Federal Safety Research Articles

An Analytical Framework for Vision Testing In Driving License Allocation in Nigeria

of Driving Licensing in Nigeria in the past was done haphazardly and as a result drivers with poor driving culture were usually allocated driving license. This probably was followed by unprecedented wave of road traffic accidents with attendant human and material losses. In other to reduce these losses, the federal road safety commission at its inception introduced some measures to curb the issue of licensing. This work, in line with the technological trend proposed an automated licensing scheme to improve on the efficiency of the previous system. The system was tested with 50 applicants and the result presented.

Infection Prevention Outreach for Outpatient Healthcare Settings: A Local Chapter's Experience with Public Health Collaboration

Healthcare-associated outbreaks in outpatient settings continue to occur nationally despite public health infection prevention (IP) initiatives. Gaps in formal IP training, regulatory oversight, administrative support and infrastructure contribute to disease transmission during outpatient care. Federal and state patient safety efforts in outpatient settings have included increased legislation, patient activism and advocacy, and collaborative partnership formation. APIC Chapter involvement can support public health partners with educational program development and provision to their local healthcare provider community.

Randomized Safety Inspections and Risk Exposure on the Job: Quasi-Experimental Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life

Compensating wages for workplace fatality and accident risks are used to infer the value of a statistical life (VSL), which in turn is used to assess the benefits of human health and safety regulations. The estimation of these wage differentials, however, has been plagued by measurement error and omitted variables. This paper employs the first quasi-experimental design within a labor market setting to overcome such limitations in the extant literature. Specifically, randomly assigned, exogenous federal safety inspections are used to instrument for plant-level risks and combined with confidential U.S. Census data on manufacturing employment to estimate the VSL using a difference-in-differences framework. The VSL is estimated to be between $2 and $4 million ($2011), suggesting prior studies may substantially overstate the value workers place on safety, and therefore, the benefits of health and safety regulations.

Dissent in the coalfields: miners, federal politics, and union reform in the United States, 1968–1973

On December 30, 1969, President Richard Nixon signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act into law. The act provided stronger preventative health and safety measures for coal mines and a federal compensation program for the victims of “black lung,” an occupational respiratory disease caused by the inhalation of coal dust. Responsibility for enforcing the new legislation fell to the United States Bureau of Mines, an agency located in the Department of the Interior. By late 1970, with the rate of coal mine fatalities and injuries on the rise, it was clear that the Bureau was failing to enforce the legislation. In response, miners wrote letters to their congressmen and national union officials. They drew particular attention to the Bureau's lax inspection procedures in non-union coal mines, which, they argued, contributed to dangerous working conditions. The Bureau was not the only obstacle to health and safety enforcement in the coal industry. The national leadership of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), headed by Tony Boyle, did little to protect miners' welfare. In response, a group of miners formed a grassroots organization called Miners for Democracy and won control of the union in the presidential election of 1972. Both miners' letters about the Bureau of Mines and the takeover of the UMW national leadership by Miners for Democracy provide a valuable insight to miners' political culture in the early 1970s. Coal miners were conscious political protestors, yet still maintained faith in bureaucratic institutions to protect their welfare.

The use of open source electronic health records within the federal safety net

To conduct a federally funded study that examines the acquisition, implementation and operation of open source electronic health records (EHR) within safety net medical settings, such as federally qualified health centers (FQHC). The study was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago from April to September 2010. The NORC team undertook a comprehensive environmental scan, including a literature review, a dozen key informant interviews using a semistructured protocol, and a series of site visits to West Virginia, California and Arizona FQHC that were currently using an open source EHR. Five of the six sites that were chosen as part of the study found a number of advantages in the use of their open source EHR system, such as utilizing a large community of users and developers to modify their EHR to fit the needs of their provider and patient communities, and lower acquisition and implementation costs as compared to a commercial system. Despite these advantages, many of the informants and site visit participants felt that widespread dissemination and use of open source was restrained due to a negative connotation regarding this type of software. In addition, a number of participants stated that there is a necessary level of technical acumen needed within the FQHC to make an open source EHR effective. An open source EHR provides advantages for FQHC that have limited resources to acquire and implement an EHR, but additional study is needed to evaluate its overall effectiveness.

