>. </p>
<p>Doctors often work and live in environments that make them vulnerable. It is common for doctors to live in hospitals when on call, or when <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086783/">placed in rural communities</a> where they lack their usual social supports. </p>
<p>It is normal to discuss sex and human bodies during training, so survivors often feel it took them too long to pick up early signs of escalating abuse, like intrusive sexual comments. </p>
<p>Doctors work in close physical proximity, particularly in surgery, so it can also be easy to excuse inappropriate touching which can feel like an “accident”. Exposure to discrimination and harassment is so common, they become “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22341202/">too used to it</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Surgeons work in an operating theatre" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555690/original/file-20231024-29-t1kmh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Doctors work in close physical proximity, where inappropriate touching might be brushed off as an ‘accident’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surgical-team-performing-surgery-modern-operation-1932229913">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Several of the doctors in our 2019 <a href="https://ofdoctorsbydoctors.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/sexual-assault-and-harassment-of-doctors-by-doctors-medical-education.pdf">study</a> on sexual harassment commented that women doctors walk a fine line, trying to be strong, competent and capable, while also being “a good girl, being approachable and being nice to the nursing staff”. Female doctors do not want to be seen as “troublemakers”, because it impacts their careers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8712706/">Doctors report</a> the culture of self-sacrifice in medicine can <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMpv2303217">normalise abuse</a>, and can mean young doctors accept harassment as “part of the job”. </p>
<p>Wellness programs can be a way of side-stepping workplace obligations, emphasising individual resilience without addressing the harassment problem. We call this “<a href="https://thiswildmind.com/2021/09/10/we-are-weaponizing-self-care-especially-in-workplaces/">weaponising wellness</a>”. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/depression-burnout-insomnia-headaches-how-a-toxic-and-sexist-workplace-culture-can-affect-your-health-158062">Depression, burnout, insomnia, headaches: how a toxic and sexist workplace culture can affect your health</a>
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<p>Medical workplaces are highly diverse, which makes regulation challenging. Doctors work in hospitals, aged care facilities, solo doctor rural practices, large corporate community health centres, research institutes, universities and even people’s homes. Many are contractors or small business owners, which means they do not have the same structural protections of employees. </p>
<p>Even if they want to report, it’s hard to work out where to do so. Lee reported to the police, and her case was heard by a criminal court. However, she could have reported to her professional college, hospital, medical defence organisation, medical board, Human Rights Commission, union or any number of other avenues. No wonder survivors are confused. </p>
<p>As Lee <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/24/the-system-teaches-you-to-be-quiet-doctor-indecently-assaulted-by-senior-colleague-identifies-herself">told The Guardian</a>, “the system teaches you to be quiet”. </p>
<h2>We’re setting a new standard</h2>
<p>This week, my colleagues and I brought together 140 experts at Old Parliament House to tackle this difficult problem. </p>
<p>We had international leaders from law, medical education, health-care management, psychiatry and psychology, Medical Boards, doctors’ health advisory services and various medical workplaces. We had representatives from Australia, New Zealand the UK and Pakistan. One of our participants was from an Antarctic research station. Some were students or doctors in training. Most had decades of experience. </p>
<p>The purpose of the summit was simple: to identify and address the features of medical workplaces that make doctors particularly vulnerable, and address them. </p>
<p>We recognise that many features of medicine are common to all workplaces. We wanted to build on existing frameworks and legislative requirements like <a href="https://www.respectatwork.gov.au/">Respect at Work</a>, not replace them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Exhausted doctor leans up against a wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555694/original/file-20231024-27-u6x8pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The summit addressed why doctors are vulnerable and how this can be addressed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-surgeon-leaning-against-glass-door-584308879">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We drafted a set of sexual safety standards, that can apply to all medical workplaces and add to the legislative requirements we are already required to meet. </p>
<p>These standards include preventing sexual harassment and identifying, supporting and managing high-risk targets, perpetrators and environments in medical workplaces. They also encompass reducing the trauma of the reporting process, and the compassionate rehabilitation of survivors. </p>
<p>We mapped the options for reporting, developing a resource for survivors to choose and navigate the complex systems available to them. </p>
<p>Importantly, we established a community of diverse, passionate, expert global leaders across medicine who are determined to use their skills in managing complexity to reduce sexual harm in the profession. </p>
<p>Medicine has unique challenges, but we are not the only profession tackling this difficult problem. We manage physical and psychological trauma every day, and we are experts in navigating complexity. It’s time we used our skills to heal our own profession. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-harassment-at-work-isnt-just-discrimination-it-needs-to-be-treated-as-a-health-and-safety-issue-144940">Sexual harassment at work isn't just discrimination. It needs to be treated as a health and safety issue</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am the lead editor of an international book on sexual harassment in medicine, to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. </span></em></p>This week medical leaders met in Canberra to explore why women doctors in Australia are vulnerable to sexual harassment – and to draft a set of safety standards to prevent this in future.Louise Stone, General practitioner; Associate Professor, ANU Medical School, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2042472023-04-26T19:38:05Z2023-04-26T19:38:05ZNational Day of Mourning offers Canada a chance to rethink worker health and safety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522699/original/file-20230424-20-8nq93y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C326%2C5623%2C3820&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On April 28, Canadians remember and honour those who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/national-day-of-mourning-offers-canada-a-chance-to-rethink-worker-health-and-safety" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadians go to work each day expecting to return home safely, but for too many workers and their families, this expectation is unrealistic. According to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, there were <a href="https://awcbc.org/en/statistics/">1,081 workplace fatalities in 2021 alone</a>.</p>
<p>Each year on April 28, Canadians remember and honour those who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work. This day, known as the <a href="https://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/">National Day of Mourning</a>, was established by the Canadian Labour Congress in 1984 and <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/w-11.5/page-1.html">made official in 1991</a>.</p>
<p>Four decades have passed since the National Day of Mourning’s first observance, and the annual toll from workplace fatalities in Canada continues to remain high. But just how deep and pervasive is the problem? And what can we do about it?</p>
<h2>Widespread suffering</h2>
<p>Those who consume news media can be forgiven for thinking the number of murders in Canada each year vastly exceeds the number of work-related fatalities. One reason for this is the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/does-the-news-reflect-what-we-die-from">excessive news coverage of murders</a> relative to other causes of death like workplace fatalities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/workplace-fatalities-deaths-under-reported-study-1.4973495">The real numbers</a> tell a different tale. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510006801">About 700 people</a> are murdered annually in Canada, while close to 1,000 people die at work each year. But one study from the <em>Journal of Canadian Labour Studies</em> argues <a href="https://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5904">the actual number could be 10 to 13 times greater</a>.</p>
<p>The suffering goes well beyond the 1,000 workers who die each year. Within the workplace, <a href="https://www.ehstoday.com/safety/article/21905011/workplace-fatalities-the-impact-on-coworkers">colleagues who have witnessed horrendous tragedies</a> are affected, as are leaders who have to break the awful news to family members and motivate surviving employees.</p>
<p>Outside the workplace, the emotional and financial burden on family members has been ignored for too long. What if the news media devoted as much attention to workplace safety incidents as we did to murders? Would the public demand that management, workers and government authorities work together to enhance workplace safety?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman holds open a photo album to display photos of a man on a rope swing and the same man with a little girl sitting on his shoulders" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522695/original/file-20230424-884-uw83k0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alyssa Grocutt poses with pictures of her father who died in a workplace safety incident at Suncor Energy Inc. when she was 11 years old.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Myths about worker control</h2>
<p>The National Day of Mourning presents us with an opportunity to reflect on workplace fatalities and the enormous toll they take on affected families, co-workers and organizational leaders, and commit to making a difference. </p>
<p>We can start by dispelling some major misconception that are inhibiting progress in workplace safety and health. One misconception among managers is that, because workplace safety is so important, every aspect of employees’ work requires control. </p>
<p>Yet, based on extensive interviews with senior managers and employees and an analysis of documentation from 49 manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2021.06.003">researchers found the opposite is true</a>. </p>
<p>Among the five key types of human resources approaches, only one was associated with fewer workplace injuries: higher levels of empowerment, which included autonomy and employee participation. Even managers that ceded small, incremental amounts of control to employees had a positive impact.</p>
<h2>Myths about safety costs</h2>
<p>A second common misconception is that government safety inspections can be costly; yet again research suggests otherwise. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215191">a comparison of more than 400 workplaces</a> that were not targeted for safety inspections in California, and an equal number that were randomly selected for inspections between 1996 and 2006, random safety inspections work. </p>
<p>Five years after random inspections, companies saw a 9.4 per cent reduction in injury rates, and a 26 per cent reduction in costs associated with the injuries. </p>
<p>These gains in safety were achieved without any cost to employment numbers, sales, credit rating or likelihood of firm survival, which are frequent concerns in the face of government safety inspections. </p>
<p>Given this, policymakers should feel reassured that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-labour-ministry-enforcement-occupational-health-safety-inspectors-1.5936019">increasing the number of safety inspectors</a> is a wise investment in both injury reduction and cost reduction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people in business attire stand with their heads down" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522696/original/file-20230424-22-1ykjou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of Parliament take a moment of silence for workplace safety prior to question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Myths about sick leave</h2>
<p>The National Day of Mourning’s calls for reconsideration of workplace safety are particularly relevant in the era of COVID-19. The pandemic highlighted the misconception that paid sick leave hurts organizations. </p>
<p>Year-after-year, <a href="https://awcbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/National_Work_Injury_Disease_and_Fatality_Statistics-2019-2021.pdf">more people die at work from health-related issues</a>, such as respiratory diseases and occupational cancers, than from safety incidents. </p>
<p><a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/01/27/new-data-shows-some-people-with-covid-19-symptoms-still-go-to-work-in-peel-region/">A 2020 study</a> from Ontario’s Peel region revealed that 25 per cent of the employees surveyed went to work when they had COVID-19 symptoms; 88 workers even did so after being diagnosed with COVID-19.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-covid-19s-third-wave-were-far-from-all-in-this-together-159178">With COVID-19's third wave, we're far from 'all in this together'</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Why? Because they could not afford to lose any pay. If we are to protect employee health and limit the spread of infection, we need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256740">de-politicize perceptions around basic workplace programs</a> such as paid sick leave. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/31/how-can-we-put-covid-behind-us-without-guaranteed-paid-sick-leave/">Worker health programs and policies</a> need to be implemented based on the best of evidence, rather than being a subject for negotiations between labour and management or the whims of the government. </p>
