Developing Effective Health and Safety Training Materials for Workers in Beryllium-Using Industries

One-Hour Pilot Training to Prevent Workers From Taking Home Workplace Contaminants

Workers can accidentally transport chemical hazards from the workplace to the home, known as “take-home exposures.” Recent take-home lead-poisoning cases highlight the need for effective prevention training. A one-hour take-home prevention training was developed in partnership with a nonprofit. The training was administered and evaluated during two training sessions with twenty-one trainees. The training was composed of a lecture and interactive activities. An illustrated poster was used with different prevention actions within a story line to reduce take-home exposures under three categories: facilities with formal health and safety programs, small businesses, and outdoor work. The effectiveness and acceptability of the training was measured by a survey and pre- and posttraining exams. The second training exam responses showed a 14 percent (84 percent to 98 percent) increase in take-home prevention knowledge. Community-based prevention training could reduce the burden of chemical exposures on vulnerable workers and their families.

Developing effective worker health and safety training materials: hazard awareness, identification, recognition, and control for the salon industry

OBJECTIVE

In addition to formaldehyde, workers in salons can be exposed to other chemical irritants, sensitizers, carcinogens, reproductive hazards, infectious agents, ergonomic, and other physical hazards. Worker health and safety training is challenging because of current product labeling practices and the myriad of hazards portending risk for a wide variety of health effects.

METHODS

Through a Susan B. Harwood Targeted Topic Training grant from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and assistance from salon development and training partners, we developed, delivered, and validated a health and safety training program using an iterative five-pronged approach.

RESULTS

The training was well received and resulted in knowledge gain, improved workplace safety practices, and increased communication about health and safety.

CONCLUSIONS

These training materials are available for download from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Susan B. Harwood Training Grant Program Web site.

Chronic Beryllium Disease: revealing the role of beryllium ion and small peptides binding to HLA-DP2

Chronic Beryllium (Be) Disease (CBD) is a granulomatous disorder that predominantly affects the lung. The CBD is caused by Be exposure of individuals carrying the HLA-DP2 protein of the major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII). While the involvement of Be in the development of CBD is obvious and the binding site and the sequence of Be and peptide binding were recently experimentally revealed [1], the interplay between induced conformational changes and the changes of the peptide binding affinity in presence of Be were not investigated. Here we carry out in silico modeling and predict the Be binding to be within the acidic pocket (Glu26, Glu68 and Glu69) present on the HLA-DP2 protein in accordance with the experimental work [1]. In addition, the modeling indicates that the Be ion binds to the HLA-DP2 before the corresponding peptide is able to bind to it. Further analysis of the MD generated trajectories reveals that in the presence of the Be ion in the binding pocket of HLA-DP2, all the different types of peptides induce very similar conformational changes, but their binding affinities are quite different. Since these conformational changes are distinctly different from the changes caused by peptides normally found in the cell in the absence of Be, it can be speculated that CBD can be caused by any peptide in presence of Be ion. However, the affinities of peptides for Be loaded HLA-DP2 were found to depend of their amino acid composition and the peptides carrying acidic group at positions 4 and 7 are among the strongest binders. Thus, it is proposed that CBD is caused by the exposure of Be of an individual carrying the HLA-DP2*0201 allele and that the binding of Be to HLA-DP2 protein alters the conformational and ionization properties of HLA-DP2 such that the binding of a peptide triggers a wrong signaling cascade.