Contaminant Levels in Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill As Measured by a Fishermen-Led Testing Program

The BP oil disaster posed a significant threat to the U.S. seafood industry. Invertebrates (shrimp, oyster, crab) and other nearshore species comprised the majority of postspill testing by federal and state agencies. Deeper water finfish were sampled less frequently, despite population ranges that overlapped with affected waters. We report on a voluntary testing program with Gulf of Mexico commercial fishermen to ensure the safety of their catch. Seven species of reef fish were tested for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, several metals, and a constituent of Corexit 9500A and 9527A dispersants. Only two of 92 samples had detectable levels of benzo(a)pyrene-equivalents (a combined measure of carcinogenic potency across 7 different PAHs), which were still below federal safety thresholds. PAH ratios for these samples suggest pyrogenic (not petrogenic) contamination - indicating potential sources other than Deepwater Horizon. Metals were largely absent (cadmium, lead) or consistent with levels previously reported (mercury, arsenic). One notable exception was tilefish, which showed mercury concentrations lower than expected. We did not detect dispersant in any of our samples, indicating that it was not present in these species during the study period. Our findings suggest minimal risk to public health from these seafoods as a result of the disaster; however, the most contaminated areas were not sampled through this program.

The Collision Between Federal and Provincial Occupational Health and Safety Regimes on Energy and Resource Projects

Both federal and provincial occupational health and safety regimes exist in Canada. While these types of laws have similar purposes, there are differences in the standards applied and the consequences imposed. For those projects where both regimes may apply, hidden pitfalls may exist. This article examines the collision of these types of regimes and the constitutional issues that such collisions create, and attempts to clearly delineate under which circumstances each regime will apply.

Graded approach to establish QA requirements for type B and fissile material transportation packagings

AbstractThe essence of the graded approach is the establishment of applicable quality assurance (QA) requirements to an extent consistent with the importance to safety of an item, component, system or activity. The genesis of the graded approach is a study conducted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the US Congress in 1987 to assess the effectiveness of QA activities. That study demonstrated the need to improve the application of QA requirements for the nuclear industry in general. The conclusion of the study indicated that a graded approach for establishing QA requirements is the most viable method to satisfy federal safety standards that result in protecting public health and safety. The application of QA requirements for type B and fissile material transportation packagings is not based solely on importance to safety or safety related considerations. The operability of items, components, systems and activities is considered to be equally important. The nuclear industry, along with regul...

Attitudes Toward Seat Belt Use and In-Vehicle Technologies for Encouraging Belt Use

Objectives: In-vehicle seat belt reminders and interlocks can encourage belt use, but widespread adoption of these features depends on the degree of acceptance among both belted and unbelted occupants. The current study collected information about attitudes toward belt use and in-vehicle technologies for encouraging belt use. Methods: A national telephone survey of 1218 adult drivers and passengers was conducted using random samples of landline and cell phone numbers. Part-time belt users and nonusers were oversampled. All respondents were asked about frequency of belt use, buckling routines, and support for different types of belt interlocks. Part-time belt users and nonusers were queried in more depth about different types of reminders and reminder strategies. Results: Almost all respondents said that they always use their seat belts (91%). Few said that they did not always (8%) or never (1%) used belts. Driving a short distance (67%), forgetting (60%), and comfort (47%) were common reasons why part-time belt users do not buckle up; comfort (77%), not needing a seat belt (54%), and disliking being told what to do (50%) were most frequently cited among nonusers. When asked about various types of belt interlocks, part-time belt users and nonusers most often said that ignition interlocks would make them more likely to buckle up (70% and 44%, respectively). However, only 44 to 51 percent of all respondents, including full-time belt users, supported using the different types of interlocks to increase belt use. A larger proportion of part-time belt users and nonusers said that they would be more likely to buckle up in response to auditory and haptic reminders than visual reminders. More than two thirds of part-time belt users and at least one third of nonusers said that they would be more likely to buckle up in response to belt reminders that become more intense or continue indefinitely; these reminders would be acceptable to about half of part-time belt users and around one fifth of nonusers. Conclusions: The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) law allows the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to strengthen minimum requirements for belt reminders or allow the use of interlocks to meet federal safety standards. Even though most people always buckle up, belt interlocks are supported by only about half of full-time belt users and by fewer part-time belt users and nonusers. Enhanced reminder systems are more acceptable than belt interlocks and are viewed as almost as effective as interlocks if persistent enough. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