<p>Paid sick leave policies and programs are primary tools in preventing the spread of infections, thereby benefiting employees and protecting organizations and their communities. Employees should be reassured that they will not lose pay when they protect themselves and others by staying home when ill.</p>
<h2>A new approach is needed</h2>
<p>We need to change the widespread perceptions that workplace safety requires the tight grip of management, that random safety inspections hurt organizations and detract from profitability, and that paid sick leave is an expensive luxury. </p>
<p>On the contrary, employee autonomy and engagement, random safety inspections, and paid sick leave are some of the practices that management should welcome to develop safe and healthy workplaces.</p>
<p>Another small action that could have wide-ranging benefits is to change the very language of occupational safety. For too long, “workplace accident” has been the term used for any workplace safety incident or injury. </p>
<p>Why is this problematic? By definition, “accident” implies an event that is unpredictable, unplanned and uncontrollable. If that is indeed the case, we should be forgiven for not taking any action. </p>
<p>Yet post-injury and inquest reports tell us that the opposite is true: <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/07/19/many-workplace-accidents-are-preventable-stop-the-killing-and-start-criminal-investigations.html">these incidents are invariably predictable, preventable</a> and controllable. The time has come to change how we think about occupational health and safety.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Barling receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alyssa Grocutt receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>National Day of Mourning should be used to challenge misconceptions about occupational health and safety, and advance safer workplaces for Canadians.Julian Barling, Distinguished Professor and Borden Chair of Leadership, Smith School of Business, Queen's University, OntarioAlyssa Grocutt, PhD Candidate in Organizational Behaviour, researching workplace safety, at Smith School of Business, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1637002021-07-08T12:36:51Z2021-07-08T12:36:51ZKnowing how heat and humidity affect your body can help you stay safe during heat waves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410012/original/file-20210706-25-13zbvfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5593%2C3124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Record-breaking triple-digit heat in Olympia, Wash., on June 28, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PacificNorthwestHeatWave/52ee9fd2284b4ac3ab5a0f441da4a08f/photo">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than a month into North America’s official summer, heat waves are blistering much of the West. California and the Southwest are facing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/07/06/california-west-heat-wave/">excessive heat watches</a> for the second time, after a <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/record-breaking-june-2021-heatwave-impacts-us-west">mid-June heat wave</a> pushed temperatures above 100 F (38 C). </p>
<p>And in late June an intense heat dome settled over the <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/astounding-heat-obliterates-all-time-records-across-pacific-northwest">Pacific Northwest</a> for four days, setting all-time temperature records in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The effects were most evident in Lytton, British Columbia, which reported a temperature of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/27/heat-records-pacific-northwest/">121 F (49.5 C) on June 29</a>, far above its average high for the date of 76 F (24.4 C). A day later, the town was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/01/americas/canada-town-evacuation-extreme-heat/index.html">engulfed by a wildfire</a>.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wqDX7PUAAAAJ&hl=en">exercise physiologist</a>, I know that the human body is an amazing machine. But like all machines, it functions effectively and safely only under certain conditions. </p>
<p>People frequently debate whether wet heat in places like Florida or dry heat in desert locations like Nevada is worse. The answer is that either setting can be dangerous. Hot desert climates are stressful due to extreme temperatures, while humid subtropical climates are stressful because the body has trouble removing heat when sweat doesn’t evaporate readily. As recent events have shown, hot is hot.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1412139233565843456"}"></div></p>
<h2>The influence of humidity</h2>
<p>North America has a wide range of climates, but when people talk about heat, they often compare the Southwest and the Southeast. Some communities in the Southwest’s hot desert climates, such as Las Vegas, have average summer high temperatures over 100 F (38 C), with <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ghcn/comparative-climatic-data">relative humidity</a> typically around 20%. This means the air is holding about one-fifth of the maximum amount of moisture it can hold at that temperature and pressure. </p>
<p>In contrast, Southeast locations like Orlando, Florida, typically have average temperatures around 90 F (32.2 C), with humidity regularly approaching 80%. Looking only at temperature, the desert clearly is hotter on average. </p>
<p>However, it’s also important to consider how heat affects the body. Weather reports often do this using the <a href="https://www.weather.gov/ama/heatindex">heat index</a>, which calculates how the human body perceives conditions factoring in humidity as well as heat. </p>
<p>Sweating is your body’s primary way of cooling you off. When sweat evaporates away from your skin, it <a href="https://www.weather.gov/oun/safety-summer-heathumidity">takes heat with it</a>. But when humidity is high, the air already holds a lot of moisture, so the sweat remains on your skin. As it saturates clothing and drips from the body, it can remove only a small amount of heat compared with the cooling that comes with the evaporation of sweat. </p>
<p>As a result, when we account for humidity, the heat exposures people experience in Las Vegas and Orlando are very similar. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Table showing hazardous heat/humidity combinations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410019/original/file-20210706-17-ozucpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Weather Service’s Heat Index shows the risk of activity based on heat plus humidity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/hsem/weather-awareness-preparedness/Pages/severe-weather-heat.aspx">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Adapting people and places to heat stress</h2>
<p>As people go through their daily lives, their bodies work continuously to maintain a temperature close to a normal level of about 98.6 F (37 C). In regions that regularly experience high heat stress, such as the Southeast and Southwest, most buildings and homes now have air conditioning, which helps people maintain healthy temperatures.</p>
<p>But in areas where heat is unusual, such as the Pacific Northwest, many buildings and residences <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/with-more-heat-waves-expected-in-the-future-seattles-long-term-care-facilities-weigh-the-need-for-air-conditioning/">lack cooling</a>. As a result, people are exposed to higher heat for longer periods of time during events like the region’s late June heat wave than they would be in regions where hot weather is the norm.</p>
<p>Just as buildings and residences in areas chronically exposed to heat are equipped with ceiling fans and air conditioning, bodies that are regularly exposed to heat can <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/2017-124.pdf">acclimatize</a>, or adapt and improve their ability to cool. This starts to occur with the first heat exposure – for example, the beginning of fall sports practices in August – but take weeks of regular exposure to reach maximal levels. </p>
<p>One of the first things our bodies do in adapting to heat is to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sms.12408">produce more plasma</a> – the watery portion of blood. This enables our circulatory systems to move heat to the skin more effectively so that sweating can remove it from the body.</p>
<p>We also begin sweating earlier than people who are not acclimatized to heat, and our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061807">maximal sweat rate increases</a>. These adaptations improve our bodies’ ability to dissipate heat to the environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workplace flyer with tips for acclimatizing to heat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410017/original/file-20210706-23-1ljbuxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Outdoor workers should build up to a full day in the heat to allow their bodies to acclimatize to it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/pdf/NIOSH_HeatStressInfographic_print-508.pdf">CDC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Behavior changes are another way of adapting to heat stress. Since midday is typically the hottest part of the day, it makes sense to avoid physical work and exercise then. When people are active, their bodies break down nutrients – carbohydrates, fats and protein – into energy. This powers movement and also generates metabolic heat, which adds to the body’s heat stress.</p>
<p>Taking advantage of shade is another important strategy. Heat radiating from the Sun adds to the stress produced by warm air temperatures. Staying in the shade can significantly reduce the external heat load on <a href="https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2021/05/07/heat-stress-2021/">people who have to be outdoors during hot spells</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1696">hundreds of deaths and hospitalizations</a> that experts have attributed to the recent heat dome in the Northwest probably reflect that buildings there were less equipped to keep people cool than in hotter regions, and residents were less acclimatized to heat.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q2RQjtucG3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">2020 was Phoenix’s hottest year on record, with 53 days reaching at least 110 F.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The old and young are most vulnerable</h2>
<p>A healthy adult body can acclimatize to heat, but older people and children are less able to adjust. As people age, their cardiovascular systems change in ways that cause them to <a href="https://www.physio-pedia.com/Cardiovascular_Considerations_in_the_Older_Patient">pump blood less effectively</a>. This reduces the body’s ability to move heat to the skin to be transferred to the environment. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1055291">Children</a> and <a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/heat-related-health-dangers-older-adults-soar-during-summer">older adults</a> may also have less active sweat responses, which can reduce their potential to cool off through sweating. </p>
<p>Humans can tolerate most areas of the Earth, but extreme heat requires extra steps. If there’s a heat wave in your local forecast, seek out shade and begin to acclimatize by increasing your activity gradually when things get too hot. Drink more fluids to account for <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256">increased fluid loss from sweat</a>, while also making sure <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256">not to overhydrate</a>. And avoid outdoor activity during the hottest hours of the day if possible. </p>
<p>Whether heat waves are humid or dry, they are health threats that everyone should take seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JohnEric W. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Which is worse, dry heat or wet heat? Both, says an exercise physiologist.JohnEric W. Smith, Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Mississippi State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1594172021-05-05T15:52:47Z2021-05-05T15:52:47ZSurvey shows some bosses are using the pandemic as an excuse to push workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398724/original/file-20210504-15-ybmo2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4200%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers manufacture partitions made from cardboard and chipboard material in Mississauga, Ont., in January 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A middle-aged woman in the public sector says she and her colleagues have been “underappreciated, overworked and mentally stressed out” as they faced pandemic-related challenges and stresses, without any pay increase. </p>
<p>An older worker in the not-for-profit sector says her employer asked her and her colleagues to do more work and expected them to feel grateful to keep their jobs at all, even with the government subsidizing three-quarters of their wages. </p>
<p>These are just two stories we heard as we surveyed hundreds of employed Ontario residents during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>We all know, of course, about the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-unemployment-job-losses-1.5919133">pain of job losses</a>, the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-growing-cohort-of-overwhelmed-parents-unengaged-children-drop/">challenges of home-schooling</a> and the hardship and worry of doing <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/it-breaks-my-heart-essential-workers-in-ontario-plead-for-paid-sick-days-amid-covid-19-wave-1.5404771">essential work on the front lines</a>. But we know less about how work itself has changed and how the pandemic is altering the relationship between workers and employers. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-of-covid-19-has-illuminated-the-urgent-need-for-paid-sick-days-154224">A year of COVID-19 has illuminated the urgent need for paid sick days</a>
