Author Archives: Justin Smulison

About Justin Smulison

Justin Smulison is the business content manager at RIMS and the host of RIMScast, the society's weekly podcast.
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200 New ‘Nightmarish’ Reasons to Wash Your Hands

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New nationwide testing in 2017 uncovered 221 instances of unusual resistance genes in what is known as “nightmare bacteria,” according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) monthly Vital Signs report, released last week. Germs with unusual antibiotic resistance (AR) include those that cannot be killed by all or most antibiotics, are uncommon in a geographic area or the U.

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S., or have specific genes that allow them to spread their resistance to other germs.

Examples of AR germs include: Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), Candida auris, and certain types of nightmare bacteria such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).

“CDC’s study found several dangerous pathogens, hiding in plain sight, that can cause infections that are difficult or impossible to treat,” said CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, M.D.

With spring break in full effect and peak travel season on the horizon, the timing of this new information should be noted by businesses and the public, since AR has been found in every state and can spread between facilities and even people without symptoms of infection.

The CDC warned that germs “will continuously find ways to resist new and existing antibiotics” and that it is currently impossible to stop new resistances from developing. Recent nationwide infrastructure investments in laboratories, infection control, and response are enabling aggressive investigations to keep resistance from spreading in health care settings.

According to the CDC, a hard-to-treat germ that spreads easily was found in 11% of screening tests among subjects who displayed no symptoms. The nightmare germs sicken 2 million Americans and kill 23,000 every year. Additional study findings showed that:

  • One-in-four germ samples sent to the AR Lab Network for testing had special genes that allow them to spread their resistance to other germs.
  • Further investigation in facilities with unusual resistance revealed that about one in 10 screening tests, from patients without symptoms, identified a hard-to-treat germ that spreads easily.
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    This means the germ could have spread undetected in that health care facility.

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  • For CRE alone, estimates show that the containment strategy would prevent as many as 1,600 new infections in three years in a single state—a 76% reduction.

The CDC’s rapid response Containment Strategy is launched at the first sign of unusual resistance. Recent cases were found and isolated in Tennessee, after a patient received health care outside the U.S.; and in Iowa, when a nursing home patient was diagnosed with an AR germ that spread to five other people. Follow-up assessments revealed the outbreak had been contained.

To mitigate the risk of contracting these germs, employees should:

  • Inform your healthcare provider if you recently received health care in another country or facility.
  • Talk to your healthcare provider about preventing infections, taking good care of chronic conditions and getting recommended vaccines.

CDC recommends practicing good hygiene, such as keeping hands clean with hand washing or alcohol-based hand rubs, and keeping cuts clean until healed.

Nat. Work Zone Awareness Week Targets Construction Zone Safety

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Hazardous work zones continue to affect the careers and companies of employees in the U.

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S. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 765 work zone fatalities in 2016, which marked a 7% uptick from the previous year. In 2015, in addition to motor vehicle-related fatalities (the majority of which were in construction zones), 35,500 people were injured in work zone crashes, as reported in the 2017 edition of the National Safety Council’s Injury Facts.

To mark the beginning of the road construction season and to prevent further incidents, the 19th annual National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) has launched and will run through April 13. Organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Highway Administration, this year’s campaign is “Work Zone Safety: Everybody’s Responsibility,” and aims to encourage safe driving through highway work zones.

The week kicked off today in host state, Illinois, at the Peoria Street bridge over Interstate 290 at the Jane Byrne Interchange reconstruction project in Chicago. Joined by the DOT, as well as other national and local partners, Illinois will hold events to raise awareness for safe driving practices in work zones. The Illinois DOT’s page states:

The Jane Byrne Interchange work zone emulates the Department’s goal toward a multimodal transportation system and reinforces the message that driving habits impact motorists, cyclists, workers and pedestrians. Whether you choose to drive, walk, bike or take public transportation, remember this year’s theme… Work Zone Safety: Everybody’s Responsibility.

One of the campaign’s nationwide events, Go Orange Day, is scheduled for April 11. Roadway safety professionals across the country are encouraged to wear orange to show their support of work zone safety, call attention to the dangers they face and honor the families of victims who lost their lives in work zones. In observance of Go Orange Day, the American Traffic Safety Services Association will host a Facebook Live event tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. (EST) to discuss the importance of work zone safety.

The NWZAW page has several resources for businesses, including this year’s toolkit, NWZAW poster, and other information to help get started. The toolkit includes customizable employer launch letters and press releases, fact sheets, event planners and interactive employee presentations.

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Suggested Go Orange Day and National Work Zone Awareness Week activities include:

  • Posting social media announcements with #NWZAW and #Orange4Safety; and distributing NWZAW fact sheets and posters.
  • Telling friends and family. Commit to telling at least three people about NWZAW and Go Orange Day, including statistics and information about work zone safety. By spreading the word in your circle, you will have a ripple effect that will make your community more aware while in work zones.
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  • Thanking a roadway worker. While it is not appropriate to pull over in a work zone to share your thanks, if you see a roadway worker out in the community, or know one that lives in your community, be sure to thank them for the work they do each day to maintain our roadways.

Black Coffee Blues

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If a new court decision in California is enforced, baristas will have to place another label on cups next to customers’ names—a cancer warning.

Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court proposed a decision against coffee makers in a lawsuit that has been brewing in courts for years. The Council for Education and Research on Toxics claim that by selling coffee with trace amounts of acrylamide—a chemical classified as a carcinogen, but one that occurs naturally from the roasting process—retailers are exposing consumers to a health hazard. This would ultimately put sellers in violation of California Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which requires businesses that expose customers to hundreds of chemicals to post warning labels notifying them as such.

In his proposed decision, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Elihu Berle wrote:

“Since defendants failed to prove that coffee confers any human health benefits, defendants have failed to satisfy their burden of proving that sound considerations of public health support an alternate risk level for acrylamide in coffee.”

Should the decision go into effect, businesses that fail to provide the warning notice will be subject to a fine of up to $2,500 a day for each violation.

This news has California’s coffee drinkers, sellers and roasters boiling. After all, people have been imbibing the dark nectar of the gods for hundreds of years and very few, if any, causal connections have been made between it and cancer.

On March 29, the National Coffee Association (NCA) released a statement in response to the ruling and dispelled the notion that coffee can be cancerous:

The industry is currently considering all of its options, including potential appeals and further legal actions. Cancer warning labels on coffee would be misleading. The U.S. government’s own Dietary Guidelines state that coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that coffee does not cause cancer. Study after study has provided evidence of the health benefits of drinking coffee, including longevity—coffee drinkers live longer.

Retailers have some options in reaction to the developments. Last year, Bloomberg reported that the “few coffee sellers that have settled rather than keep fighting,” were hopeful that “people in California are so accustomed to seeing the signage that they will tune it out.” In October 2017, Starbucks and some other retailers preemptively placed warnings signs in stores—which may serve as a hedge against fines for millions of cups of coffee sold over several years.

Sellers could create cups specially marked for California sales, which may disrupt its supply chain and increase costs. They could also opt not to sell in California at all, which is unlikely, since the state’s economy is booming with coffee suppliers. With nearly 75% of California’s population being older than age 18, millions of dollars in per-cup sales may hang in the balance.

The decision is not final, however. In the NCA’s statement, president and CEO William “Bill” Murray said: “Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage. This lawsuit has made a mockery of Prop 65, has confused consumers, and does nothing to improve public health.”

For further insight into the unintended consequences of Proposition 65 and other well-intentioned regulations visit here.

The Planet’s Plastic Garbage Problem

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A giant island composed of plastic waste thrice the size of France is floating in the Pacific Ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) contains 1.

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8 trillion pieces of plastic weighing 80,000 metric tons. It is located between Hawaii and California, which has the distinction of being the world’s largest accumulation zone for ocean plastics because it just happens to be where multiple sea currents meet and where the (mostly) plastic mass churns.

The GPGP was on Risk Management Monitor’s radar back in 2014 (and prior to that, as well) and even then, it was already considered one of the costliest man-made disasters in history. But new developments from the Ocean Cleanup Foundation (OCF) confirmed that the buoyant junk heap exceeds earlier projections of its size and scope. According to the OCF, the newly released estimates are four to 16 times higher than previously expected for the GPGP’s overall size. 92% of the mass is represented by larger objects; while only 8% of the mass is contained in microplastics, defined as pieces smaller than a quarter-inch in size.

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“We were surprised by the amount of large plastic objects we encountered,” said Dr. Julia Reisser, chief scientist of the expeditions. “We used to think most of the debris consists of small fragments, but this new analysis shines a new light on the scope of the debris.”

The OCF has removal plans in motion and scientists said this situation also highlights the need for stronger recycling efforts.

Boyan Slat, founder of the OCF and co-author of the study, elaborated on the relevance of the findings for his organization’s cleanup plans: “To be able to solve a problem, we believe it is essential to first understand it. These results provide us with key data to develop and test our cleanup technology, but it also underlines the urgency of dealing with the plastic pollution problem. Since the results indicate that the amount of hazardous microplastics is set to increase more than tenfold if left to fragment, the time to start is now.”

OCF, which is privately funded, plans to remove the plastic heap using an autonomous floating system (composed of high-density polyethylene, a durable and recyclable material) designed to capture small plastic particles less than a half-inch and as large as tens of yards wide. Cleanup is expected to begin in the next six months and OCF models indicate that half of the GPGP can be removed by 2023. According to its website:

By removing the plastic while most of it is still large, we prevent it from breaking down into dangerous microplastics. Combining the cleanup with source reduction on land paves the road towards a plastic-free ocean in 2050.

Unfortunately, such a huge environmental risk is not limited to the Pacific.

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Last month, a study released in Frontiers in Marine Science found lots of microplastics in the fish and marine life of the North Atlantic Ocean:

Using forensic methods, this study assessed microplastic frequency of occurrence in mesopelagic fish gut contents from a warm-core eddy in the Northwest Atlantic. We detected a significantly higher occurrence rate of 73% in contrast to previous studies reporting occurrence rates of 11% in the North Atlantic and 9% and 35% in the North Pacific Gyre regions.

In a recent USA Today article, one Frontiers study author reminded that just because these fish may be out of our physical reach, our waste knows no bounds.

“These seemingly remote fishes located thousands of kilometers (miles) from land and 600 meters (2,000 feet) down in our ocean are not isolated from our pollution,” said study co-author Tom Doyle, a marine biologist at the National University of Ireland in Galway.