Ralph, kudos for doing this.

This is a much longer conversation, but I think that the changing nature of work is perhaps the greatest driver of emerging issues. I wrote an editorial on this for the American Journal of Public Health two years ago. (https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304283) It was written from the perspective of work as a determinant of health and health disparities, but perhaps it's useful.

Some of the change is economic and social. Some is technological. Every 18 months my union holds a safety and health conference open to our local unions and employers. One of our workshops at the last one, in September 2019, dealt with emerging technologies -- specifically additive manufacturing, AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and synthetic biology. We asked the participants to raise their hands if a particular technology had come to their workplace. Every one of them had come to one or more -- including synbio (pharmaceutical production).

Mike

Michael J. Wright
Director of Health, Safety and Environment
United Steelworkers

412-562-2580 office
412-370-0105 cell

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world."
Jack Layton




-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Stuart, Ralph
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2020 4:43 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Emerging issues in occupational health and safety?

I am teaching a class this semester for undergrad safety majors with the title "Safety and Health Standards".

I have interpreted this title broadly to include all of the environmental factors that help an organization prioritize its EHS program relative to other opportunities the organization is interested in pursuing. Unfortunately, due to the change in venue from classroom to electronic meetings, I am not able to offer the field trips I had hoped to in the second half of April. It occurs to me that one topic that I could substitute for the field trips is "emerging issues in occupational health and safety".

Topics that come to mind under this heading include:

- Firefighter exposure to emerging chemical concerns, both in fire settings and fire fighting foams

- The connection between safety culture and workplace power relationships

- Connecting the EHS program to the organization's mission

- Emerging training media, both for safety professionals to continue their education and to provide training to workers

- Responding to performance based standards (e.g. ISO standards, VPP, etc.)

- The emergence of the intersection of biological and chemical safety issues in the public sphere and the impact of the differences between these two paradigms on public policy

It occurred to me the DCHAS members may be able to help identify trends that I have overlooked. I am interested in emerging topics will impact of careers of safety professionals over the next 15 to 20 years. So, I'd appreciate any suggestions of other topics that I could include in this catalog, and even better, references where someone interesting in more information about this topic this suggestion could go to find out more.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

- Ralph


Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

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