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<p>We wanted to look under the hood of the Canadian workplace to study how work has changed and become more stressful. Nearly 500 Canadians working in Ontario shared their thoughts with us <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/workplace-dynamics-covid">through an online survey between August and December 2020</a>. </p>
<h2>Work is harder, more stressful</h2>
<p>We learned that the changes associated with the pandemic are far more complex than simply having to deal with a deadly virus. The overall message is that work has become harder and more stressful. Many workers feel their employers are taking advantage of the pandemic.</p>
<p>More than two-thirds of respondents reported feeling less safe at work and more than three-quarters reported experiencing more stress and anxiety while on the job. Those numbers are even higher among women. Contributing to this rising sense of unease were significant increases in work tasks and work effort. Again, women were more likely to report having to do more because of COVID-19. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Workers at an ice cream shop wear face masks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398721/original/file-20210504-13-199ntlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers at an ice cream shop wear face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Richmond, B.C., in January 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly one in four respondents reported some sort of negative interaction with their employer during COVID-19, ranging from difficulty getting paid to not being allowed to take time off and being bullied. </p>
<p>A recurring view among respondents was that employers were taking advantage of them because of the pandemic.</p>
<p>A male health-care employee reported his employer used the pandemic to override collective agreements and “bully” employees. </p>
<p>A young man in manufacturing suggested employers had unfairly cut hourly rates for skilled labour. “I strongly feel that employers are deliberately using mass unemployment as a veil to decrease already low wages even further,” he said. </p>
<p>A young female construction worker said her employer neglected and even laughed at recommendations for creating a safer work environment. </p>
<p>In other words, it’s not just the deadly virus stressing people out at work. In many cases, it’s how employers are choosing to treat people.</p>
<h2>Unions have protected workers</h2>
<p>Not all workers are having the same experiences during the pandemic. An important factor is whether they are members of unions. Unions have helped preserve jobs and incomes and protected workers from abuse during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Just under 10 per cent of unionized workers we surveyed had experienced weeks without paid employment, compared to more than 26 per cent of non-unionized workers. Non-union workers also tended to have much longer spells without paid employment. </p>
<p>This can partly be explained by the fact that many collective agreements require employers to discuss ways to mitigate job losses before laying people off.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women GM workers carry truck fenders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398723/original/file-20210504-13-1jmlady.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GM workers place vehicle truck fenders on a rack at the General Motors assembly plant during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oshawa, Ont., in March 2021. Unionized workers have fared better during the crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unionized workers’ incomes also remained more stable than those of their non-union counterparts. Nearly 40 per cent of non-union workers reported their monthly incomes fell compared to less than 20 per cent of union workers. </p>
<p>Unions have helped reduce staff turnover during COVID-19, with 89 per cent of unionized respondents continuing to work for the same employer, compared to 72 per cent of non-union workers. Non-union workers were seven times more likely to report their employment had changed because their workplace closed, twice as likely to have changed jobs due to a temporary layoff and five times as likely to have experienced a permanent layoff. </p>
<h2>Changing power dynamics</h2>
<p>The higher rate of departure among non-unionized workers may have something to do with how the pandemic has changed workplace power dynamics. </p>
<p>Some workers told us their employers threatened them with job loss to make them work harder for less money, and even to do things that weren’t safe. One non-union administrator said her supervisor “held employment over our head as a threat and a way to force us to do additional work for them — even tasks that were not work-related. COVID-19 had our boss on a power trip and exploiting workers.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men stand in front of a residential construction site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398718/original/file-20210504-15-l7eyq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many bosses and supervisors are using the pandemic as an excuse to mistreat or push workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/01/16/unions-say-more-workers-looking-to-organize-during-the-pandemic.html">uptick in attempts at unionization in 2020</a>, especially in private services that have been the most resistant to unions, suggests workers believe unions could help protect them from such manipulations. </p>
<p>COVID-19 is changing many aspects of our lives. Our study shows that in the short run, it’s changed workplace dynamics, mostly to the detriment of workers. </p>
<p>The extent to which these changes become permanent will depend in part on the ability of workers to have a meaningful voice in their workplaces — and to influence what happens next.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Ross receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and MITACS.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wayne Lewchuk receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, and new study shows it’s also changed workplace dynamics — mostly to the detriment of workers.Stephanie Ross, Associate Professor and Director, School of Labour Studies, McMaster UniversityWayne Lewchuk, Professor Emeritus School of Labour Studies and Department of Economics, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1525722021-02-26T13:24:41Z2021-02-26T13:24:41ZMeatpacking plants have been deadly COVID-19 hot spots – but policies that encourage workers to show up sick are legal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385950/original/file-20210223-18-w2re0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5400%2C3661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly 1,000 workers at this Smithfield Foods pork-processing plant in South Dakota contracted COVID-19 between mid-March and mid-April 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sign-for-the-smithfield-foods-pork-processing-plant-in-news-photo/1210647867?adppopup=true">Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Working in meatpacking plants has <a href="https://www.osha.gov/meatpacking">always been dangerous</a>. A recent study shows that it became deadlier in the era of COVID-19, even as company profits soared. </p>
<p>This analysis, published in December 2020, estimates that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010115117">6%-8% of all COVID-19 cases and 3%-4% of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.</a> through July 21, 2020 were tied to meat and poultry plants. Workers in these facilities stand close together on processing lines, which makes social distancing difficult.</p>
<p>At the same time, companies like <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/news/news-releases/2020/11/tyson-foods-reports-strong-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2020-results">Tyson</a>, which produces chicken, beef and pork, and <a href="https://www.thepigsite.com/news/2020/11/jbs-posts-higher-than-expected-quarterly-profit-defying-estimates">JBS</a>, which produces beef and pork, are reporting high earnings despite COVID-related challenges such as plant closures. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=C97MdtkAAAAJ&hl=en">law professor</a> and have written about links between lax state and federal <a href="https://worklawcovid19book.netlify.app/meatpacking.html">enforcement of health and safety laws</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010115117">increased</a> rates of <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5956e16e6b8f5b8c45f1c216/t/5f445e5ca7b21825e9add2b3/1598316124697/Chp26_COVIDPolicyPlaybook-Aug2020.pdf">COVID-19</a> infections and deaths. Thanks to punitive attendance rules and Trump administration policies, meat- and poultry-processing workers have been unnecessarily exposed to COVID-19. In my view, the best way to protect them is to reform laws that prioritize production over workers’ health.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ba5StXhy_PY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meat and poultry workers began calling for better protection early in the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sick on the job</h2>
<p>Meat- and poultry-processing companies’ standard attendance policies were <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/10/20/meatpacking-workers-say-attendance-policy-forces-them-to-work-with-potential-covid-19-symptoms/">punitive even before the pandemic</a>. Companies issued points for employees who missed work and fired those who accumulated too many points. These policies are still in place.</p>
<p>Workers at Tyson and JBS plants are required to go to work even if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/10/20/meatpacking-workers-say-attendance-policy-forces-them-to-work-with-potential-covid-19-symptoms/">awaiting test results</a>. The companies excuse absences for COVID-19 only if a worker has tested positive for the virus, or in Tyson’s case, has “<a href="https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/jun/04/pre-virus-attendance-policy-back-at-tys/">documented clinical symptoms</a>.” Tyson and JBS workers have told reporters that costs and wait times make it hard for them to access testing, so they <a href="https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2020/11/03/attendance-policy-forces-sick-employees-work-meatpacking-plants/6147299002/">go to work sick</a>.</p>
<p>That said, both companies have taken steps to control the spread of COVID-19 at their plants. Tyson <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/news/news-releases/2020/12/tyson-foods-goes-offense-against-new-waves-covid-19-safety-measures">hired medical professionals</a>, cleans its plants daily and monitors social distancing. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/02/01/962877199/meatpacking-companies-osha-face-investigation-over-coronavirus-in-plants">JBS</a> now offers unlimited personal protective equipment and tests symptomatic workers and close contacts. However, even with safety protocols, the virus can spread in the workplace if infected employees come to work. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1363546815900090369"}"></div></p>
<h2>Meat and poultry plants as ‘critical infrastructure’</h2>
<p>As COVID-19 spread in the spring of 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-05-01/pdf/2020-09536.pdf">executive order</a> that included language <a href="https://perma.cc/8TAP-ZSRA">provided by meat trade associations</a> designating meat and poultry plants as critical infrastructure under the Defense Production Act. The order directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure that meat and poultry processing facilities stayed open or that they reopened as soon as possible during the pandemic to prevent meat shortages. </p>
<p>In May 2020, COVID-19 infections among meat- and poultry-processing workers more than tripled, and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6927-H.pdf">the number of deaths quadrupled</a>. Still, <a href="https://worklawcovid19book.netlify.app/meatpacking.html">with the USDA’s help</a>, companies invoked the executive order to maintain operations. For example, in Cold Spring, Minnesota, a Pilgrim’s Pride plant that processes chicken stayed open because of Trump’s order even though worker infections spiked from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-hot-spot-minnesota-connected-surge-cases-meatpacking-plant-n1206176">83 on May 8 to 194 on May 11</a>.</p>
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<h2>Profits and lawsuits</h2>
<p>On Nov. 17, 2020, Tyson announced net income of <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2103353545279/tyson-foods-shares-rise-after-earnings-beat-2021-dividend-announced">US$692 million</a> for the fourth quarter of 2020, up from $369 million for the same period in 2019. <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/investing/tyson-foods-tops-q4-earnings-forecast-sees-2021-sales-gains">Tyson stock</a> traded at $1.81 per share, up 49.5% from the same period in 2019. This was a result of increased production. To date, over <a href="https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants">12,500 Tyson workers</a> have been infected with COVID-19. </p>
<p>Tyson currently <a href="https://htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/files/amended-complaint-tyson-1605748137.pdf">faces a lawsuit</a> for a COVID-19 outbreak at a plant in Waterloo, Iowa that has <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/18/lawsuit-tyson-managers-bet-money-on-how-many-workers-would-contract-covid-19/">sickened at least 1,000 workers</a> and killed five. The <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/18/lawsuit-tyson-managers-bet-money-on-how-many-workers-would-contract-covid-19/">wrongful death lawsuit</a> filed by the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/10/06/tyson-foods-sued-over-columbus-junction-workers-covid-19-death-iowa/3636300001/">families of three deceased employees</a> charges that the company required workers – including some who were transferred from facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks – to work long hours in cramped conditions. </p>
<p>For its part, JBS reported <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brazils-jbs-turns-581-2-015514838.html">$581.2 million</a> in net profits in the third quarter of 2020, beating analysts’ forecasts. On Sept. 12, 2020, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $15,615 due to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-greeley-colorado-denver-f46d59db7b8d45898e975510cdd0ae0a">six deaths</a> and 290 COVID-19 infections in its Greeley, Colorado plant. </p>
