Today’s Environmental Health Seminar: Occupational Heat-Related Illness with Kathleen Fitzsimmons, Epidemiologist. Will be of interest to students with international interests as well!
Environmental Health Seminar
Title: Occupational Heat-Related Illness
Speaker: Kathleen Fitzsimmons, MPH
Epidemiologist, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Time: Friday, October 12, 2012, 12:00PM – 1:00PM
Place: Boston University Instructional Building Room L214
Contact: jvsevent@bu.edu
Summary: Continuing the Department of Environmental Health’s seminar series, Climate Change: Science, Health, and Policy, Kathleen Fitzsimmons, MPH, will present this week’s seminar titled, Occupational Heat-Related Illness. Workers represent a distinct population at risk for heat-related illness (HRI), considered to be a leading occupational health effect of global climate change. Environmental heat is a potential hazard in a number of industries, including agriculture, yet there is a lack of information on the extent of HRI among US workers. Ms. Fitzsimmons will provide an overview of occupational HRI, summarize California’s outdoor workplace HRI prevention regulation, and describe a pilot surveillance project conducted by the California Department of Public Health to assess the statewide burden of occupational HRI.
Dr. Robert Harrison will be joining the seminar online to take part in the discussion. Dr. Harrison founded and directed the University of California San Francisco Occupational Health Services for more than 15 years, and now is a senior attending physician. He also directs the worker tracking investigation program for the California Department of Public Health.