Public health researchers have learned a lot about how the pandemic affected workers and exacerbated existing health disparities that exist in many communities. However, there鈥檚 still a lot we don鈥檛 know about the experience of workers deemed essential in the food industry and who were at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, such those working in grocery stores, restaurants, delivery and factories.

To find out how food workers were or were not protected and how they can be better protected going forward, researchers at the 91探花 and Indiana University are聽聽food industry workers who are 50 or older and live in either state. Through this聽study聽of older food industry workers, researchers are aiming to find ways to create more protections for this workforce.

鈥淓mployers play a big role in worker safety and health, and can be a valuable partner. In conjunction with policymakers, we can all work to keep employees and the people they come in contact with safe,鈥� said , a lead investigator in the study and associate professor in the 91探花Department of Epidemiology.

“What are we doing to protect our essential workers? Moving forward we need to consider essential workers, especially those whose voices aren’t often heard. This issue isn鈥檛 just about workers 鈥� businesses also have a lot at stake. If they鈥檙e losing longtime employees, that has a negative impact on the business. So in addition to being the right thing to do, there are other reasons for employers to want to better protect their workforce,鈥� said Hajat.

To complete a brief online survey, which will determine eligibility for the 90-minute phone interview, see . Participants will receive a $40 gift card for their time.

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For more information, contact Jake Ellison at jbe3@uw.edu.

A specific police action, an arrest or a shooting, has an immediate and direct effect on the individuals involved, but how far and wide do the reverberations of that action spread through the community? What are the health consequences for a specific, though not necessarily geographically defined, population?

The authors of a looking into these questions write that because law enforcement directly interacts with a large number of people, 鈥減olicing may be a conspicuous yet not-well understood driver of population health.鈥�

Understanding how law enforcement impacts the mental, physical, social and structural health and wellbeing of a community is a complex challenge, involving many academic and research disciplines such as criminology, sociology, psychology, public health and research into social justice, the environment, economics and history.

鈥淲e needed a map for how to think about the complex issues at the intersection of policing and health,鈥� said lead author , a recent doctoral graduate from UW鈥檚 Department of Epidemiology who worked on this study as part of her dissertation.

So, Simckes said, she set out to create a conceptual model depicting the complex relationship between policing and population health and assembled an interdisciplinary team of researchers to collaborate.

鈥淭his model shows how different types of encounters with policing can affect population health at multiple levels, through different pathways, and that factors like community characteristics and state and local policy can play a role,鈥� said Simckes, who currently works for the Washington State Department of Health.

The study, in early June in the journal Social Science & Medicine, walks through the various factors that may help explain the health impacts of policing by synthesizing the published research across several disciplines.

鈥淭his study provides a useful tool to researchers studying policing and population health across many different disciplines. It has the potential to help guide research on the critical topic of policing and health for many years to come,鈥� said senior author , an associate professor in the 91探花Department of Epidemiology

For example, the study points out when considering individual-level effects that 鈥渁fter physical injury and death, mental health may be the issue most frequently discussed in the context of police-community interaction 鈥� One U.S. found that among men, anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with frequency of police stops and perception of the intrusiveness of the encounter.鈥�

Among the many other research examples explored in the new model, the researchers also examine the cyclic nature of policing and population health. They point out that police stops tend to cluster in disadvantaged communities and 鈥渟aturating these communities with invasive tactics may lead to more concentrated crime.鈥� Consequently, it may be 鈥渋mpossible鈥� to determine whether police practices caused a neighborhood to experience more crime or if those practices were in response to crime. However, the model鈥檚 aim is to capture these complex 鈥渂idirectional鈥� relationships.

鈥淥ur model underscores the importance of reforming policing practices and policies to ensure they effectively promote population wellbeing at all levels,鈥� said Simckes. 鈥泪 hope this study ignites more dialogue and action around the roles and responsibilities of those in higher education and in clinical and public-health professions for advancing and promoting social justice and equity in our communities.鈥�

Co-authors include Dale Willits, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, WSU; Michael McFarland, Department of Sociology, Florida State University; Cheryl McFarland, Central Jersey Family Health Consortium, New Jersey; Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, Department of Epidemiology and Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, UW.

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To speak with Simckes, contact Jake Ellison at Jbe3@uw.edu.

With most of the Northwest blanketed by wildfire smoke, public officials and health experts suggest staying inside as much as possible to reduce exposure to the significant health risks of wildfire smoke.

However, inequity in our communities means not every home provides great protection and many workers in disadvantaged populations can鈥檛 afford to stay home, says , assistant professor of epidemiology in the 91探花School of Public Health.