<p>Commenting on the fine, two former federal regulators noted that the Trump administration could have <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/halting-workplace-covid-19-transmission-urgent-proposal-protect-american-workers/">punished JBS much more severely</a> if it had penalized the company for violations at multiple plants and designated them as willful violations. In <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/11/25/meatpacking-giant-jbs-battles-new-coronavirus-outbreaks-at-greeley-plant-and-corporate-offices/">November 2020</a>, 32 new infections were confirmed at the Greeley plant. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Marty Walsh testifies at his Senate confirmation hearing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386250/original/file-20210224-13-7nhby7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If confirmed as U.S. secretary of labor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh would be the first union member to hold the post in nearly 50 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BidenCabinetLabor/d9cd23a0d72243a88a0bdd4b57f3e92f/photo">Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal reforms</h2>
<p>Critics argue that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/halting-workplace-covid-19-transmission-urgent-proposal-protect-american-workers/">has not adequately enforced</a> workplace health and safety laws during the pandemic. Trump’s executive order <a href="https://worklawcovid19book.netlify.app/meatpacking.html">limited OSHA’s authority to enforce the laws</a> and authorized the Department of Agriculture to keep meat and poultry plants open despite outbreaks. Even with stronger enforcement, however, punitive attendance policies still could increase infection rates by requiring workers to go to work sick.</p>
<p>President Joe Biden issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-protecting-worker-health-and-safety/">executive order</a> on Jan. 21, 2021, directing the Department of Labor to issue stronger guidance on workplace safety during the pandemic. But employers do not have to comply with this guidance, and it does not address punitive attendance policies. </p>
<p>I believe three reforms are needed to fill the gap. First, federal and state agencies could use their legal authority to prohibit punitive attendance policies. Section 5 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 includes a “<a href="https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/oshact/section5-duties">general duty standard</a>” that requires employers to provide employees with a place of employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm. </p>
<p>Although this would be a new use of the “general duty” standard, it would address a recognized hazard that is likely to cause death or serious harm. This is a mandatory requirement that employers already have to comply with and does not require an in-person inspection to enforce.</p>
<p>Second, Biden could withdraw Trump’s executive order classifying meat and poultry plants as critical infrastructure. And the Biden administration could require plants to close down if new outbreaks occur among their workers. </p>
<p>Finally, meat and poultry companies could be required to provide workers with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/7/1/lsaa036/5849058">hazard pay</a>, which should increase if the companies’ net profits rise. As a precedent, <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattles-sudden-hazard-pay-move-shows-how-absent-government-has-been-for-workers-all-along/">Seattle</a>, <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/hazard-pay-for-grocery-workers-is-trending-in-california.aspx">Long Beach, California</a> and Oakland, California all recently adopted hazard pay mandates for grocery workers during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Grocery store chains are challenging the laws, arguing that their profit margins cannot support these payments. But it would be hard for meat and poultry companies to make that argument in light of their recent earnings.</p>
<p>Meatpacking plants emerged as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6927e2.htm">hot spots of infection</a> early in the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Feb. 24, 2021, more than 57,454 meat- and poultry-processing workers had <a href="https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants/">tested positive for COVID-19</a> and 284 had died. In my view, it is time for legal action to protect meat and poultry workers and compensate them fairly for working in hazardous conditions during this pandemic.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to note that the estimates cited for COVID-19 illnesses and deaths at meat and poultry plants as a fraction of all U.S. COVID-19 illnesses and deaths covered the period up through July 21, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruqaiijah Yearby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thousands of workers at meat- and poultry-processing plants have contracted COVID-19, and hundreds have died. A legal scholar recommends ways to make their jobs safer.Ruqaiijah Yearby, Professor of Law, Saint Louis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1388462020-05-20T12:28:10Z2020-05-20T12:28:10ZWhy easing the lockdown threatens to put workers in South Africa at risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336330/original/file-20200520-152302-1qrak6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers with face masks seen at The Hat Factory in Cape Town, South Africa. But most employers don't abide by health and safety regulations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nardus Engelbrecht/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In South Africa demands from <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/economy/2020-05-18-business-calls-for-quick-move-to-level-2-as-a-matter-of-urgency/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Business+calls+for+quick+move+to+level+2+as+a+matter+of+urgency+%7C+Gordhan%E2%80%99s+SAA+truce+on+the+rocks+as+business+rescuers+want+to+wind+down+%7C+MARK+CUTIFANI&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesslive.co.za%2Fbd%2Feconomy%2F2020-05-18-business-calls-for-quick-move-to-level-2-as-a-matter-of-urgency%2F">business</a> and <a href="https://citizen.co.za/business/2283301/cosatu-calls-for-ramaphosa-to-get-sa-to-level-3-asap-amid-sas-economic-firestorm/">trade unions</a> to relax restrictions on the economy are growing. This comes even after President Cyril Ramaphosa said that most of the country may move to <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/move-to-level-3-may-happen-before-end-of-may-says-ramaphosa-47931525">lower level restrictions</a> before the end of May. Gauteng, the powerhouse of the economy, is likely to follow in <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2020/05/19/makhura-gauteng-set-for-move-to-level-3-lockdown">June</a>.</p>
<p>For those unable to work from home, being able to return to work is likely to come as a welcome relief. People unable to work because of lockdown restrictions are overwhelming concentrated in <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2020-04-22-this-is-who-is-most-at-risk-of-losing-a-job-due-to-covid-19-lockdown/">low-paid jobs</a>. This includes jobs like domestic work and non-essential manufacturing. </p>
<p>But steps need to be taken before these workers can return.</p>
<p>The country’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202004/43257gon479.pdf">occupational health and safety directive</a> sets out what’s expected before a workplace can reopen. It must undertake a risk assessment and develop a written plan for how it will operate under the necessary health and safety restrictions. These measures must include appointing a COVID-19 compliance officer, ensuring social distancing in the workplace, screening and testing in workplaces with more than 500 workers. In addition, sanitisers, masks and other protective equipment must be provided. </p>
<p>Workplaces with over 500 workers must submit these plans to the Department of Employment and Labour and to their internal health and safety committee. </p>
<p>There are at least <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/department-of-employment-and-labour-pays-out-covid-19-benefits-to-workers-(2)">1.8 million employers</a> in South Africa. It would be impossible for the department to inspect every workplace to ensure its compliance with the occupational health and safety directive. </p>
<p>This system, therefore, relies on voluntary compliance by employers. But, sadly, high levels of noncompliance with basic labour laws are a common feature of the South African labour relations landscape. This is not peculiar to the conditions of lockdown but is indicative of a wider culture of noncompliance among employers in the country. </p>
<h2>Culture of noncompliance and a lack of enforcement</h2>
<p>Data from the labour department’s inspectorate shows that just over a third of the employers it has inspected since the beginning of the lockdown <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-05-12-covid-19-workplace-compliance-is-only-60-says-labour-department/">have not been compliant</a> with occupational health and safety measures designed to protect workers. </p>
<p>Commenting on the high levels of noncompliance, the <a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/compliance-still-a-challenge-to-many-organisations-department-of-employment-and-labour">inspector general, Aggy Moiloa, said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are shocked that many organisations are still struggling to comply with the OHS Act. It should be every organisation’s habit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But a quick look at the data for previous years shows that this level of noncompliance is normal and should not have come as a surprise.</p>
<p>Last year, the department <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/29338/">reported</a> to the employment and labour parliamentary portfolio committee that, on average, over a third (37%) of the employers inspected had not been compliant with the occupational health and safety act. Similar levels of noncompliance with basic labour law are also seen in the high percentage of employers that have <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaps-in-south-africas-relief-scheme-leave-some-workers-with-no-income-136403">failed to register their workers for the Unemployment Insurance Fund</a>. </p>
<p>But the rate of noncompliance that the department has reported is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg as only a fraction of the inspectorate has been used under the lockdown. </p>
<p>As of November 2019, the department employed just under <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/29338/">1,800 inspectors</a>. But the minister has stated that only <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/billions-already-paid-out-to-distressed-sa-employees-says-labour-department-47496132">170</a>, less than 10% of the inspectorate’s capacity, have been used for occupational health and safety inspections during lockdown. This may be because, ordinarily, inspectors have different competencies and not all inspectors may be trained in carrying out occupational health and safety inspections. </p>
<p><a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/30126/">On 1 May 2020</a>, the inspector general told the employment and labour parliamentary portfolio committee that a further 500 inspectors would be employed within a week. Even with an additional 500 inspectors, this would still only represent a third of the inspectorate’s total capacity.</p>
<p>Even if more inspectors are employed there is a need to increase the number of inspections carried out by each inspector. During the first 30 days of lockdown 2,226 inspections were conducted. This averages out to each inspector conducting 13 inspections over 30 days, about one inspection every two days. This rate of inspection seems particularly slow given that much of the economy was shut during this period. </p>
<p>Throughout this crisis, the labour department has called on employers to show “<a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/update-on-employment-and-labour-issues-arising-from-the-lockdowns">social solidarity</a>” and to do the right thing by their workers. But this seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The labour minister has had to<a href="http://www.labour.gov.za/minister-thulas-nxesi-guns-for-employers-who-are-not-passing-on-covid-relief-benefits-to-workers"> plead with employers</a> to pay money to workers that they should have received from the Unemployment Insurance Fund COVID-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme. Indeed, the fact that employers seem unable to do the right thing by their employees has led the department to open up the scheme <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/workers-can-claim-from-uif-2020-5">to allow workers to apply directly</a> without having to wait for their employer to apply. </p>
<p>The department’s own inspections demonstrate that a significant section of employers are not voluntarily ensuring adequate health and safety precautions in the workplace. </p>
<p>The inspector general has said that its inspections are driven by reports from employees who must be the “<a href="https://omny.fm/shows/power-update/department-of-labour-says-only-60-of-companies-are">first line of defence</a>”. But, under the current conditions of economic uncertainty and <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/397423/new-retrenchment-data-shows-the-start-of-south-africas-jobs-bloodbath/">retrenchments</a> looming, many workers will be too fearful of losing their jobs to report their employers. </p>
