Environmental, Health and Safety News

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) launched a new data dashboard today designed to give Wisconsinites the tools they need to most effectively respond to COVID-19. “Our fight against COVID-19 isn’t over. Folks need to remember that this virus continues to spread in our state,” said Governor Tony Evers. “We want to make...
Read More »

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) , the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) , and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to conduct two population health studies that will…(see release)
Read More »

On July 1, the Department of Health Services (DHS) will award $1.2 million in grants to 15 local county Birth to 3 Programs across the state that will pilot new and innovative efforts to improve outcomes for participating children. These grants will allow local areas to explore new and better ways to address the...
Read More »

Through a $675,526 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded to Wisconsin Emergency Management, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is partnering with the Wisconsin Community Action Program Association to provide crisis counseling services to people experiencing anxiety and stress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic . “The COVID-19 pandemic...
Read More »

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced today more households will now be able to get food through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) . Households with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL) are now eligible to receive a monthly share of locally grown, Grade-A foods that include meat, vegetables,...
Read More »

Our second drug repurposing datathon is dedicated to finding a cure to Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). This is a rare (1000 cases a year worldwide) and deadly form of cancer in children. Over the last 50 years the understanding of DIPG as a heterogeneous group of tumors requiring a personalized medicine approach has...
Read More »

CAS Makes Commitment to Enhance Laboratory Safety by Partnering with the Pistoia Alliance for Chemical Safety Library   New agreement will leverage CAS information management capabilities to grow critical safety resource pioneered by the Pistoia Alliance for the chemical community   Columbus, OH, and Boston, MA June 23, 2020 – CAS, a division of...
Read More »

The Pistoia Alliance Launches New Project to Help Life Sciences and Healthcare Realize the Value of Digital Health The first project of the new digital initiative, backed by $40,000 seed funding from the Alliance, will analyze data from apps used in a clinical trial to improve the consistency of data capture   Boston, 9th...
Read More »

The post Digital health data in clinical studies appeared first on Pistoia Alliance.
Read More »

(JSONLINE) In response to his death, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant and workers rights advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, said the group sent a public letter to the company and filed a complaint with the regional Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The letter and complaint list specific requests, including greater access...
Read More »

( Paul Krugman ) One way to think about the Covid-19 pandemic is that it poses a kind of marshmallow test for society. At this point, there have been enough international success stories in dealing with the coronavirus to leave us with a clear sense of what beating the pandemic takes. First, you have...
Read More »

Review published in Annals of Internal Medicine https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3012 and covered by Time  https://time.com/5848949/covid-19-asymptomatic-spread/ This can profoundly impact the utility of COVID-19 screening for symptoms before clinical procedures such as pulmonary function testing since, even though the asymptomatic people appear to shed virus at the same rate as symptomatic people, they will pass the symptom...
Read More »

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is on everyone’s mind as we spend more time inside our homes. EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have guidance for states & territories, tribes, and local governments (including public health agencies), homeowners, business owners, schools, and others to address questions about risks, exposures and protection...
Read More »

The ACOEM Webinar “Prevention of COVID-19 in Construction Workers” is posted at the link below.  It will be next Wednesday, June 17 at 12 noon Eastern. It is free, but those interested must register here: https://connect.acoem.org/s/lt-event?id=a1U3m00000L1UgQEAV&_ga=2.135510833.1093704035.1591976357-1419543086.1591729216
Read More »

What are the implications for public health practice? Human-to-animal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 can occasionally occur. Animals ar e not known to play a substantial role in spreading COVID-19, but persons with COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals. Companion animals that test positive for SARS-CoV-2 should be monitored and separated from persons and other animals...
Read More »

What is already known about this topic? Pneumoconioses are a group of occupational lung diseases caused by inhaling organic dust and inorganic mineral dust particles. From 1968 to 2000, death rates for all pneumoconioses decreased with the exception of those for asbestosis. Although preventable, deaths continue to occur. What is added by this report?...
Read More »

Abstract: As the US health care system began to respond to the coronavirus disease‐2019 pandemic, demand for respiratory personal protective equipment (PPE) increased precipitously, as did the number of users. This commentary discusses ensuing deviations from accepted respiratory PPE program practices, which potentially increased risk to health care workers. Such lapses included omitting user...
Read More »