贬补箩补迟鈥檚 expertise covers the impact air pollution 鈥� including from wildfires 鈥� has on disadvantaged populations.

Related quotes from Hajat:

鈥泪 think it’s a really important issue. We know that disadvantaged communities tend to live in older housing and more crowded housing. The messaging we get from public health says we need to stay indoors, but if you’re living in a home that’s pretty leaky, then you’re getting minimal protection from staying indoors. So poorer and minority communities who tend to live in older homes will be less protected from wildfire smoke.鈥�

鈥淎lso, lower income and minority populations also tend to work more essential jobs. So with the dual issues of COVID and wildfire smoke, they still have to go to work. So their smoke exposure potentially will be higher than for people who are able to work from home and stay indoors.”

鈥淭here’s lots of different parties that could play a role in terms of remedying these exposures. If we’re talking about older housing, we could focus a on landlords and try to incentivize them to improve the conditions of their properties. We know that can be expensive, so some involvement from the city could help incentivize landlords to do that.”

鈥泪ndividual residents can also create low cost filtration systems or air purifiers.鈥�

For more information about this video, go here.

鈥泪t’s also important that the state think about these vulnerable workers, specifically people that have to work outdoors. It can institute occupational standards that could potentially alleviate the risks to those workers who are the hardest hit such as farm and construction workers.鈥�

For more information and to speak with Professor Hajat, please contact Jake Ellison at jbe3@uw.edu

More information on smoke and wildfires:

• More 91探花experts on smoke impacts and wildfires

The terms and conditions of your employment 鈥� including your pay, hours, schedule flexibility and job security 鈥� influence your overall health as well as your risk of being injured on the job, according to new research from the 91探花.

The analysis takes a comprehensive approach to show that the overall pattern of employment conditions is important for health, beyond any single measure of employment, such as wages or contract type.

“This research is part of a growing body of evidence that the work people do 鈥� and the way it is organized and paid for 鈥� is fundamental to producing not only wealth, but health,鈥� said senior author , a 91探花professor of environmental and occupational health.

The was published this month in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.

Technology and other forces are changing the nature of work, researchers said. The traditional model of ongoing, full-time employment with regular hours and job security is rapidly giving way to gig-economy jobs, short-term contracts, nonstandard work hours and flexible employer-worker relationships.

Current models for understanding this work are too simplistic, said first author , a 91探花doctoral student in environmental and occupational health sciences. Studies of a single aspect of employment may not capture important elements of jobs that influence health.

鈥淓mployment relationships are complex. They determine everything from how much you get paid, how much control you have over your work schedule, your opportunities for advancement and how much protection you have against adverse working conditions, like harassment,鈥� said Peckham, also a clinical instructor in 91探花Health Services.

The researchers used data from the General Social Survey collected between 2002 to 2014 to construct a multidimensional measure of how self-reported health, mental health and occupational injury were associated with employment quality among approximately 6,000 US adults.

鈥淭here are many different forms of employment in the modern economy,鈥� Peckham said. 鈥淥ur study suggests that it is the different combinations of employment characteristics, which workers experience together as a package, that is important for their health.鈥�

Among their findings:

• People employed in 鈥渄ead-end鈥� jobs (for example, manufacturing assembly line workers who are often well-paid and unionized but with little empowerment or opportunity) and 鈥減recarious鈥� job holders (for example, janitors or retail workers who work on short-term contracts and struggle to get full-time hours) were more likely to report poor general and mental health as well as occupational injury compared to people with more traditional forms of employment.
• 鈥泪nflexible skilled鈥� workers (such as physicians and military personnel, who have generally high-quality jobs but with long, inflexible hours) and 鈥渏ob-to-job鈥� workers (such as Uber drivers, gig workers or the self-employed doing odd jobs) had worse mental health and increased injury experience compared to those with standard employment.
• One of the most surprising findings: 鈥淥ptimistic precarious鈥� job holders (including service-sector workers with high empowerment, such as florists) had similar health to those in standard employment, despite having jobs characterized by insecurity, low pay and irregular hours. They report high control over their schedules, opportunities to develop and involvement in decision-making and may be opting in to these types of jobs.

鈥淥ur research has direct implications for policy,鈥� said co-author , a 91探花assistant professor of epidemiology. 鈥淎s we have seen at the local level, Seattle City Council has been actively promoting policy solutions to improve workers鈥� lives.鈥�

That includes the , and policies. These approaches show 鈥渢he interest and appetite for change,鈥� Hajat said.