<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>The Department of Employment and Labour needs to take a stronger and proactive role in ensuring compliance through strong enforcement. It needs to use the full extent of the inspectorate’s capacity to ensure compliance with the necessary health and safety measures is enforced. Without this, any further reopening of the economy will put workers’ lives in jeopardy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carin Runciman receives funding from the National Research Foundation. She is a management committee member of the Casual Workers Advice Office. </span></em></p>Compliance with occupational health and safety requirements is already poor and few inspections of workplaces are being done.Carin Runciman, Associate professor, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1373672020-05-06T12:22:16Z2020-05-06T12:22:16ZTo understand the danger of COVID-19 outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry’s history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332828/original/file-20200505-83751-u4g5sv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1035%2C691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers in a pork processing plant, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Figure_7-_Workers_in_a_Hog_Slaughter_and_Processing_Plant_Use_Hooks_and_Other_Tools_(27007559560).jpg">USGAO/Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large meatpacking plants have become <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/5/1/21239396/covid-19-meatpacking-prison-jail-moral">hotspots for coronavirus infection</a>, along with jails and nursing homes. As of May 1, nearly <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6918e3.htm?s_cid=mm6918e3_x">5,000 packing plant workers in 19 states</a> had fallen ill, and 20 had died. </p>
<p>Packing plants from Washington state to Iowa to Georgia have <a href="https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/22993-covid-19-meat-plant-map">temporarily suspended operations</a>, although President Trump has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-delegating-authority-dpa-respect-food-supply-chain-resources-national-emergency-caused-outbreak-covid-19/">invoked the Defense Production Act</a> in an effort to quickly restart these facilities.</p>
<p>As Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds put it in a press conference, virus outbreaks in packing plants are “<a href="https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/gov-reynolds-says-meatpacking-plants-will-stay-open-even-as-hundreds-of-workers-infected">very difficult to contain</a>.” But what makes these plants so dangerous? As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=W7VMrUkAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist</a> who has studied <a href="https://www.academia.edu/15364925/From_Collective_Bargaining_to_Social_Justice_Certification_Workers_Rights_in_the_American_Meatpacking_Industry">food system labor issues</a>, I see two answers. </p>
<p>First, working conditions experienced in meatpacking plants, which are shaped by the pressures of efficient production, contribute to the spread of COVID-19. Second, this industry has evolved since the mid-20th century in ways that make it hard for workers to advocate for safe conditions even in good times, let alone during a pandemic.</p>
<p>Together, these factors help to explain why U.S. meatpacking plants are so dangerous now – and why this problem will be difficult to solve.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cZOT9YOtl0U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Employees at large meatpacking plants say they don’t feel safe from COVID-19.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A hard job in good times</h2>
<p>The meatpacking industry is an important job source for thousands of people. In 2019 it employed nearly 200,000 people in <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2019/may/naics4_311600.htm">direct meat processing jobs</a> at wages averaging US$14.13 per hour or $29,400 yearly.</p>
<p>Even in normal conditions, meatpacking plants are <a href="https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/meatpacking/">risky places to work</a>. The job requires using knives, saws and other cutting tools, as well as operating industrial meat grinders and other heavy machinery. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10599240801985373">Traumatic injuries</a> due to workplace accidents are common, and mistakes can have <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/08/exploitation-and-abuse-at-the-chicken-plant">gruesome consequences</a>. Government researchers have also documented <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-03-27-14_b.html">chronic injuries</a>, such as repetitive motion strains, among packing plant workers. </p>
<p>The same conditions that lead to these accidents and injuries during normal times also contribute to the spread of coronavirus. To understand this connection, it is first important to know that meatpacking is a volume industry. The higher a plant’s daily throughput – that is, the more animals it turns into meat – the more lucrative it is.</p>
<p>For instance, one Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which shut down indefinitely in April after <a href="https://www.dglobe.com/newsmd/coronavirus/5382800-Sioux-Falls-pork-plant-COVID-19-cases-near-900-as-officials-prep-re-opening">hundreds of workers</a> tested positive for COVID-19, employed 3,700 people and produced <a href="https://www.smithfieldfoods.com/press-room/company-news/smithfield-foods-to-close-sioux-falls-sd-plant-indefinitely-amid-covid-19">18 million servings of pork daily</a>.</p>
<p>To maximize efficiency, production takes place on an assembly line – or more accurately, a disassembly line. Workers stand close together and perform simple, repetitive tasks on animal parts as the parts stream by. </p>
<p>Production lines move quickly, with industry averages ranging from <a href="https://thecounter.org/usda-final-approval-faster-hog-line-speeds-pork-processing/">1,000 animals per hour in pork processing</a> to over <a href="https://thecounter.org/usda-approves-poultry-slaughterhouse-increase-line-speed-food-safety/">8,000 per hour in chicken plants</a>. In October 2019 the Trump administration <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/72fa69e6-5e16-4347-83b4-4e3361317272/2016-0017+.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&useDefaultText=0&useDefaultDesc=0">eliminated limits on production line speed</a> in pork processing plants, and it has also <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/04/24/usda-let-poultry-plants-move-faster-crowd-lines-covid-coronavirus-spread-meat-packing-workers/3013615001/">waived limits for individual chicken processing plants</a>.</p>
<p>The speed and organization of meatpacking both promote the spread of coronavirus. Employees labor alongside one another, working at a rate that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to practice protective behaviors such as covering sneezes and coughs. </p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/organizations/meat-poultry-processing-workers-employers.html">guidelines</a> to allow meatpacking workers to continue working during the pandemic. They include spacing workers at least six feet apart and installing barriers between them. Some plants have <a href="https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/23006-shielding-line-workers-during-a-pandemic">adopted these controls</a>, but the pressures of rapid production may well limit their effectiveness. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332819/original/file-20200505-83730-15dv0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meat processing stations at the JBS Beef Plant in Greeley, Colo., equipped with new sheet-metal partitions, April 23, 2020. As of early May 2020 the plant had recorded more than 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6 employee deaths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/meat-processing-stations-at-the-jbs-greeley-beef-plant-news-photo/1220671197?adppopup=true">Andy Cross via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unionizing the industry</h2>
<p>Understanding why meatpacking workers tolerate these difficult and dangerous conditions requires a look at the industry’s history. </p>
<p>Many people assume that jobs in packing plants have always been as difficult and dangerous as those depicted in journalist Upton Sinclair’s famed 1906 novel “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/140/140-h/140-h.htm">The Jungle</a>.” That book described meatpacking workers in early 20th-century Chicago facing <a href="https://talkpoverty.org/2019/01/10/sinclair-jungle-immigrant-narrative/">similar conditions to those in the modern industry</a>.</p>
<p>But this assumption conceals an important story. For several decades after World War II, conditions in meatpacking plants steadily improved as a result of pressure from workers themselves. </p>
<p>Starting in 1943, the United Packinghouse Workers of America, a labor union, <a href="http://www.ufcw.org/about/ufcw-history/">organized meatpacking employees in major cities</a>. At the height of its influence, this union secured “<a href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/bls/bls_1063_1952.pdf">master agreements</a>” with the largest firms, such as Armour and Swift, ensuring standard wages and working conditions across the industry.</p>
<p>One source of the UPWA’s influence was its ability to build <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1093/ohr/26.1.23">interracial alliances</a>. Racial antagonism between black and white workers, linked to job discrimination and the use of black workers to break strikes in the early 20th century, had historically undermined union efforts in meatpacking plants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332835/original/file-20200505-83779-1pabj9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UPWA District Area 5 Members Parade float, circa 1960, Chicago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.chipublib.org/blogs/post/labor-of-love-revs-addie-and-claude-wyatt-photographs/">Source: Chicago Public Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRP5mNYn1fucFAR86LZAobFtvUzWm6ykOPeqZ-kdod_d-rgjBRa&usqp=CAU">union’s logo</a>, which depicted clasped black and white hands, symbolized its ability to bridge these differences. Its <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/united-packinghouse-workers-america-upwa">support for the civil rights movement</a> in the 1960s also revealed its commitment to racial equality.</p>
<h2>A changing labor force</h2>
<p>But by the 1970s, the union was in decline. A key factor was industry leaders’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1526/003601107782638701">decision to shift production</a> from cities with a strong union tradition, like Chicago and Kansas City, to small towns scattered across the Great Plains and the southeastern United States. </p>
<p>Rural work forces are more difficult to organize than their urban counterparts for many reasons. Most small towns do not have a history of union activity, and anti-union sentiment is often strong – as shown by the prevalence of <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-laws-and-bills.aspx#chart">right-to-work laws</a> in many rural states. </p>
<p>Moreover, packing plants are often small towns’ only major employers. Workers and municipal authorities alike <a href="https://www.thehawkeye.com/news/20200427/if-we-lost-tyson-we-lost-everything">depend on plants</a> for jobs and tax revenue. This relationship creates enormous pressure to treat meat processing companies with deference.</p>
<p>Additionally, meatpacking <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=41120">consolidated</a> in the late 20th century. Plants grew larger, and a relative handful of firms such as <a href="https://www.cargill.com/meat-poultry/beef-business">Cargill</a> and <a href="https://www.tysonsustainability.com/food">Tyson</a> came to dominate processing of <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/43.5/cattlemen-struggle-against-giant-meatpackers-and-economic-squeezes">beef</a>, <a href="https://www.wattagnet.com/articles/26925-top-5-broiler-producers-dominate-us-production">poultry</a> and other meats. Consolidation gives these firms greater ability to control working conditions and wages.</p>
<p>Finally, today’s plants often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2005.00079.x">recruit workers from Mexico and Central America</a>, some of whom may lack legal authorization to work in the U.S. They also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00694-9">hire refugees</a> who may be unfamiliar with U.S. labor protections and have few other employment possibilities.</p>
<p>These workers’ precarious legal and economic standing makes it hard for them to challenge employers. Cultural differences, language gaps and racial prejudice can also pose obstacles to collective action.</p>
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<h2>The challenge of coronavirus</h2>
<p>Workers’ organizations have not disappeared. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has <a href="http://www.ufcw.org/2020/04/28/order/">called on the Trump administration</a> to ensure safety during the pandemic, but it is fighting an uphill battle.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-taking-action-ensure-safety-nations-food-supply-chain/">President Trump’s reassurances</a> that closed plants will reopen safely, I expect that the pressures of efficiency and limits on workers’ ability to advocate for themselves will cause infections to persist. </p>
<p>In meatpacking as in other industries, the pandemic has revealed how people who do “essential” work for Americans can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-call-workers-essential-but-is-that-just-referring-to-the-work-not-the-people-137460">treated as if they are expendable</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/??utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Haedicke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred at more than 100 US meatpacking plants. Geography, workforce demographics and economic concentration make it hard for workers to fight for better conditions.Michael Haedicke, Associate Professor of Sociology, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1349762020-04-27T12:09:14Z2020-04-27T12:09:14ZA global mask shortage may leave farmers and farm workers exposed to toxic pesticides<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330437/original/file-20200424-163088-sivov4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5092%2C3290&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Applying insecticide to a cotton field in Colfax, La.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/colfax-louisiana-cotton-fields-rows-of-cotton-farming-with-news-photo/629539249?adppopup=true">Education Images/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, vital N95 masks and other personal protective equipment have been hard to come by, even for those who need them most.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization estimates that the crisis has driven demand for this equipment, known as PPE, <a href="https://apnews.com/6d9382c1e8ee36f9ed1a4dfe7815ceb1">100 times higher than normal</a>. Even with dramatic increases in production, manufacturers have said they’ll likely be <a href="https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/worker-health-safety-us/covid19/">unable to meet demand</a> for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>And the WHO has warned that the severe shortage is <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/03-03-2020-shortage-of-personal-protective-equipment-endangering-health-workers-worldwide">putting the lives of health care workers at risk</a>. </p>