US EPA has announced a competitive grant funding opportunity with an estimated $3 million available to increase anaerobic digester (AD) capacity in the United States. US EPA anticipates awarding 10 to 40 projects, with each individual project eligible to receive between $50,000 – $300,000. Applications must achieve one or more of the following objectives:  Support...
Read More »

On May 28, 2020 OSHA released a comprehensive list of guidance documents, statements, and actions they’ve taken to help protect workers during the coronavirus pandemic.  The list is categorized into the following primary topic areas.   They are: Respirator Guidance Protecting Workers in High-Risk Industries Enforcing Safety in the Workplace Offering Clear Direction for...
Read More »

CDC released new statistics yesterday.  One of the more sobering for the health care community are the number of cases and the number of fatalities within the health care community. This is made even more significant by the fact that CDC only has the mortality status for only 56.4% of the cases among health...
Read More »

On May 19, 2019, OSHA issued another enforcement guidance memorandum (https://www.osha.gov/memos/2020-05-19/revised-enforcement-guidance-recording-cases-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19) regarding recording COVID-19 cases that rescinds the prior guidance and obligates employers to make at least some work-related determinations regarding employees who contract COVID-19. The new memorandum goes into effect May 26, 2020, and will remain in effect until further notice. By way...
Read More »

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced a $67 million funding opportunity to stimulate technology innovation, improve the energy productivity of American manufacturing, and enable the manufacturing of cutting-edge products in the United States. “As we move into the future, energy competitiveness...
Read More »

OSHA Department of Labor, United States of America   News Release WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has adopted revised policies for enforcing OSHA’s requirements with respect to coronavirus as economies reopen in states throughout the country. Throughout the course of the pandemic, understanding about the...
Read More »

The Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department (WOPHD) released the “Blueprint for Reopening Washington and Ozaukee Counties” The Blueprint provides broad guidance for reopening the economy safely and incrementally after Governor Evers’ Safer at Home order is lifted. http://www.washozwi.gov/Services/Communicable-Disease/Blueprint-FAQ
Read More »

Today the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) released the names of skilled nursing facilities (nursing homes) with active COVID-19 facility-wide public health investigations. On May 13, 2020, there are 38 nursing homes with active public health investigations in Wisconsin. People who live in nursing homes are among our most vulnerable when it comes...
Read More »

The Pistoia Alliance Launches Toolkit to Accelerate Implementation of FAIR Data Principles Backed by major pharma, the toolkit will improve data management and data sharing, supporting AI and machine learning to advance the Lab of the Future   Boston, May 14 2020, The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit alliance that works to lower barriers...
Read More »

This Operating Experience Level 3 (OE-3) document provides information on a new requirement imposed by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) to report certain accidental releases of chemicals. The CSB requires reporting of any accidental release into the ambient air that results in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damage....
Read More »

Employer Workplace Prevention of COVID-19 Airborne Transmission:Applying OSHA’s Hierarchy of Controls Maintain a safe work environment by learning about personal protection for infectious diseases, COVID-19 airborne prevention and recommendations for engineering work-practice. Provide a safe and healthful work environment to your employees as required by OSHA’s General Duty Clause law. Complimentary Webinar presented by...
Read More »

In Vizag, the 11 deaths so far and hundreds of affected people in hospital indicate that styrene must have escaped in extremely high concentrations and affected the nearby population. Thirty six years after the Bhopal disaster, it is distressing to see accidents from hazardous industries. The fields of occupational and environmental medicine, toxicology, and...
Read More »

Today the Department of Health Services along with the State Emergency Operations Center launched hospital gating criteria as part of the Badger Bounce Back Plan . The criteria, developed with input from the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, sets hospital metrics to be able to move into Phase 1 of...
Read More »

  By Ilaria Maresi, The Hyve and Ian Harrow, the Pistoia Alliance   Data for drug discovery and healthcare is often trapped in silos which hampers effective interpretation and reuse. To remedy this, such data needs to be linked both internally and to external sources to make a FAIR data landscape which can power semantic...
Read More »