Empirical analysis of road traffic accidents: A case study of Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria

This paper studied the trend of road accident in Kogi State from January, 1997 to December, 2010, using a univariate time series data collected from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Lokoja, Kogi State. The model for the data was found to be Y = 22.062 + 0.252T. Test for the existence of trend and seasonal variation was conducted at 0.05 level of significance, and a four years forecast for road accident was made for the year 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was found that there is no seasonal variation but trend which shows steady increase in Kogi State accident rate. All Statistical analyses were done using a statistical package called SPSS. Key words: Trend, variation, Kogi, SPSS, road accident, forecast, smoothing and federal road safety commission (FRSC).

INTERCHANGES SAFETY: FORECAST MODEL BASED ON ISAT ALGORITHM

The ISAT algorithm (Interchange Safety Analysis Tool), developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provides design and safety engineers with an automated tool for assessing the safety effects of geometric design and traffic control features at an existing interchange and adjacent roadway network. Concerning the default calibration coefficients and crash distributions by severity and type, the user should modify these default values to more accurately reflect the safety experience of their local/State agency prior to using ISAT to perform actual safety assessments. This paper will present the calibration process of the FHWA algorithm to the local situation of Oriental Sicily. The aim is to realize an instrument for accident forecast analyses, useful to highway managers, in order to individuate those infrastructural elements that can contribute to improve the safety level of interchange areas, if suitably calibrated.

Reflecting on the Politics of Federal Worker Health and Safety Protections, 1962–2012: An Interview with Donald Elisburg

Donald Elisburg has spent his career advocating on behalf of workers. Trained as a labor lawyer, Mr. Elisburg has legal, legislative, policy development, and executive management experience in the fields of labor standards, workers' compensation, environmental and occupational safety and health, wages and hours, and employment and training. In the interview, Elisburg shares his insights on how to move a bureaucracy to advance worker health and safety and workers' rights.

Chair of Wi-Fi safety panel steps down

Facing public controversy over a potential conflict of interest revealed in a CMAJ investigation, the chair of a Royal Society of Canada panel reviewing federal safety guidelines for Wi-Fi, cellphones and other radiofrequency devices has stepped aside. Daniel Krewski, a professor in the faculty of

A Credible Path for Ending Too Big to Fail

The high degree of concentration in the U.S. financial system has been intensified in the wake of the 2007–09 financial crisis. Implicit government support of banks that are deemed “too big to fail” has resulted in excessive risk taking and a focus on short-term rewards rather than long-term performance. This paper proposes a three-step plan to limit the federal safety net to commercial depository institutions and to restructure institutions so that no one institution poses systemic risk in the event of failure and that the largest banks face the same kind of risks of closure and market risk as the smallest.

From Cradle-to-Grave at the Nanoscale: Gaps in U.S. Regulatory Oversight along the Nanomaterial Life Cycle

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) promise great benefits for society, yet our knowledge of potential risks and best practices for regulation are still in their infancy. Toward the end of better practices, this paper analyzes U.S. federal environmental, health, and safety (EHS) regulations using a life cycle framework. It evaluates their adequacy as applied to ENMs to identify gaps through which emerging nanomaterials may escape regulation from initial production to end-of-life. High scientific uncertainty, a lack of EHS and product data, inappropriately designed exemptions and thresholds, and limited agency resources are a challenge to both the applicability and adequacy of current regulations. The result is that some forms of engineered nanomaterials may escape federal oversight and rigorous risk review at one or more stages along their life cycle, with the largest gaps occurring at the postmarket stages, and at points of ENM release to the environment. Oversight can be improved through pending regulatory reforms, increased research and development for the monitoring, control, and analysis of environmental and end-of-life releases, introduction of periodic re-evaluation of ENM risks, and fostering a "bottom-up" stewardship approach to the responsible management of risks from engineered nanomaterials.