<p>But it’s not just health care workers and other care providers who need PPE – especially those N95 masks, technically known as respirators. These devices are also vital to the safety of workers in a host of other industries, from building trades to agriculture. </p>
<p>As an entomologist who studies and teaches about <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x3MmknQAAAAJ&hl=en">pesticide risk reduction</a>, I am particularly concerned about what the shortage may mean for farmworkers, whom the Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-infrastructure-workforce">classifies as essential workers</a> – people who remain on the job even where others have been told to stay home.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Safe use of pesticides and agricultural chemicals requires knowing how to use, handle and store them, minimize exposure and handle accidents.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Pesticides used in US agriculture can impact respiratory health</h2>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of farmworkers in the United States <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/aginjury/fss/pdfs/FS-18-508.pdf">routinely encounter pesticides on the job</a> And some of the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. pose <a href="https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5d88c231e4b0c4f70d0ab2c6">serious health risks</a>, ranging from causing occupational asthma and respiratory irritation to death.</p>
<p>Epidemiological studies, including a long-term study of over 80,000 licensed pesticides applicators conducted by the National Institutes of Health, have found <a href="https://aghealth.nih.gov/about/index.html">links between pesticides and respiratory problems</a>, ranging from acute symptoms such as dry throat, difficulty breathing, chest pain, coughing and wheezing to chronic conditions like decreased lung function, occupational asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. </p>
<p>Another study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that farmworkers had <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2007-106/pdfs/2007-106.pdf">significantly elevated mortality</a> for a number of respiratory conditions, including hypersensitivity pneumonitis (also known as “farmer’s lung”), asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia.</p>
<p>Masks can be vital to minimizing the risk. The current shortage of masks comes on top of other risks related to the current health emergency. For example, farm workers often have preexisting conditions, such as those affecting respiratory health, that are <a href="https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/migrant-and-seasonal-farmworkers-health-insurance-coverage-and-access-to-care-report.pdf">risk factors for coronavirus</a>. Many live and work in crowded conditions, and have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-coronavirus-threatens-the-seasonal-farmworkers-at-the-heart-of-the-american-food-supply-135252">difficulty accessing medical care</a>.</p>
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<h2>Masks protect farm workers too</h2>
<p>Many farmers and farm workers, especially those who work with pesticides, carry N95 masks. These devices are made of non-woven polypropylene fiber and meet strict government standards for filtering out particles and droplets as small as <a href="https://www.honeywell.com/en-us/newsroom/news/2020/03/n95-masks-explained">0.3 microns, or three one-thousandths of a millimeter</a>. These are often part of a broader PPE kit that can include respiratory protection, gloves, headgear and body, foot and eye protection. </p>
<p>Under U.S. law, employers <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=586a6ff505fc7d153792f0a56635f0d3&mc=true&node=pt40.26.170&rgn=div5#se40.26.170_1240">must provide appropriate PPE</a> to workers who handle pesticides. The kind of protective equipment needed is determined by a pesticide product’s level of toxicity for five types of acute exposure – oral, dermal, inhalation, eye irritation and skin irritation – as well as whether it is a gas, solid or liquid, and whether the work is being done outdoors or in an enclosed space.</p>
<p>Anyone who handles or assists with the application of pesticides is required to use filtering masks as good as N95s or better when they work with products which are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-02/documents/chap-10-feb-2016.pdf">lethal or toxic if inhaled</a>, or if risk assessments identify other issues that need to be addressed. </p>
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<h2>Reducing risks by managing pests differently</h2>
<p>As the U.S. growing season gets underway, early reports indicate that most farmers <a href="https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/farms-could-see-shortage-of-protective-gear-amid-covid-19-needs">have the PPE they need for now.</a> But each N95 mask <a href="https://covid19.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/PPE-Guidance-Final-English-Revised.pdf?fwd=no">should only be used for eight hours before being discarded</a>, so with a shortage of masks that is unlikely to abate soon, farmworkers are likely to be caught short. So far, local agricultural agencies have only provided <a href="https://covid19.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/04/personal-protective-equipment-ppe-guidance-for-farms/">limited guidance</a> on how to address the shortage.</p>
<p>So what should farmers and farm workers do? Specific actions will depend on the crop and the pesticide product, but here are some general recommendations.</p>
<p>First, when labels require the use of masks, farmers and farm workers should not work without them. This is unsafe and often illegal. Some hazardous pesticides are only allowed in the market because it is assumed that the use of PPE will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.104527">considerably limit exposure</a>.</p>
<p>Nor should pesticide handlers use improvised masks. Bandannas and other kinds of ordinary cloth worn over the nose and mouth do not filter out harmful pesticide particles and droplets, and can even act as reservoirs for pesticide residues.</p>
<p>Instead, I believe farmers should consider reducing risks through adjusting their pest management practices. This is already a recommended best practice: The International Labour Organization’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/safety-and-health-at-work/normative-instruments/code-of-practice/WCMS_160706/lang--en/index.htm">Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Agriculture</a> states that the first line of defense against health effects caused by pesticides should be eliminating or reducing exposure to the hazard, and that PPE should only be used as a last resort. </p>
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<p>The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration also advises that respiratory hazards should be addressed through a “<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirators-strategy/index.html">hierarchy of controls</a>.” </p>
<p>These reductions can be achieved in a number of ways. They include <a href="https://ipminstitute.org/what-is-integrated-pest-management/">integrated pest management</a>, an approach that finely tunes pesticide application and emphasizes least-risk options; engineering controls that limit contact with pesticides; and replacing highly hazardous pesticides with less hazardous control measures. </p>
<p>Potential substitutes that are generally considered to be <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/what-are-biopesticides">lower-risk pest management options</a> include microbials (pesticides with a microorganism as the active ingredient), pheromones and beneficial insects. Used together with good crop management, these products can help keep pest levels under control and reduce the need for other pesticides. </p>
<p>But even some of these options pose risks that require use of masks. For instance, repeated exposure to the proteins in some popular microbials can cause allergic sensitization and even lung inflammation. </p>
<h2>An opportunity in a crisis</h2>
<p>Millions of workers in many fields depend on N95 masks and other PPE for safety and health, including farmers and farm workers who have the vital role of feeding the world. Ramping up PPE production may help alleviate the current shortage, but I believe researchers and governments should also try to identify and promote suitable alternatives to pesticides that require such PPE in the first place.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Melanie Bateman is employed by CABI,an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization that receives funding from governments, foundations and the private sector to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. </span></em></p>One way that farms can handle shortages of protective gear for workers is by switching to less-toxic pest control methods.Melanie Bateman, Lecturer in Integrated Crop Management, University of NeuchâtelLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1292092020-03-06T13:02:13Z2020-03-06T13:02:13ZWhy having fewer OSHA inspectors matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313790/original/file-20200205-149789-1rzatcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some U.S. workplaces can be dangerous.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/danger-hard-hat-area-safety-warning-77002051">Olivier Le Queinec/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318441/original/file-20200303-66056-1574rez.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In many industries, such as construction, transportation, warehousing and health care, the workplace is dangerous. In 2018 alone, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.toc.htm">5,250 workers died on the job</a>.</p>
<p>In an effort to protect workers from death or injury, Congress created the <a href="https://www.osha.gov">Occupational Safety and Health Administration</a> – better known as OSHA – in 1970, to “assur[e] so far as possible <a href="https://www.oshatrain.org/courses/mods/744m1.html">every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions</a>.”</p>
<p>OSHA inspections successfully improve workers’ physical safety. A 2012 randomized study found that OSHA inspections reduced the number of injuries leading to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215191">workers’ compensation claims by around 9%</a> and lowered the medical expenses and wage replacement paid from those claims by 26%.</p>
<p>But the number of federal OSHA inspectors fell to a <a href="https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/DOTJ2019nb.pdf">low of 875 in 2019</a>, compared to a high of 1,469 in 1980.</p>
<p>The drop in inspectors coincided with an expansion of workplaces to protect, from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/bdm/us_age_naics_00_table5.txt">4.5 million in 1980 to more than 8.1 million today</a>. That means that there were 3,063 workplaces for each OSHA inspector in 1980, compared to 9,286 today, more than a 200% increase.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022185618765551">Effective enforcement</a> requires a workplace focus to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2555847?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">increase compliance with safety and health standards</a> and change practices that can lead to fatalities and serious injuries. </p>
<p>Overburdening inspectors reduces OSHA’s ability to find and remediate workplace safety violations, like inadequate protections against slips and falls, a major cause of workplace injuries and fatalities.</p>
<p>It also reduces the incentives created by deterrence. When businesses know they’re not likely to be inspected, they are less likely to devote resources to create safe workplaces.</p>
<p>Reducing the number of OSHA inspectors puts more workers in danger of physical harm on the job.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Weil received past funding from the US Department of Labor for studies of enforcement and compliance of federal workplace laws. </span></em></p>A reduction in OSHA inspectors may lead to a reduction in workplace safety.David Weil, Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/960322018-05-22T15:34:16Z2018-05-22T15:34:16ZHow situation awareness could save your life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219944/original/file-20180522-51115-1da49dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>In December 1972, three days before New Year, <a href="http://www.flamingomag.com/2018/02/26/flight-401/">Eastern Airlines flight 401</a> from New York crashed on approach to Miami when the pilot and crew, all focusing on a malfunctioning landing light, failed to register the plane was losing altitude. In 2007 a <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/driver-error-led-to-kerang-rail-crash/2008/02/15/1202760647789.html">truck and train collided</a> on a rail crossing in Kerang, Australia, when the truck driver failed to notice the approaching train. In 2010 the crew of BP’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html">Deepwater Horizon</a> drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico seemed unaware of the scale of the problem until the rig exploded. </p>
<p>Although each case is unique, the same phrases appear: “Failed to notice”, “unaware of”, “lack of awareness”. These all point to a lapse in “<a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/lwit/assets/downloads/situational-awareness.pdf">situation awareness</a>” – an important factor in the run up to each incident. But what exactly is situation awareness, what can lead to a lapse and how can you improve and develop your own sense of it?</p>
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<h2>A mental picture</h2>
