Partnerships for Environmental Public Education (PEPH) interviewed CPWR’s Chris Trahan Cain about the significant risks that opioids pose to worker health and safety, and how different agencies and nonprofit organizations are working to address these concerns.

Listen at:
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/translational/peph/podcasts/2019/jan24_opioids/index.cfm.

The National Association of Home Builders’ Fall Protection training program will help employees and employers identify and avoid fall hazards encountered during home building operations, the prevention of falls, solutions to protect against and arrest falls, and the rescue of a fallen worker. Participants will be able to:

• Recognize common fall hazards in residential construction.
• Identify when fall protection is required.
• Determine which protection system to use for a given fall hazard.
• Understand the key requirements and basic safety practices for each protection system.
• Understand the safety requirements and practices for ladders and scaffolding.

NAHB education designation holders will earn 4 hours of continuing education credit for successful completion of this training.  The training is available in both English and Spanish.  Visit https://www.nahb.org/en/learn/course-overviews/fall-prevention-in-residential-construction.aspx to learn more.

Originally presented on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019 – 12pm EST by:
Wayne B. Gray, Professor of Economics, Clark University and Executive Director, Boston Federal Statistical Research Data Center,
and John Mendeloff, Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh
This 30 minute webinar describes the variation in construction industry fatality rates across states and over time (starting in 1992) and provide estimates of the effects of both OSHA enforcement and state worker’s compensation policies on the rates. It also explores different approaches to measuring how these programs might affect employer behavior.

Play Recording             Download Presentation

Working outside in cold, wet, icy, or snowy conditions can lead to serious health problems such as hypothermia and frostbite. CPWR maintains a list of resources containing information and handouts on working safely in cold weather.

View at: https://www.cpwr.com/research/working-in-cold-weather

The CDC recently published the article, Opioid Prescribing Rates in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Counties Among Primary Care Providers Using an Electronic Health Record System — United States, 2014–2017, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  The authors looked at differences in prescribing rates among six urban-rural county classifications across the US before and after the March 2016 release of CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.

They found that the percentage of patients prescribed an opioid was higher in rural than in urban areas, however significant decreases in opioid prescribing occurred across all urban-rural categories after the release of the Guideline.