Purchasing medications online safely

As the cost of medications continues to rise and health insurance plans encourage home delivery of maintenance medications, pharmacists are in a unique position to inform patients of the potential dangers of ordering prescription medications online. About 97% of more than 10,000 online pharmacies reviewed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) are unlicensed or fraudulent operations that peddle contaminated, expired, or counterfeit medications and do not comply with U.S. pharmacy laws, according to a January 2013 report. Patients who take these medications may get sicker, develop resistance to medicines, or experience new adverse effects. The drugs can also cancel out the effects of other medicines, cause harmful interactions, or lead to misdiagnosis.■Be alert to signs that a patient may be ordering medications from online pharmacies.■Warn patients that drugs bought online may make them sicker or cause new adverse effects. ■Be alert to signs that a patient may be ordering medications from online pharmacies.■Warn patients that drugs bought online may make them sicker or cause new adverse effects. Lower-income patients and those with no or inadequate prescription coverage may be tempted by the cheap prices of online pharmacies. Older patients who need long-term maintenance medicine as well as patients seeking drugs for baldness, impotence, wrinkles, and acne may also use or consider using the sites, according to FDA’s BeSafeRx campaign (www.fda.gov/besaferx). Be alert to the signs that a patient may be buying products from an online pharmacy. “Patients who are not responding to treatment, who are experiencing unexpected adverse effects or new symptoms, or who are changing medications frequently” may be ordering drugs online, said NABP Executive Director Carmen Catizone, MS, BSPharm. “If a patient seems un-comfortable—or if there’s anything unexplained—open the door to further conversation by asking, ‘Are you getting any of your medications off the Internet?”’ Warn patients that inexpensive medications offered by these rogue websites often are produced by unknown sources in other countries “where quality standards are more lax and counterfeit medications more widespread,” according to NABP. Because FDA does not have jurisdiction over prescription medications from other countries, it cannot guarantee the drugs’ safety or effectiveness. The medications may have slight variations or different ingredients from those approved by FDA for use in the United States. These rogue websites may also misuse patients’ personal and financial information, infect their computers with viruses, sell their information to other illicit websites and Internet scams, and charge them for products they never ordered or received. Advise patients to avoid online pharmacies that■Allow patients to purchase drugs by completing an online questionnaire instead of providing a valid prescription from their doctor.■Offer illegal or non-FDA-approved drugs.■Advertise deep discounts or send unsolicited e-mail offering cheap prices.■Are located outside of and not licensed in the United States.■Lack a physical address and telephone number. Explain that legitimate online pharmacies always require a doctor’s prescription, have a pharmacist available who can answer questions, are licensed with the pharmacy board in the state where they operate, and have privacy and security policies that are easy to find and understand. Refer patients to NABP’s list of 50 online pharmacies accredited through the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) program (http://apha.us/10mWvnI) and to their list of not-recommended sites (http://apha.us/YaNQH4) that appear to be out of compliance with state and federal laws or NABP patient safety and pharmacy practice standards. Patients who have concerns about a site can report it to their state board of pharmacy (www.nabp.net), NABP (http://apha.us/11X8rvF), or FDA (http://apha.us/14Bt9FZ). The National Council for Patient Information and Education offers a number of resources (www.talkaboutrx. org/cyberx.jsp), including the brochure Buying Prescription Medicine Online: A Consumer Safety Guide (www.talk-aboutrx.org/assocdocs/TASK/21/bro-chureLoRez.pdf).

Legal Versus Consumer Requirements for Secondary Safety of Passenger Vehicles in Europe and the U.S.

