Evaluating an Entertainment–Education Telenovela to Promote Workplace Safety

Occupational safety and health professionals worked with health communication experts to collaborate with a major Spanish language television network to develop and implement a construction workplace safety media intervention targeting Latino/Hispanic audiences. An Entertainment–Education (EE) health communication strategy was used to create a worksite safety storyline weaved into the main plot of a nationally televised Telenovela (Spanish language soap opera). A secondary analysis of audience survey data in a pre/posttest cross-sectional equivalent group design was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of this EE media intervention to change knowledge, attitudes, and intention outcomes related to the prevention of fatal falls at construction worksites. Results indicate that using culturally relevant mediums can be an effective way of reaching and educating audiences about specific fall prevention information. This is aligned with recommendations by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to increase interventions and evaluations of culturally relevant and competent health communication

Health Equity and a Paradigm Shift in Occupational Safety and Health

Despite significant improvements in occupational safety and health (OSH) over the past 50 years, there remain persistent inequities in the burden of injuries and illnesses. In this commentary, the authors assert that addressing these inequities, along with challenges associated with the fundamental reorganization of work, will require a more holistic approach that accounts for the social contexts within which occupational injuries and illnesses occur. A biopsychosocial approach explores the dynamic, multidirectional interactions between biological phenomena, psychological factors, and social contexts, and can be a tool for both deeper understanding of the social determinants of health and advancing health equity. This commentary suggests that reducing inequities will require OSH to adopt the biopsychosocial paradigm. Practices in at least three key areas will need to adopt this shift. Research that explicitly examines occupational health inequities should do more to elucidate the effects of social arrangements and the interaction of work with other social determinants on work-related risks, exposures, and outcomes. OSH studies regardless of focus should incorporate inclusive methods for recruitment, data collection, and analysis to reflect societal diversity and account for differing experiences of social conditions. OSH researchers should work across disciplines to integrate work into the broader health equity research agenda

Toxic Waste Disposal in Escherichia coli

About 10% of the nalidixic acid-resistant (Nal(r)) mutants in a transposition-induced library exhibited a growth factor requirement as the result of cysH, icdA, metE, or purB mutation. Resistance in all of these mutants required a functional AcrAB-TolC efflux pump, but the EmrAB-TolC pump played no obvious role. Transcription of acrAB was increased in each type of Nal(r) mutant. In the icdA and purB mutants, each of the known signaling pathways appeared to be used in activating the AcrAB-TolC pump. The metabolites that accumulate upstream of the blocks caused by the mutations are hypothesized to increase the levels of the AcrAB-TolC pump, thereby removing nalidixic acid from the organism