The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $6.8 million to national public health partners to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial jurisdictions with their Zika responses in a wide range of activities, including surveillance and epidemiology, vector control, communication and outreach to pregnant women and vulnerable populations, and planning with key stakeholders.
Employees of U.S. companies seeking to avoid exposure to the Zika virus likely have few legal avenues to either refuse travel to affected areas or sue if they actually become sick from the virus, according to a report by Reuters news service.
Worldwide, millions of pregnant women wear face coverings at work, including the widely used N95 respirator with filtering face pieces or masks. The N95 respirator restricts normal airflow, so a woman may have to breathe harder while wearing it.
Recent NIOSH research has shed some light on the topic of the safety of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFR) use by pregnant workers. Women make up approximately one-half of the US work force. At any given time, about 10% of those female workers of child-bearing age (15–44 years of age) will be pregnant.
April marks Alcohol Awareness Month, a nationwide campaign intended to raise awareness of the health and social problems that excessive alcohol consumption can cause for individuals, their families, and their communities.