In 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) established the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and began rating vehicles for frontal impact safety for MY1979 with the purpose of providing information to the public so consumers could make better-informed decisions about their purchases. Manufacturers responded to the ratings by voluntarily improving the safety of their vehicles beyond the minimum Federal safety standards. In 1996, NHTSA added testing for side impact protection and more recently to assess the vehicle's rollover propensity. After NHTSA's NCAP, other organizations have followed testing the passive safety performance of the vehicles and publishing the results to the customers with the intention of improving the protection given by the vehicles. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) started in 1995 with an offset frontal impact test and in 2002 with a side impact test using a mobile barrier that represents the typical SUV frontend. Also in 1995, IIHS started publishing results from a head-restraint geometry assessment that was complemented with a dynamic test in 2004. In 2009 the IIHS introduced the roof strength test protocol for rollover protection and in 2012 they introduced the small overlap crash test protocol. In Europe, Euro NCAP started its testing program in 1997 with: a frontal offset test, a side impact test and pedestrian protection testing; these were complemented with a pole test in 2000. In 2008, Euro NCAP introduced whiplash testing and in 2009 a new rating system. In this paper, the current European and U.S. legal requirements are presented and compared with the major consumer testing programs: Euro NCAP, NCAP and IIHS. Language: en

A Framework for Translating Workplace Violence Intervention Research into Evidence-Based Programs

Workplace violence, a dangerous and complex occupational hazard in the modern health care work environment, presents challenges for nurses, other health care employees, management, labor unions, and regulators. Violence from patients, visitors, and coworkers is often tolerated and explained as part of the job in the fast-paced, stressful health care delivery workplace. Addressing violence in health care requires very purposeful organizational processes conducted by very specific organizational structures. The strength of the scientific evidence for workplace violence prevention strategies is well past the “emerging” evidence stage but has not achieved the “unequivocal” stage. It is unlikely that workplace violence interventions will be tested using randomized controlled experimental conditions. Consequently, educated and aware nurses often provide key leadership for organizations undertaking the development of workplace violence prevention programs, but must do so using local evidence generated at the facility level. In some cases, tools such as state regulations and federal workplace safety policies provide important impetus and support for nurses and hospitals undertaking these transformational programs. This article provides background information about workplace violence and offers a framework for developing comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs built on the existing scientific evidence, regulatory guidance, and locally generated practice evidence

Table of Contents

Abstract Cover Story Help students learn to self‐advocate to ensure their disability needs are met Help students learn to self‐advocate by information sharing, confidence building Measuring self‐advocacy learning holds many benefits Measure self‐advocacy skills A Brief Conversation with … Kate Skarda Promote media captioning with one‐on‐one education Of Counsel Make online learning accessible for students with disabilities Technology Matching assistive tech to functional limitations is critical Compliance Understand difference between service, therapy animals Managing Your Office Raise morale among your staff members by improving communication Create a policy of mutual respect Etc. Provide faculty, staff with APA resource to help them better support students with disabilities UNIVERSAL DESIGN Quick tips for creating accessibility for all Help those with age‐related problems with strategies that help all BEYOND ACCOMMODATION Get faculty, staff to work together on universal design Legal Roundup ACCOMMODATION College must reconsider whether requirement is essential POLICIES & PROCEDURES Student's suspension upheld, but institution must amend withdrawal procedures DISCRIMINATION College takes swift action to end OCR investigation OCR finds procedures for complaints don't comply with federal law PERSONNEL Campus safety officer gets chance to prove discrimination Court dismisses ADA claim filed 2 days late Appeals court rejects employment case brought under ADA's Title II DISCRIMINATION Court denies summary judgment to university in student's claims QUICK STUDY

Financial Stability Monitoring

While the Dodd Frank Act (DFA) broadens the regulatory reach to reduce systemic risks to the U.S. financial system, it does not address some important risks that could migrate to or emanate from entities outside the federal safety net. At the same time, it limits the types of interventions by financial authorities to address systemic events when they occur. As a result, a broad and forward-looking monitoring program, which seeks to identify financial vulnerabilities and guide the development of pre-emptive policies to help mitigate them, is essential. Systemic vulnerabilities arise from market failures that can lead to excessive leverage, maturity transformation, interconnectedness, and complexity. These vulnerabilities, when hit by adverse shocks, can lead to fire sale dynamics, negative feedback loops, and inefficient contractions in the supply of credit. We present a framework that centers on the vulnerabilities that propagate adverse shocks, rather than shocks themselves, which are difficult to predict. Vulnerabilities can emerge in four areas: (1) systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), (2) shadow banking, (3) asset markets, and (4) the nonfinancial sector. This framework also highlights how policies that reduce the likelihood of systemic crises may do so only by raising the cost of financial intermediation in non-crisis periods.