Governor Tony Evers and Secretary-designee Andrea Palm have issued another emergency order suspending some administrative rules for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Department of Safety and Professional Services. This allows health care and emergency services workers to maximize the time and resources they can dedicate to patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic....
Read More »

(BloomBerg) A decade ago, solar was more than $300 a megawatt-hour and onshore wind exceeded $100 per megawatt-hour. Today, onshore wind is $37 in the U.S. and $30 in Brazil, while solar is $38 in China, the cheapest sources of new electricity in those countries. Battery storage is also getting more competitive. The levelized...
Read More »

In a COVID-free world, more than 400,000 Wisconsin children receive free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program while attending school. To ensure that those same students continue to have access to nutritious meals while staying safer at home during the pandemic, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is providing more...
Read More »

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) released new data today on its website about COVID-19 facility-wide public health investigations and outbreaks in areas across the state. On April 29, 2020, Wisconsin has 187 COVID-19 facility-wide public health investigations and outbreaks in the five public health regions of Wisconsin (Northeastern, Northern, Southeastern, Southern, and...
Read More »

In a major effort to prevent underage drinking, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) today launched Small Talks, a campaign to reduce the number of kids who drink alcohol before the age of 21. This statewide effort, unveiled in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Month, encourages adults – especially parents and caregivers – to...
Read More »

People across the state of Wisconsin have risen to the challenge of COVID-19 by changing the way they work, play, and interact with friends and family. By staying Safer at Home , practicing physical distancing, and continuing to wash hands and cover coughs, Wisconsinites are making a difference and beginning to flatten the curve....
Read More »

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced today that more than 215,000 FoodShare households will be receiving additional benefits. These benefits will help those Wisconsin families stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The effects of the pandemic have been hard on all Wisconsinites, but especially hard on the most vulnerable people in our...
Read More »

David Proudlock, Innovation Consultant at the Pistoia Alliance shares his experience of judging the Virtual Medicine Conference Virtual Reality Hackathon and explores the potential of AR/VR in life science and digital healthcare   The advent of extended, augmented or virtual reality has seemingly been on the cusp of mainstream adoption for many years, there...
Read More »

The post SEED Project appeared first on Pistoia Alliance.
Read More »

In case you haven’t heard these, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP (Univ of MN Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy), has spent his life working with epidemics and he’s been giving weekly podcasts on covid-19 for 5 weeks. They are listed here:         Episode 1: How We Got Here...
Read More »

This memo was released by OSHA Friday evening….. https://www.osha.gov/memos/2020-04-24/enforcement-guidance-decontamination-filtering-facepiece-respirators-healthcare
Read More »

COVID-19 and Your Workplace: Getting Back to Work Safely Here are three simple questions: Does your organization have an updated infectious disease control program? Does your organization have training modules for supervisors and employees to understand COVID-19 exposures and best practices? Do you know the recordkeeping requirements for COVID-19? If you answered “no” to...
Read More »

(PAINT.ORG) This month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published 20 draft scope documents for high-priority chemicals undergoing Risk Evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). These are the 20 high priority chemicals that EPA designated for TSCA Risk Evaluation in December 2019. EPA is accepting comments on the first 13 scoping documents,...
Read More »

Lawyers have launched a new class action on behalf of tens of thousands of residents over the defense department’s use of toxic firefighting chemicals. The case will allege defence’s use of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Pfas) had “cataclysmic consequences” for residents in Wodonga, Darwin, Townsville, Wagga Wagga, Edinburgh and Bullsbrook. The highly persistent and probable...
Read More »

OSHA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced an interim enforcement response plan for the coronavirus pandemic. The response plan provides instructions and guidance to OSHA Area Offices and compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) for handling coronavirus-related complaints, referrals, and severe illness reports. During the coronavirus...
Read More »

Here is a link to details about reusable elastomeric respirator use in healthcare. This includes findings and recommendations from a compilation of ongoing studies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wd5Bx2fVDI This webinar provides an overview of respiratory protection and guidance surrounding supply shortages. This webinar also provides information on infection prevention measures, strategies for optimizing the supply of N95...
Read More »