John Howard
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Washington, D.C.
November 9, 2015
Healthy Schools: The Future of Children’s Health
Pew Charitable Trusts
Washington, D.C.

Regulation/Enforcement
Department of Labor
(DOL)
Mine Safety and Health
Administration
(MSHA)
Occupational
Safety and Health
Administration
(OSHA)
Research
Department of
Health and Human Services
(HHS)
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
(CDC)
National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

•
•
To generate new knowledge in the field of occupational safety and health, and
To transfer that knowledge into practice

• Congressional Purpose:
– “to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources—”
• Jurisdiction
– Act applies to “employment”
– Duties placed on employers
• Employer means a person engaged in a business affecting commerce who has employees
• Employee means an employee of an employer who is employed in a business
– Excludes “contractors”

• Hospitals
– Patients
– Healthcare providers, staff and visitors
• Transportation (Air, Water, Ground)
– Passengers
– Crew
• Schools
– Students
– Teachers, administrators and staff

How to Use OSH Act for Hybrid Workplaces
• Employees, employee representatives, or employers can ask
NIOSH to help learn whether health hazards are present at their place of work
• Based on their findings, NIOSH will recommend ways to reduce hazards and prevent work-related illness.
– Assess exposures
– Assess health effects
– Is there an association between school exposure and health effects?
– Point of confusion—health symptoms often attributed to school buildings
– Inappropriate evaluation & testing may lead to misinformation, focusing resources on the wrong problems, and missed opportunities to address other health problems.
• The evaluation is done at no cost to the employees, employee representatives, or employers.

• Last 10 years, 75 requests:
– 66% concerned indoor air quality
– 33% other issues
• Chemical exposures (wood shop)
• Noise (band rooms)
• Violence directed at teachers
• Common findings
– Poorly maintained buildings in general
– Ventilation systems in particular

Indoor Air Quality Issues
• Comfort parameters
– Temperature and relative humidity
• Effectiveness of the ventilation system
– Air turnovers per hour
• Remediating dampness and moisture problems
– Mold testing not productive, although often requested

• 16 requests from October 2014 to September 2015
– Elementary and secondary schools in 14 states
• Complaints:
– Dampness and mold
– Ventilation
– Chemicals
– Insect and rodents
– Hydrogen sulfide
– Asbestos
• NIOSH Response:
– 2 Site visits
– Telephone consultations, referrals and recommendations

• Collaboration between school district and teachers’ union
• Study of 50 elementary schools in Philadelphia
• Site visits conducted
• Sample collections from 500 classrooms for microbial contaminants done
• Web-based health questionnaire provided to employees at 50 schools
– Responses from 1000 teachers and staff
• Study not completed

Enabling a new era of worker safety, health & well-being

Many experts say the rise of embedded and wearable computing will bring the next revolution in digital technology.
Upsides are enhanced health, convenience, productivity, safety and vastly more useful information for people and organizations.
Downsides are challenges to personal privacy, overhyped expectations, and tech complexity that boggles us.
PEW Research Center May 2014

• Sensors are at the heart of the Industrial Internet
– Deploying sensors, the entire workplace and everything and everyone in it can become a type of information system
• Sensors can become intelligent assets—devices equipped with sensors and connected to one another produce sensor-based analytics