Before the end of World War II, there was little interest in fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of the working population—a scientific practice known as ergonomics. By the 1970s, NIOSH researchers were pioneering the study of musculoskeletal health as professional ergonomists, examining physical and social components of work environments (such as conveyer belt height and lunch break routines, respectively) to mitigate musculoskeletal injury risks.

Eating spicy foods can help people eat less salt and have lower blood pressure -- potentially reducing their risk of heart attack and stroke -- according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Hypertension. “Previously, a pilot study found that trace amounts of capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their pungent smell, enhanced the perception of food being salty,” said senior study author Zhiming Zhu, M.D., professor and director of the Department of Hypertension and Endocrinology at the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China. “We wanted to test whether this effect would also reduce salt consumption.”

Exxon Mobil Corp. and the federal government have settled a case arising from the company being charged with violating the Clean Air Act due to air pollution violations at eight petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana. News sources say the company has agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty related the violations and spend approximately $300 million to install new equipment to improve operation and monitoring of industrial flares at the facilities.

A 22-year-old worker died last week in Streamwood, Illinois after becoming trapped in a manhole. Authorities say Brett Morrow was part of a construction crew working to clean out and install lining in a sanitary sewer system. He was about 30 feet into a two foot-wide pipe when he became trapped. According to news sources, firefighters crawled down through the pipe, but had trouble reaching Morrow because of a large quantity of hardened lining material that was blocking the pipe.

Sleep apnea, fatigue and a poor traffic management plan combined to cause a fatal 2016 collision between a motorcoach and tractor-trailer truck near Palm Springs, California, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The driver of the motorcoach and 12 motorcoach passengers were killed on October 23, 2016 when the speeding motorcoach crashed into a stopped truck on Interstate 10 in the early-morning darkness.

Trump has nominated Scott Mugno, vice president of safety, sustainability, and vehicle maintenance at Fed-Ex Ground, to head OSHA. Mugno has worked for FedEx in a variety of safety-related roles since 1994, first as an attorney and then as managing director of safety, health and fire prevention for the Tennessee-based shipping giant in 2000.

With wildfires posing a current and – no doubt – future threat to California’s residents and its environment, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is urging California Governor Jerry Brown to turn to the experts – industrial hygienists – when it comes to protecting the health and safety of residents and recovery workers. “AIHA and its members are ready now, and we will remain ready to assist you in recovery efforts throughout the days to come,” wrote AIHA President Deborah Imel Nelson PhD, CIH and California Industrial Hygiene Council President Pamela Murcell, CIH in a letter to Brown.

Climate change is already harming human health in ways that are “far worse than previously understood,” according to a new report in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal. "Climate change is happening, and it's a health issue today for millions worldwide,” said Anthony Costello, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown, the commission that produced the report.

President Trump’s declaring the opioid epidemic a national health emergency is a critical first step, but it does not address the urgent need for more federal funds to fight this crisis, according to Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD, CEO of the American Psychological Association (APA). Evans said the declaration does not automatically direct federal funds to address the problem – funds which should go to the states, because they “are battling this epidemic on the front lines.”

When it comes to health, a large gap often exists between what we know (for example, we know that eating too much sugar is bad for our health) and what we still do. Hearing loss prevention is no exception. We have been aware of the harmful effects of overexposure to noise for over a century.