Researchers and policymakers must continue the dialog with employers 鈥渢o demonstrate the benefits of increased worker security and stability on employee turnover, productivity and, ultimately, their bottom line,鈥� she said.

鈥淯sing policy and legal levers to influence聽how people are hired and treated at work can have profound effects on improving the health of聽workers聽and their communities,鈥� Seixas said.

Other co-authors are , 91探花associate professor of psychology; and Kaori Fujishiro at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The research was funded by National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health.

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For more information, contact Trevor Peckham, tpeckham@uw.edu or 206-221-8601.

There is little debate over the link between air pollution and the human respiratory system: Research shows that dirty air and aggravate various lung diseases. Other potential effects are being investigated, too, as scientists examine connections between toxic air and , and .

Now add to that list psychological distress, which 91探花 researchers have found is also associated with air pollution. The higher the level of particulates in the air, the UW-led study showed, the greater the impact on mental health.

The , published in the November issue of Health & Place, is believed to be the first to use a nationally representative survey pool, cross-referenced with pollution data at the census block level, to evaluate the connection between toxic air and mental health.

“This is really setting out a new trajectory around the health effects of air pollution,” said , an assistant professor of epidemiology in the 91探花School of Public Health. “The effects of air pollution on cardiovascular health and lung diseases like asthma are well established, but this area of brain health is a newer area of research.”

Where a person lives can make a big difference to health and quality of life. Scientists have identified “social determinants” of physical and mental well-being, such as at local grocers, or .

Air pollution, too, has been associated with behavior changes 鈥� , for instance, or 鈥� that to psychological distress or social isolation.

The 91探花study looked for a direct connection between toxic air and mental health, relying on some 6,000 respondents from a larger, national, longitudinal study, the . Researchers then merged an air pollution database with records corresponding to the neighborhoods of each of the 6,000 survey participants. The team zeroed in on measurements of , a substance produced by car engines, fireplaces and wood stoves, and power plants fueled by coal or natural gas. 聽Fine particulate matter (particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) is easily inhaled, can be absorbed into the bloodstream and is considered of greater risk than larger particles. (To picture just how small fine particulate matter is, consider this: The average human hair is 70 micrometers in diameter.)

The for fine particulates, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is 12 micrograms per cubic meter. Between 1999 and 2011, the time frame examined in the 91探花study, survey respondents lived in neighborhoods where fine particulates measured anywhere from 2.16 to 24.23 micrograms per cubic meter, with an average level of 11.34.

The survey questions relevant to the 91探花study gauged participants’ feelings of sadness, nervousness, hopelessness and the like and were scored with a scale that assesses psychological distress.

The 91探花study found that the risk of psychological distress increased alongside the amount of fine particulate matter in the air. For example, in areas with high levels of pollution (21 micrograms per cubic meter), psychological distress scores were 17 percent higher than in areas with low levels of pollution (5 micrograms per cubic meter). Another finding: Every increase in pollution of 5 micrograms per cubic meter had the same effect as a 1.5-year loss in education.

Researchers controlled for other physical, behavioral and socioeconomic factors that can influence mental health, such as chronic health conditions, unemployment and excessive drinking.

But some patterns emerged that warrant more study, explained primary author , a graduate student in the Department of Sociology. When the data are broken down by race and gender, black men and white women show the most significant correlation between air pollution and psychological distress: The level of distress among black men, for instance, in areas of high pollution, is 34 percent greater than that of white men, and 55 percent greater than that of Latino men. A noticeable trend among white women is the substantial increase in distress 鈥� 39 percent 鈥� as pollution levels rise from low to high.

Precisely why air pollution impacts mental health, especially among specific populations, was beyond the scope of the study, Sass said. But that’s what makes further research important.

“Our society is segregated and stratified, which places an unnecessary burden on some groups,” Sass said. “Even moderate levels can be detrimental to health.”

Air pollution, however, is something that can be mitigated, Hajat said, and in the United States. It’s a health problem with a clear, actionable solution.

But it requires the political will to continue to regulate air quality, Sass added.

“We shouldn’t think of this as a problem that has been solved,” she said. “There is a lot to be said for having federal guidelines that are rigorously enforced and continually updated. The ability of communities to have clean air will be impacted with more lax regulation.”

Other authors on the study were professor , and graduate student , both of the 91探花Department of Sociology; Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine; and David Takeuchi of the Boston College School of Social Work.

The study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and supported by UW鈥檚 Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.

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For more information, contact Sass at vsass@uw.edu.

Grant numbers: R01 HD078501, R24 HD042828, ROO ES023498