EOH502 CASE 3
Module 3 - Background
Biological and Ergonomic Hazards
Required Reading
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/ergonomics/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Foodborne germs and illnesses. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Division of vector-borne diseases (DVBD). Retrieved on 5/5/16 at http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dvbd/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) prevention. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/evaluation/topics/disorders.html
Healey, B. J., & Walker, K. T. (2009). Chapter 11: Ergonomics. In Public health/environmental health: Introduction to occupational health in public health practice. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Jossey-Bass.
Institute of Medicine. (2000). Chapter 3: The changing workforce. In Safe work in the 21st century: Education and training needs for the next decade's occupational safety and health personnel. Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press.
Montano, D. (2014). Chemical and biological work-related risks across occupations in Europe: A review. Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 9: 28-41.
Painter, J. A., Hoekstra, R. M., Ayers, T., Tauxe, R. V., Braden, C. R., Angulo F. J., et al. (2013). Attribution of foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths to food commodities by using outbreak data, United States, 1998–2008. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 19(3): 407-415.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). About Pesticides. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/index.htm
Washington State University. (n.d.). School IPM. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://schoolipm.wsu.edu/
Optional Reading
Benjamin, A.C., III, Brewer, S., Tullar, J. M., Van Eerd, D., Cole, D. C., & Tompa, E. (2009). Musculoskeletal disorders. Professional Safety, 54(3), 24-28.
Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety. (2016). Ergonomics. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Rodents. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/
Guglielmi, C., Spratt, D., Berguer, R., Alexander, S., Barnes, S., & Groah, L. (2010). A call to arms to prevent sharps injuries in our ORs. Association of Operating Room Nurses. AORN Journal, 92(4), 387-92.
Hart, D. P. (2011). Bloodborne pathogen violations: Compliance is key to prevention. Association of Operating Room Nurses. AORN Journal, 94(5), 480-7.
Institute of Medicine. (2000). Chapter 4: The changing workplace. In Safe work in the 21st century: Education and training needs for the next decade’s occupational safety and health personnel. Washington, DC, USA: National Academies Press.
United States Department of Agriculture. (2015). Food safety fact sheets. Retrieved on 4/17/16 at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets
Optional Resources
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2018). General format. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2018). In-text citations: The basics. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2018). Reference list: Basic rules. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html
Module 3 - Home
Biological and Ergonomic Hazards
Modular Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to satisfy the following outcomes:
· Case
· Explore food-borne illness and principles of food safety.
· SLP
· Apply principles of hazard recognition and control to biological and ergonomic hazards in the workplace.
· Discussion
· Discuss vector-borne diseases and vector control.
Module Overview
Food Safety and Protection
What is food-borne disease?
Food-borne disease is caused by consuming contaminated foods or beverages. Many different disease-causing microbes, or pathogens, can contaminate foods, so there are many different food-borne infections. In addition, poisonous chemicals or other harmful substances can cause food-borne diseases if they are present in the food.
More than 250 different food-borne diseases have been described. Most of these diseases are infections, caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can be food borne. Other diseases are poisonings, caused by harmful toxins or chemicals that have contaminated the food—for example, poisonous mushrooms. These different diseases have many different symptoms, so there is no one “syndrome”—that is, food-borne illness. However, the microbe or toxin enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, and often causes the first symptoms there, so nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea are common symptoms in many food-borne diseases.
Many microbes can spread in more than one way, so we cannot always know that a disease is food borne. The distinction matters, because public health authorities need to know how a particular disease is spreading to take the appropriate steps to stop it. For example, Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections can spread through contaminated food, contaminated drinking water, contaminated swimming water, and from toddler to toddler at a day care center. Depending on which means of spread caused a case, the measures to stop other cases from occurring could range from removing contaminated food from stores, chlorinating a swimming pool, or closing a day care center.
What are the most common food-borne diseases?
The most commonly recognized food-borne infections are those caused by the bacteria Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli O157:H7, and by a group of viruses called the Norwalk and Norwalk-like viruses.
In addition to disease caused by direct infection, some food-borne diseases are caused by the presence of a toxin in the food that was produced by a microbe in the food. For example, the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus can grow in some foods and produce a toxin that causes intense vomiting. The rare but deadly disease botulism occurs when the bacterium Clostridium botulinum grows and produces a powerful paralytic toxin in foods. These toxins can produce illness even if the microbes that produced them are no longer there.
Other toxins and poisonous chemicals can cause food-borne illness. People can become ill if a pesticide is inadvertently added to a food, or if naturally poisonous substances are used to prepare a meal. Every year, people become ill after mistaking poisonous mushrooms for safe species, or after eating poisonous reef fishes.
What foods are most associated with food-borne illness?
These foods are called Potentially Hazardous Foods. Raw foods of animal origin are the most likely to be contaminated. Examples are raw meat and poultry, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk, and raw shellfish. Because filter-feeding shellfish strain microbes from the sea over many months, they are particularly likely to be contaminated if there are any pathogens in the seawater. Foods that mingle the products of many individual animals, such as bulk raw milk, pooled raw eggs, or ground beef, are particularly hazardous because a pathogen present in any one of the animals may contaminate the whole batch. A single hamburger may contain meat from hundreds of animals. A single restaurant omelet may contain eggs from hundreds of chickens. A glass of raw milk may contain milk from hundreds of cows. A broiler chicken carcass can be exposed to the drippings and juices of many thousands of other birds that went through the same cold water tank after slaughter.
