Identifying Health and Safety Concerns in Southeast Asian Immigrant Nail Salon Workers.

Nail salon workers are exposed to a variety of toxic chemicals at levels that remain unreported and have undetermined health consequences. The objective of the study was to gather information about the hazards in nail salons along with safety practices and health concerns of nail salon workers. A survey was conducted on 65 nail salon workers who were immigrants from Southeast Asia in Oregon, USA. More than 20% of the participants reported nose irritation and allergies as the most common health problems. Rare and no use of gloves and mask were reported among 72% and 32% of the participants, respectively. A significantly higher number of participants with "fair" or "poor" self-reported general health condition was found among the workers who applied acrylic nails compared with those who were not involved in this application. Findings of the study emphasize the need for more research to determine the relationship between chemical exposures in nail salons and health outcomes.

Effectiveness of total worker health interventions.

Total Worker Health (TWH) was introduced and the term was trademarked in 2011 by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to formally signal the expansion of traditional occupational safety and health (OSH) to include wellness and well-being. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and other databases using keywords TWH, health promotion, health protection, and variants for articles meeting the criteria of (a) employing both occupational safety and/or health (OSH, or health protection) and wellness and/or well-being (health promotion, or HP) in the same intervention study, and (b) reporting both OSH and HP outcomes. Only 17 published studies met these criteria. All but 1 of the 17 TWH interventions improved risk factors for injuries and/or chronic illnesses, and 4 improved 10 or more risk factors. Several TWH interventions reported sustained improvements for over a year, although only 1 is readily available for dissemination. These results suggest that TWH interventions that address both injuries and chronic diseases can improve workforce health effectively and more rapidly than the alternative of separately employing more narrowly focused programs to change the same outcomes in serial fashion. These 17 articles provide useful examples of how TWH interventions can be structured. The promise of simultaneous improvements in safety, health, and well-being leads to the call to pursue TWH research to identify and disseminate best practices.

Characterizing the needs of a young working population: making the case for total worker health in an emerging workforce.

OBJECTIVE: Young workers are at increased risk for occupational injuries. Many lack appropriate skills to avoid workplace hazards. In addition, existing safety programs neither address total worker health principles nor align with the relatively high technological expectations of young workers. This article aimed to identify the content and process for an on-line total worker health training for young workers. METHODS: During the summer of 2012, an on-line survey (n = 187) assessed young workers' behavior, knowledge, and attitudes on total worker health topics and on-line training delivery methods. RESULTS: Forty-five percent of the workers indicated this was their first job; new workers demonstrated lower safety knowledge scores than returning workers. In addition, results demonstrated that workers would benefit from health behavior interventions delivered through technology-based means. CONCLUSIONS: Findings characterize the work-related needs for this population and demonstrate the utility of using on-line training.