<p>Psychologist Mica Endsley <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1518/001872095779049543">developed a model</a> of situation awareness with three main aspects: perception, comprehension and anticipation. In essence, situation awareness is your mental picture of what is going on around you. It involves picking up information and cues from the environment, putting those pieces of information together so you can develop a good idea of what is going on, and then using it to predict what might happen next. </p>
<p>In the US, examination of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7103/0b926c70f0a05a76ddd56a6ae959333c407b.pdf">aviation accidents</a> indicates that about 80% are linked to human error. These can be caused by a variety of reasons, including complex working environments, illness and lapses in situation awareness caused by spatial disorientation or failure to read a situation correctly, for example.</p>
<p>Situation awareness is important no matter what your job or role is; everyone from astronauts to farmers need to be vigilant to remain safe at work. Situation awareness is also vital in emergencies, as was recently <a href="http://nbc24.com/news/local/oregon-police-talk-taking-the-defense-in-active-shooter-situation">highlighted</a> by the Oregon, Ohio, police department, following the Nashville waffle house shooting in April 2018 that left four people dead. They now advise that if faced with a gunman, it’s important to know your surroundings, spot places to hide and identify objects you could use to defend yourself.</p>
<h2>Attention!</h2>
<p>Most of us feel that if we are alert and observant, we will see everything there is to see, but this is not always the case. “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/p281059">Inattentional blindness</a>” is when we don’t spot something that is in plain sight, especially if we are focusing on a particular task. This is more of a problem for novices than experts; our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753514003294">research with farmers</a> suggests that situation awareness improves with experience, because increased <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810006000031">familiarity with a task</a> can lead to a broader focus of attention. </p>
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<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-04760-001">Being distracted</a> can also interfere with reading a situation, particularly if the distraction is something that makes us anxious or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847811000301">upset</a>. It’s why the Federal Aviation Authority enacted the “<a href="https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/publications/directline/dl4_sterile.htm">sterile cockpit rule</a>” which prohibits non-essential activities (such as chatting) when flying at less than 10,000 feet.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753512001646">Research</a> indicates that situation awareness can be compromised when a person is tired. Government safety campaigns such as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/think-fatigue">Tiredness Kills</a> have particularly targeted driver fatigue, urging motorists to take a break if feeling sleepy.</p>
<p>Situation awareness can be also affected by a sudden shocking event, such as an explosion, which can prompt a “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10508414.2015.1128293?needAccess=true">startle response</a>”. This produces an automatic <a href="http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA199827">fear reaction</a>, which although generally short-lived (30 seconds or less) can throw people into confusion and lead to poor decision-making with disastrous consequences. </p>
<h2>Design problems</h2>
<p>New technology can help or hinder our awareness, with <a href="http://www.aerohabitat.eu/uploads/media/Automation_and_Situation_Awareness_-_Endsley.pdf">research</a> suggesting that automation can sometimes compromise our understanding problems. As the human worker becomes more removed from their task, they become an observer rather than an active part of the process. This is an “<a href="http://www.aerohabitat.eu/uploads/media/Automation_and_Situation_Awareness_-_Endsley.pdf">out of the loop</a>” problem, where operators don’t always realise there is an issue until its too late. Similarly, routine or monotonous automated tasks where users become <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018720815609503">bored</a> increases the risk of reduced awareness because people are operating on “autopilot”. </p>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/154193128803200221">Poor workplace design</a> can compromise awareness. If a visual display is confusing or information heavy, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of what is going on. Endsley calls this the “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mica_Endsley/publication/238653506_Designing_for_situation_awareness_in_complex_system/links/542b1ada0cf29bbc126a7f35.pdf">information gap</a>”; essentially we are faced with huge amounts of data in a variety of formats, making it difficult to spot the piece of information we need. A focused display is more useful than a display which attempts to share everything with the user. </p>
<p>Organisations need to consider how best to support situation awareness through job and workplace design – things like making sure alarms are obvious, managing workload, reducing monotony, safety training and ensuring that workers have the information they need, when they need it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MSZ_so_4c7U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>How to enhance situation awareness</h2>
<p>Here are four simple but effective ways to develop the skill:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Practise: training can improve routine performance and help you maintain awareness in an emergency.</p></li>
<li><p>Minimise distractions: think “sterile cockpit” – nothing must divert your attention.</p></li>
<li><p>Watch out for fatigue: know the symptoms of tiredness and take a break when you need one.</p></li>
<li><p>Be active: look for new information, monitor your environment so you can spot problems and react accordingly.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Next time you feel yourself losing awareness of a situation, whether it’s driving a car, riding a bike or operating machinery, think about these four points. Staying sharp, alert and focused could one day save your life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Irwin received funding from the ESRC for a PhD studentship (student: Oliver Hamlet) which will investigate non-technical skills in helicopter flight.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Hamlet receives funding from the ESRC and a UK based helicopter operator for a 3 year PhD exploring the non-technical skills utilised by helicopter pilots. </span></em></p>For a full picture of any given situation, we must be able to read it, understand it and anticipate what could happen next.Dr Amy Irwin, Lecturer in Psychology, University of AberdeenOliver Hamlet, Human Factors PhD Student, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/895702018-01-05T18:14:51Z2018-01-05T18:14:51ZTrump’s offshore oil drilling plans ignore the lessons of BP Deepwater Horizon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200879/original/file-20180105-26172-1fxdpjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Skimming oil in the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon spill, May 29, 2010.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/kk1mGi">NOAA </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump Administration is proposing to <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-27309.pdf">ease regulations</a> that were adopted to make offshore oil and gas drilling operations safer after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. This event was the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Eleven workers died in the explosion and sinking of the oil rig, and more than 4 million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists have estimated that the spill caused <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6335/253">more than US$17 billion in damages</a> to natural resources.</p>
<p>I served on the bipartisan <a href="https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20121210172821/http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/">National Commission</a> that investigated the causes of this epic blowout. We spent six months assessing what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon and the effectiveness of the spill response, conducting our own investigations and hearing testimony from dozens of expert witnesses.</p>
<p>Our panel concluded that the immediate cause of the blowout was a series of identifiable mistakes by BP, the company drilling the well; Halliburton, which cemented the well; and Transocean, the drill ship operator. We <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf">wrote</a> that these mistakes revealed “such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry.” The root causes for these mistakes included regulatory failures.</p>
<p>Now, however, the Trump administration wants to <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/newsroom/latest-news/statements-and-releases/press-releases/bsee-proposes-revisions-to-production">increase domestic production by “reducing the regulatory burden on industry</a>.” In my view, such a shift will put workers and the environment at risk, and ignores the painful lessons of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The administration has just proposed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/climate/trump-offshore-drilling.html?_r=0">opening virtually all U.S. waters to offshore drilling</a>, which makes it all the more urgent to assess whether it is prepared to regulate this industry effectively.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201003/original/file-20180105-26163-h1jn1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oil spill commissioners Dr. Donald Boesch, center, and Frances Ulmer, former Alaska lieutenant governor, on left, visit the Louisiana Gulf Coast in 2010 to see impacts of the BP spill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Donald Boesch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Separating regulation and promotion</h2>
<p>During our commission’s review of the BP spill, I visited the Gulf office of the <a href="https://www.boem.gov/OCS-Lands-Act-History/">Minerals Management Service</a> in September 2010. This Interior Department agency was responsible for “expeditious and orderly development of offshore resources,” including protection of human safety and the environment. </p>
<p>The most prominent feature in the windowless conference room was a large chart that showed revenue growth from oil and gas leasing and production in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a point of pride for MMS officials that their agency was the nation’s second-largest generator of revenue, exceeded only by the Internal Revenue Service. </p>
<p>We ultimately concluded that an inherent conflict existed within MMS between pressures to increase production and maximize revenues on one hand, and the agency’s safety and environmental protection functions on the other. In our <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-OILCOMMISSION/pdf/GPO-OILCOMMISSION.pdf">report</a>, we observed that MMS regulations were “inadequate to address the risks of deepwater drilling,” and that the agency had ceded control over many crucial aspects of drilling operations to industry. </p>
<p>In response, we recommended creating a new independent agency with enforcement authority within Interior to oversee all aspects of offshore drilling safety, and the structural and operational integrity of all offshore energy production facilities. Then-Secretary Ken Salazar completed the separation of the <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/who-we-are/history/reorganization">Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement</a> from MMS in October 2011. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Oil flooding from the ruptured well during the BP spill, June 3, 2010.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Officials at this new agency reviewed multiple investigations and studies of the BP spill and offshore drilling safety issues, including <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/23662/beyond-compliance-strengthening-the-safety-culture-of-the-offshore-oil-and-gas-industry">several</a> by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. They also consulted extensively with the industry to develop a revised a <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/site-page/fact-sheet">Safety and Environmental Management System</a> and other regulations. </p>
<p>In April 2016, BSEE issued a new <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/guidance-and-regulations/regulations/well-control-rule">well control rule</a> that required standards for design operation and testing of blowout preventers, real-time monitoring and safe drilling pressure margins. Prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the oil industry had effectively <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/27/27greenwire-bp-other-oil-companies-opposed-effort-to-stiff-38887.html">blocked adoption of such regulations</a> for years. </p>
<h2>About-face under Trump</h2>
<p>President Trump’s March 28, 2017 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-energy-independence-economic-growth/">executive order</a> instructing agencies to reduce undue burdens on domestic energy production signaled a change of course. The American Petroleum Institute and other industry organizations have lobbied hard to rescind or modify the new offshore drilling regulations, calling them <a href="http://www.offshore-mag.com/articles/print/volume-76/issue-12/regulatory-update/industry-responds-to-final-well-control-rule.html">impractical and burdensome</a>. </p>
<p>In April 2017, Trump’s Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, appointed Louisiana politician Scott Angelle to lead BSEE. Unlike his predecessors – two retired Coast Guard admirals – Angelle lacks any experience in maritime safety. In July 2010 as interim Lieutenant Governor, Angelle <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/22/nation/la-na-0722-oil-spill-rally-20100722">organized a rally</a> in Lafayette, Louisiana, against the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling operations after the BP spill, leading chants of “Lift the ban!”</p>