Fruits and vegetables consumed raw are a particular concern. Washing can decrease but not eliminate contamination, so the consumers can do little to protect themselves. Recently, a number of outbreaks have been traced to fresh fruits and vegetables that were processed under less than sanitary conditions. These outbreaks show that the quality of the water used for washing and chilling the produce after it is harvested is critical. Using water that is not clean can contaminate many boxes of produce. Fresh manure used to fertilize vegetables can also contaminate them. Alfalfa sprouts and other raw sprouts pose a particular challenge, as the conditions under which they are sprouted are ideal for growing microbes as well as sprouts, and because they are eaten without further cooking. That means that a few bacteria present on the seeds can grow to high numbers of pathogens on the sprouts. Unpasteurized fruit juice can also be contaminated if there are pathogens in or on the fruit that is used to make it.
Food Protection
The “Danger Zone”: Bacteria multiply rapidly between 40 degrees F and 140 degrees F. To keep food out of this “Danger Zone,” keep cold food cold and hot food hot.
How can food be made safer in the first place?
Food-borne diseases are largely preventable, although there is no simple one-step prevention measure like a vaccine. Instead, measures are needed to prevent or limit contamination all the way from farm to table. A variety of good agricultural and manufacturing practices can reduce the spread of microbes among animals and prevent the contamination of foods. Careful review of the whole food production process can identify the principal hazards and the control points where contamination can be prevented, limited, or eliminated. A formal method for evaluating the control of risk in foods is called the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. It was first developed by NASA to make sure that the food eaten by astronauts was safe. HACCP safety principles are now being applied to an increasing spectrum of foods, including meat, poultry, and seafood.
Biological Hazards in Occupational Settings
Exposure to some 200 biological agents, viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, molds and organic dusts occurs in selected occupational environments. The hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses and tuberculosis infections (particularly among health care workers), asthma (among persons exposed to organic dust) and chronic parasitic diseases (particularly among agricultural and forestry workers) are the most common occupational diseases resulting from such exposures. Blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B are now major occupational hazards for health care workers. Sources of biological hazards include bacteria, viruses, insects, plants, birds, animals, and humans. These sources can cause a variety of health effects ranging from skin irritation and allergies to infections (e.g., tuberculosis, AIDS), cancer and so on.
Blood borne pathogens are major occupational hazards for health care workers. Blood borne pathogens are microorganisms in the blood or other body fluids that can cause illness and disease in people. These microorganisms can be transmitted through contact with contaminated blood and body fluids.
Musculoskeletal Disorders
According to NIOSH, Muscoloskeletal disorders are injuries or disorders of the muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal discs. In contrast to what we learned in the previous module about falls in the workplace, muscoloskeletal disorders (MSDs) do not include these incidents, nor disorders caused by slips, trips, and other similar incidents. They are often caused by bending, twisting, or climbing, at work.
The onset of pain can follow repetitive motions in several MSDs, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. These injuries would include sprains, strains, and tears. Pain is one of the most common symptoms, often occurring in the back, shoulders, and knees.
Ergonomics
The field of workplace ergonomics generally deals with prevention of injury and chronic pain through minimization of undue forces on the body. Proper posture when performing work activities is stressed. Ergonomics affects many types of employees: meat-packing workers, poultry workers, health care workers, nurses, cashiers, assembly-line workers, computer users, truck drivers, stock handlers, sewing machine operators, and construction workers.
Pests and Pesticides
Plants, insects, mold, mildew, rodents, bacteria, and other organisms are a natural part of the environment. They can benefit people in many ways. But they can also be pests.
What is a Pest?
Pests are living organisms that present where they are not wanted or cause damage or harm to crops or humans or other animals. Examples include:
· insects
· mice and other animals
· unwanted plants (weeds)
· fungi
· microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses
Rodent-Borne Diseases
Worldwide, rats and mice spread more than 35 diseases. Rodent-borne diseases are spread directly to humans through bite wounds, consuming food or water that is contaminated with rodent feces, coming in contact with surface water contaminated with rodent urine, or through breathing in germs that may be present in rodent urine or droppings that have been stirred into the air (a process known as "aerosolization"). Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents. In some cases, the rodents are the reservoirs (carriers) of the diseases, while in other cases the ticks, mites, or fleas act as the disease reservoirs.
Insect- and Arthropod-Related Diseases
Ticks, mosquitoes, lice, and fleas are all ancient pests that continue to cause sickness and death worldwide.
Pesticides
Whether used to control insects, rodents, weeds, microbes, or fungi, pesticides have important benefits. They help farmers provide an affordable and plentiful food supply. Pesticides also are used in other settings such as our homes and schools to control pests as common as cockroaches, termites, and mice.
By their very nature, most pesticides create some risk of harm. Pesticides can cause harm to humans, animals, or the environment because they are designed to kill or otherwise adversely affect living organisms. Visit http://npic.orst.edu/index.html to find out more about risks to human health and the environment.
Integrated Pest Management is a comprehensive approach to pest control that offers a means to reduce the risk from—and in some cases, the amount of—chemical pesticides needed.