Investigation finds serious worker safety problems and under-reporting of injuries at Tesla; advocates fight for stronger laws to protect waste collection workers; farm workers take to the streets to protest Trump’s immigration policies; and JetBlue flight attendants vote to unionize.
Climate change, workplace violence, and children’s health were some of the topics addressed at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.
Five-part series investigates worker safety and lax accountability at nuclear facilities; workers at port trucking companies in Southern California report conditions mirroring indentured servitude; seventh journalist murdered in Mexico since beginning of 2017; and a new farmworkers union is born in Washington.
A ‘hidden’ workforce of foreign workers at a Tesla plant in California; Illinois legislators pass a domestic workers bill of rights; Congress uses a spending bill to weaken safety rules for truckers; and lawsuits over workplace leave policies spike way up.
Workers inside Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel speak up about wages and conditions; New York’s governor sides with farmworkers in right to organize; reporters investigate the lack of women coaches in college sports; and Uber agrees to a workers guild with very limited power.
In debates over air pollution control, it’s always a tug-of-war between the cost to business and the cost to public health. Late last month, a study emerged with new data for the public health column: the cost of the nation’s nearly 16,000 annual preterm births linked to air pollution is more than a whopping $5 billion.
Agriculture
Study finds farmers markets can increase healthy food access among the most disadvantaged
In the last few years, the residents of Flint, Michigan, and its surrounding suburbs lost five grocery stores. Today, within the city limits, there’s just one large chain grocery store, about 10 small and often-pricier groceries, and 150 liquor stores, convenience stores and gas stations. People who have a car often travel out to the suburbs for more variety and better prices. Much of Flint is a food desert — a place where accessing healthy, affordable food is a very real challenge.
The transit authorities in Washington DC and Houston TX have different attitudes and approaches to address bus drivers’ needs to use access toilets during their workshifts. If I was a bus driver, I’d want a program like Houston’s.
Scientists are finding that night shift work comes with a range of particular health risks, from heart disease to diabetes to breast cancer. This month, another study joined the pack — this one on the risk of traffic crashes among those who head home from work at sunrise.
Re-run from March 16, 2015: Researchers analyze crash data following London’s 2003 implementation of a congestion-charge zone, while Seattle reduces transit fares for low-income riders.