Colorado School of Public Health News and Stories

Teachers and staff shoulder a significant burden of responsibility for emergency preparedness in pre-k-12 schools. While emergency drills, including active harmer (lockdown, lockout) drills, are designed to instill confidence, they can sometimes lead to fear, anxiety and confusion. Teachers are expected to lead the drills by directing and evacuating students, locking down classrooms, providing safety checks, and emotionally supporting students. Teachers often have unanswered questions and increased anxieties associated with drills and other emergency preparedness efforts. This underscores the importance of providing necessary resources to better support the school workforce, including psychological preparedness and other mental health supports, in addition to regular access to safety and security personnel

Colorado School of Public Health | October 19, 2023

In August, 200 Mexican Institute of Social Security (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS)) occupational health and safety professionals from throughout Mexico will gather in Puebla, Mexico to participate in training and earn certificates in an integrated approach to worker well-being.

Colorado School of Public Health | July 22, 2023

No job is just one thing. In our work landscape, are moving farther away from ultra-specialized roles. As we look toward the future of work, we need individuals that are interdisciplined.

Laura Veith | June 02, 2023

As an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Lexie King intended to study to be a nurse. Three years in, however, she changed her mind. She earned her degree in communications, with a minor in public health.

Tyler Smith | May 24, 2023

On January 12, 2023, the Center for Health, Work & Environment (CHWE) at the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH), along with the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, concluded the first phase of its Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) peer learning series – a four-part virtual workshop for Colorado business leaders. Nominated participants represented a range of industries including healthcare, restaurants, hospitality, construction/utilities, local government, and education.

Colorado School of Public Health | February 13, 2023

The premise behind the Total Worker Health® approach is simple. Healthy workers make safer decisions and when workers are safe – both physically and psychologically – they are healthier overall. What is less clear are the ways we build capacity for TWH professionals working in the field and discovering what training and support they need.

David Shapiro | October 26, 2022

Type 2 diabetes continues to be a leading chronic disease in the United States, affecting 1 in 10 adults and is a serious issue for employers and employees alike. In response to providing employers with the tools to support employees, Health Links™, a program based at the Center for Health, Work & Environment, has developed and hosted trainings and education forums, provided technical assistance through advising sessions, and performed outreach activities over the past three years to address the negative impact of chronic disease in the workplace.

Sarah Levine | September 28, 2022

Leaders in occupational health and safety from across the U.S. have launched the new Society for Total Worker Health™. The Society for Total Worker Health is a non-profit member organization made up of individuals and partners dedicated to the advancement of worker health, safety, well-being, and productivity through Total Worker Health®.

Laura Veith | September 19, 2022

Each year, Health Links celebrates Colorado employers committed to workplace health, safety, and well-being. This year’s virtual event, Celebrating Total Worker Health®, aptly honored the award winners and finalists for their achievements in the workplace while providing attendees the opportunity to network and gain inspiration from other employers. With award celebrations sprinkled throughout the day, attendees participated in a variety of workshops ands continuing education sessions held by academic and industry experts.

Topics included coming back by giving back with inspirational stories from Heidi Ganahl on her personal and professional journey, chronic disease prevention, health-promoting built work environments, mental health technology, modern families at work, health for teleworkers, and more.

"We are consistently impressed by the dedication to Total Worker Health (TWH) from our entire Healthy Workplace Network™ and are thrilled to announce the 2021 Award winners," said Health Links program manager David Shapiro. "Over the past 2 years, in the face of the pandemic, we have seen tremendous advancement in the field of workplace health, safety, and well-being. There is reason to celebrate!"

Colorado School of Public Health | July 13, 2021

As the Colorado School of Public Health-led modeling team considers potential trajectories of the COVID-19 pandemic, they base their forecasts on the levels of success of a few different containment strategies. Many cities and counties in Colorado have now implemented mask orders, businesses are required to maintain certain levels of social distancing as they reopen, and older adults are continuing to stay home. The state moved into the Safer-At-Home and Protect-Our-Neighbors phases while strengthening the fourth piece: aggressive case detection and containment through contact tracing.

Tori Forsheim | July 17, 2020

The Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health has been awarded a $9 million five-year training and research grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve worker health, safety and well-being. The award from the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides continued support for the Mountain & Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC), under the direction of University of Colorado Distinguished Professor Lee Newman, MD, MA and Colorado State University Professor Stephen Reynolds, PhD.  

Colorado School of Public Health | July 09, 2020

In a newly published paper in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Education and Training to Build Capacity in Total Worker Health®: Proposed Competencies for an Emerging Field, experts in the field of Total Worker Health have proposed the first set of core competencies for training professionals entering the discipline.

Colorado School of Public Health | May 27, 2020

The commercial cannabis industry continues to grow in Colorado and nationwide, demanding the need for a new workforce to be trained in occupational safety and health (OSH). In 2016, educators at the Center for Health, Work & Environment designed and delivered a full-day, in-person workshop for cannabis cultivation workers—one of the first learning experiences in the country of this kind. The course was an overview of OSH hazards and topics critical to the industry including chemical exposures, repetitive motion disorders, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, and personal protective equipment. A total of 208 people attended the two full-day trainings. 

To ensure we continue to provide high-quality educational offerings, our center evaluates all of its continuing education activities. Our recent paper, published in the Annals of Work Exposure and Health, describes how we evaluated this specific training. We wanted to know what attendees thought about the training, whether their knowledge about OSH in the cannabis industry improved, and how their OSH concerns changed after the training. 

Our evaluation discovered that:

91% of attendees rated the training as “very good” or “excellent.”
76% of attendees reported increased knowledge.
Attendees planned to implement changes in the workplace such as conducting more safety trainings, changing safety programs and policies, improving hazards, increasing OSH communications, and performing ergonomic and hazard assessments. 

Our evaluation demonstrates that OSH concerns of attendees shifted before and after the training, reflecting a better understanding of the musculoskeletal and respiratory hazards that exist in cannabis cultivation work. The training increased workers’ awareness of OSH issues that are more concerning and hazardous in their work than issues they previously thought were the most pressing. 

A significant takeaway from this training and its evaluation is that cannabis cultivation workers are highly interested in OSH training specific to their industry. Based on the rapidly expanding legalized cannabis landscape, the industry will continue to need updated information to keep its workforce safe and healthy on the job. Our center offers an online version of this training through its continuing education platform and is in the process of developing a more extensive training in the next year.   

If you are interested in occupational safety and health training for your cannabis cultivation employees, please reach out. 

Carol Brown | April 06, 2020