The first half of 2020 brought global attention to racial injustices and persistent biases: the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police; the burden of COVID-19 on the precariously employed and minority workers of America. Industrial hygienists and allied professionals have been forced to examine the health inequities along lines of race, gender, and precarious employment. Many have started to ask: should divisions at work or across employment sectors be considered as we work toward improving the health and safety of workplaces? Consequently, many hygienists are seeking to identify new ways to critically assess and remove existing barriers that may be causing health inequities at work because of previously unconsidered and unaddressed social biases.
Because many of us are starting to ask these critical questions about ourselves and our society, we have solicited articles from researchers, including those new to JOEH, that can help us identify innovative tools and solutions that will aid in the discovery of effective answers.
As May 2021 brings us to the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, reminding us of the named and unnamed persons—friends, family, colleagues—who have carried the burden of racial injustice, we bring to the JOEH research focused on topics relevant to health equity in the workplace.
And while, at the time of this writing, we are seeing a vaccine poised to help us climb out of this global pandemic, the death count and infection cases rise as workers are unable (or unwilling) to follow public health guidance to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While national efforts have prioritized vaccinations to essential workers, state and local efforts are currently mixed. The decisions between “health” and “income” have never been so deadly, where precarious workers are without champions to protect themselves at work. Gender inequalities have resulted in record levels of women leaving the workforce due to conflicting pressures of educating children at home while working during the pandemic.
To provide insights into the relationship between health equity and the workplace, we invited members of the AIHA Social Concerns Committee to help identify authors and articles that focus on improving our understanding of critical behaviors and systems that may have historically contributed to health inequity in the workplace. The manuscripts in this issue are a response to solicitations begun in the summer of 2020, when uncertainty on both issues of racial injustice and the COVID pandemic were high.
Our reviewers commented that these were atypical papers for JOEH, but that was the point: do we need to look at systems in which we work to see if we can do better to protect our workers? We have two commentaries: one providing guidance more information that our readers might need to make the workplace more equitable for those with disabilities (McNamara and Stanch); and one that takes a long look at the meat packing industry, showing us how a century of precarious workers in this industry have been impacted by the pandemic and asks whether we are willing to do better (Gerr). Questions posed by researchers in this issue are also varied. Should we understand the mental health impact of COVID on precarious workers (Rosemberg et al.)? Are training methods targeting youth workforce improving injury outcomes (Okun et al.)? Can a consular network be helpful in disseminating worker safety information to immigrants (Flynn et al.)? Are there inequalities that result in injury outcome differences by race/ethnicity for construction workers (Dong et al.)?
While the population you serve may not be reflected in the study designs presented, I offer a challenge to the reader to consider whether the stressors and biases studied here might exist in the workplaces you are charged with protecting. If useful, share relevant articles with your colleagues, and think about ways to identify whether institutional biases might be adding to the burden of injury and illness at your worksite.
Finally, I do want to thank those involved with this special issue. Katherine McNamara and Enjoi DeGrasse, from the AIHA Social Concerns Committee, supported the issue and helped formulate our solicitation and identify new authors. I also want to acknowledge and thank the authors for taking the time to prepare these manuscripts, always with a tight turnaround but this time with the additional burden of COVID and racial unrest unfolding in real time. Thank you for your response to our solicitation and trusting the JOEH as a forum to publish these “atypical” manuscripts for our readers. And, as always, a big thanks to the unspoken reviewers who contribute behind the scenes, offering suggestions to improve the communication, interpretation, and analyses to improve the impact and understanding of this work to our readers.
Editor-in-Chief, JOEH
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