<p>Even now, Angelle <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/proposed-changes-to-offshore-drilling-rules-raise-safety-questions-1514750730">asserts</a> there was no evidence of systemic problems in offshore drilling regulation at the time of the spill. This view contradicts not only our commission’s findings, but also reviews by the <a href="http://www.csb.gov/assets/1/19/20160412_Macondo_Full_Exec_Summary.pdf">U.S. Chemical Safety Board</a> and a joint investigation by the <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/sites/bsee.gov/files/reports/blowout-prevention/dwhfinaldoi-volumeii.pdf">U.S. Coast Guard and the Interior Department</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201004/original/file-20180105-26172-ird7g1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oiled Kemp’s Ridley turtle captured June 1, 2010, during the BP spill. The turtle was cleaned, provided veterinary care and taken to the Audubon Aquarium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/8amepi">NOAA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fewer inspections and looser oversight</h2>
<p>On December 28, 2017, BSEE formally proposed changes in <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/12/29/2017-27309/oil-and-gas-and-sulphur-operations-on-the-outer-continental-shelf-oil-and-gas-production-safety">production safety systems</a>. As evidenced by multiple references within these proposed rules, they generally rely on standards developed by the American Petroleum Institute rather than government requirements. </p>
<p>One change would eliminate BSEE certification of third-party inspectors for critical equipment, such as blowout preventers. The Chemical Safety Board’s investigation of the BP spill <a href="http://www.csb.gov/macondo-blowout-and-explosion/">found</a> that the Deepwater Horizon’s blowout preventer had not been tested and was miswired. It recommended that BSEE should certify third-party inspectors for such critical equipment. </p>
<p>Another proposal would relax requirements for onshore remote monitoring of drilling. While serving on the presidential commission in 2010, I visited Shell’s operation in New Orleans that remotely monitored the company’s offshore drilling activities. This site operated on a 24-7 basis, ever ready to provide assistance, but not all companies met this standard. BP’s counterpart operation in Houston was used only for daily meetings prior to the Deepwater Horizon spill. Consequently, its drillers offshore urgently struggled to get assistance prior to the blowout via cellphones. </p>
<p>On December 7, 2017 BSEE <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12212017">ordered the National Academies to stop work</a> on a study that the agency had commissioned on improving its inspection program. This was the most recent in a series of studies, and was to include recommendations on the appropriate role of independent third parties and remote monitoring. </p>
<h2>Minor savings, major risk</h2>
<p>BSEE estimates that its proposals to change production safety rules could save the industry <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/newsroom/latest-news/statements-and-releases/press-releases/bsee-proposes-revisions-to-production">at least $228 million in compliance costs over 10 years</a>. This is a modest sum considering that <a href="https://www.data.bsee.gov/Production/OCSProduction/Default.aspx">offshore oil production</a> has averaged more than 500 million barrels yearly over the past decade. Even with oil prices around $60 per barrel, this means oil companies are earning more than $30 billion annually. Industry decisions about offshore production are driven by <a href="http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart">fluctuations in the price of crude oil</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/us-oil-production-booms-as-new-year-begins/2017/12/31/de49b50e-ee50-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html?utm_term=.d70c40b3ea7e">booming production of onshore shale oil</a>, not by the costs of safety regulations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200884/original/file-20180105-26169-ivmncf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>BSEE’s projected savings are also trivial compared to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bps-big-bill-for-the-worlds-largest-oil-spill-now-reaches-616-billion/2016/07/14/7248cdaa-49f0-11e6-acbc-4d4870a079da_story.html?utm_term=.4d19c26c08bb">$60 billion in costs</a> that BP has incurred because of its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Since then explosions, deaths, injuries and leaks in the oil industry have <a href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/11/federal_safety_agency_coast_gu.html">continued to occur</a> mainly from production facilities. On-the-job fatalities are <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1696111?redirect=true">higher in oil and gas extraction than any other U.S. industry</a>.</p>
<p>Some aspects of the Trump administration’s proposed regulatory changes might achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in safety procedures. But it is not at all clear that what Angelle <a href="https://www.bsee.gov/newsroom/latest-news/statements-and-releases/press-releases/bsee-proposes-revisions-to-production">describes</a> as a “paradigm shift” will maintain “a high bar for safety and environmental sustainability,” as he claims. Instead, it looks more like a shift back to the old days of over-relying on industry practices and preferences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald Boesch is affiliated with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Town Creek Foundation. </span></em></p>A scientist who served on a national commission to review the 2010 BP oil spill explains why Trump administration efforts to loosen offshore drilling regulation pose major risks for minor payoffs.Donald Boesch, Professor of Marine Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/718202017-02-09T15:12:35Z2017-02-09T15:12:35ZFrom farm to table: poor hygiene in slaughterhouses in rural Kenya<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155652/original/image-20170206-18980-gzgsdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slaughterhouses in parts of rural Kenya don't adhere to basic hygiene standards.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Stafford Ondego</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>-Most people in the world never see the inside of a slaughterhouse. This is true in Kenya where concerns have been raised about the health risks associated with slaughterhouses, particularly in rural parts of the country.
The Conversation Africa’s Health and Medicine Editor Joy Wanja Muraya spoke to Veterinary Epidemiologist Elizabeth Cook about the condition of slaughterhouses in rural Kenya and the risks they pose to public health.</em></p>
<p><strong>What are the working conditions and practices in rural Kenya’s slaughterhouses?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3923-y">Research</a> we conducted in western Kenya in the <a href="https://www.maji.go.tz/?q=en/content/lake-victoria-basin">Lake Victoria Basin</a> area bordering Uganda showed that most slaughterhouses had poor working conditions and practices. </p>
<p>We interviewed 738 workers in 142 slaughterhouses in Busia, Bungoma, Kakamega and Siaya counties. Slaughterhouses were located close to market centres where animals could be transported by foot or bicycle and meat supplied to the surrounding area. The facilities were small with an average of seven workers and had low throughput, slaughtering an average of five animals per week.</p>
<p>The majority of slaughterhouses lacked adequate infrastructure. Almost a third of buildings didn’t have a roof. Workers and carcasses were exposed to the sun, rain and other elements. Only four slaughterhouses had piped water, suggesting these facilities were not effectively cleaned. </p>
<p>Almost half the slaughterhouses didn’t have appropriate sanitation amenities, such as latrines and hand-washing facilities.</p>
<p>Personal hygiene practices among workers were also poor: only half said they wore protective aprons and shoes. Almost 20% admitted to slaughtering sick animals, potentially exposing them and consumers to diseases transmitted from animals to man. These are known as <a href="http://zdukenya.org/">zoonotic diseases</a>. Workers also ate and smoked at the slaughterhouse, which increased the risk of transmitting disease causing germs.</p>
<p><strong>What public health concerns emerged in your study?</strong></p>
<p>The biggest public health concern was the potential spread of disease to people consuming meat. Animals were slaughtered on the ground. This increased the risk of meat being contaminated with faecal pathogens such as <a href="http://www.about-ecoli.com/">E. coli</a>, <a href="http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/tc/salmonellosis-topic-overview">Salmonella</a> and <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs255/en/">Campylobacter</a>.</p>
<p>Inspection of the animal before slaughtering was practised at less than 10% of slaughterhouses. Sick animals weren’t removed from the slaughter process, increasing the risk of passing on the diseases to the community and placing workers at risk of zoonotic diseases, such as, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/brucellosis/">brucellosis </a>, <a href="http://www.who.int/zoonoses/diseases/leptospirosis/en/">leptospirosis</a>, and <a href="http://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/animal-disease-faq/q-fever">Q fever</a>. </p>
<p>There were also risks associated with sick workers at the slaughterhouses. 10% reported having stomach disorders in the 12 months preceding the survey. Additionally, 4% reported breathing difficulties. When handling carcasses, the workers didn’t wear gloves or masks thus increasing their risk of contracting infections and passing the germs to other people.</p>
<p>Injuries in workers were due to physically strenuous work: for example carcasses were hoisted onto beams using ropes, resulting in about half of the workers complaining of backaches. A quarter reported receiving <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/11/489468205/working-the-chain-slaughterhouse-workers-face-lifelong-injuries">other injuries</a> at work every month. 8% of workers had a wound at the time of interview. </p>
<p><strong>What are the challenges in adhering to regulations?</strong></p>
<p>The national standards were defined by the Kenyan government in the <a href="http://www.ecolex.org/details/legislation/meat-control-local-slaughterhouses-licensing-regulations-2011-cap-356-lex-faoc106272/">Meat Control Act of 2012</a>. It calls for proper infrastructure to be put in place, including observing hygiene practices in slaughterhouses. Our study found that slaughterhouses didn’t meet these requirements because of ignorance about the health risks.</p>
<p>Only a third of workers were aware that animals can be a source of disease and less than half of them understood that meat could be a source of disease.</p>
<p>The inadequate facilities and poor infrastructure result from a lack of investment in the industry. The region has a large number of households living on less than <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/02/29/reviving-lake-victoria-by-restoring-livelihoods">a dollar a day</a>. Households can’t afford to purchase animal proteins like meat. </p>
<p>Improving facilities would lead to increased meat prices, which might make this important protein source unaffordable. This might increase the amount of backyard slaughter that cannot be regulated by the veterinary department.</p>
<p>Regulations require that every animal and all meat should be inspected before sale. But we found there was only one inspector for every five slaughterhouses. And they were forced to travel long distances by public transport or motorbike, delaying their ability to inspect the animals.</p>
<p><strong>How can these concerns be addressed? What would be the expected health benefits?</strong></p>
<p>Educating workers, butchers and inspectors about the risks of meat contamination and other health hazards at work is the <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6557e/X6557E01.htm">first step</a> towards improving the public health status of the slaughterhouses.</p>
<p>This would require training in <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=198&printable=1">safe food handling practices</a> such as clean removal of the animal’s abdominal contents, appropriate meat storage and hand washing. Workers and inspectors should understand the importance of animal inspection. Inspectors also need to be empowered to enforce regulations.</p>
<p>Investment in infrastructure could lead to phasing out the smaller substandard facilities and focusing on centralised bigger facilities where the economies of scale might keep meat prices from escalating. </p>
<p>But centralising the industry would also require improvements to <a href="http://www.wpsa-foodsafety.com/?item=199">transport networks</a> and refrigeration for the delivery of meat to remote areas.</p>
<p>Mechanisation could resolve some of the challenges related to carcass handling and reduce the physical strain on workers.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/multimedia_pub_fsf_126_02.html">One Health approach</a> to disease surveillance could be implemented to monitor zoonotic diseases in slaughterhouses. Public health workers should be made aware of the potential for slaughterhouse workers to be sentinels of diseases in animals and people. </p>
<p>Monitoring slaughterhouse workers might be a cost effective method of detecting diseases that are transmitted from animals to man.</p>
<p>Improvements to the meat industry could improve occupational and food safety in the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Cook received funding from the Medical Research Council and support was also received from the The Wellcome Trust and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). We acknowledge the CGIAR Fund Donors (<a href="http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2">http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2</a>). </span></em></p>Slaughterhouses are an essential step in meat production. Hygiene standards need to be maintained to prevent the spread of diseases.Elizabeth Cook, Veterinary epidemiologist, International Livestock Research Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.