News Updates
11-29-23 – Increasing Wages Will Lead to Healthier Work and Healthier Workers (press release)
Today, the Healthy Work Campaign sent out a press release titled “Increasing Wages Will Lead to Healthier Work and Healthier Workers.” Thus far, it has been featured in Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, and Business Chief.
“The Healthy Work Campaign applauds California for leading the way in 2023 to ensure fair, living wages for healthcare and fast-food workers. Signed into law in September and October 2023 by Governor Newsom, the two new statutes will raise the minimum wage to $25/hour for all healthcare workers and $20/hour for fast-food workers as of April 2024…The Healthy Work Campaign urges other states to follow California’s lead, to improve economic justice and the health of low-income workers throughout the U.S.”
11-21-23 – Peter Schnall & Marnie Dobson Interviewed on the Curiosity Invited podcast
On November 21st, the Curiosity Invited podcast published David Bryan’s recent interview with Dr. Marnie Dobson Zimmerman and Dr. Peter Schnall: “Work Can Kill.”
Curiosity Invited podcast interview preview – David Bryan, Marnie Dobson & Peter Schnall
In the interview at 27:58, Dr. Schnall states, “It’s an incredible problem to educate our society to what work is doing to people in our modern society when the workers themselves…, who are experiencing these stressors, are unaware of the fact that they are being damaged by this. There’s a reason why they call high blood pressure the silent killer…”
And at 31:28, Dr. Dobson states, “As we see these epidemics—mental health problems, depression, more cardiovascular disease, more hypertension–around the world now, we have to consider what are some ways of preventing that increase in hypertension and cardiovascular disease. How do we try to prevent ill health? One of the ways…is by adjusting and considering stress in the workplace.”
To learn more about the Center for Social Epidemiology, our goals for the Healthy Work Campaign, and how change can happen, check out the full interview here.
10-24-23 – The Healthy Work Campaign Strongly Supports Dr. David Michaels’ Public Letter to OSHA (press release)
On October 24th, 2023, the Healthy Work Campaign sent a press release, “The Healthy Work Campaign Strongly Supports Dr. David Michael’s Public Letter to OSHA and Urges Immediate Action.” (sic)
In the press release, one section reads: ‘”Despite growing awareness that there are serious problems with stress and mental health at work, little is being done about it formally at the national level. OSHA is the federal agency responsible for recognizing and preventing work-related illness and mortality, but OSHA has taken limited action to protect workers from work-related psychosocial hazards and mental illness,” says Dr. Peter Schnall, Director of the Center for Social Epidemiology.’
This press release was published in Yahoo! Finance, Market Watch, and Seeking Alpha, among other publications.
9-28-23 – Dr. Paul Landsbergis Interviewed by Cardiovascular Research Foundation Publication
A recent TCTMD article, “Psychosocial Stressors in White-Collar Jobs Up CHD Risk in Men”, produced by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, interviewed our very own Paul Landsbergis, PhD, MPH about the impact of psychosocial stressors on heart health.
The study, published online this week in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, found significant relationships between both job strain and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and coronary heart disease among men who were followed for 18 years.
Dr. Landsbergis speculated that, “had the study been able to include a wider range of working conditions, it likely would have identified significant associations between stressors and CHD risk in women.”
Additionally, he noted, “there are many other work stressors out there—long work hours, bullying, discrimination, harassment, and work family conflict… perhaps if they had additional measures of other stressors, they might have found stronger associations.”
To learn more from Dr. Landsbergis’ great work, check out our Healthy Work Strategies page.
9-4-23 – Labor Day 2023 – The Healthy Work Campaign Makes a Prediction (press release)
Today, Labor Day 2023, we are making a bold prediction–that union strikes will result in healthier work.
How? “Although it might seem like there is little in common between these different kinds of workers, all are exercising their power to make a collective difference in the quality of their jobs,” says Dr. Marnie Dobson, Director of the CSE’s Healthy Work Campaign. “While strikes can be a financial strain for workers, achieving gains in wages, hours or working conditions, by participating in legal actions, can actually protect your health.”
Check out the rest of our press release today, featured so far by the Associated Press, KTLA, and Human Resource Times, among others.
7-18-23 – The Business Case for Healthy Work: A New Video by the Healthy Work Campaign
On July 11th, the Healthy Work Campaign released a short video titled “The Business Case for Healthy Work.” Our press release on July 10th featuring the video has been picked up by Safety & Health Magazine, Yahoo! Finance, Market Watch, Seeking Alpha, and other news outlets. The video is a tool aimed for businesses to understand the consequences of unhealthy work and the business benefits of healthy work.
7-10-23 – HWC Directors Interview w/Spectrum News 1 SoCal
Dr. Schnall and Dobson’s interview with Kelvin Washington is now available on YouTube.
**previously posted**
Today, Healthy Work Campaign Directors Marnie Dobson, PhD and Peter Schnall, MD MPH interviewed with Kelvin Washington on Spectrum News 1 SoCal. They shared about what precipitated the Center for Social Epidemiology (our founding organization) and the Healthy Work Campaign, as well as discussed what employees and employers can do to reduce harmful work stressors.
Stay tuned for footage of the interview!
6-7-23 – CSE Celebrates 35th Anniversary (press release)
The Center for Social Epidemiology, the founding nonprofit of the Healthy Work Campaign, is celebrating its 35th anniversary.
Our press release for this milestone was published today and has been picked up by over 160 outlets, including Yahoo! Finance and MarketWatch.
Check out the article to learn “…some important steps to take to reduce work stress and develop healthy work in any organization.
- Learn about chronic work stress…
- Listen to your employees…
- Prioritize…
- Train…
- Re-evaluate…“
5-9-23 – The Healthy Work Survey validation paper – Published in JOEM
We are excited to announce that our long-awaited paper, validating our Healthy Work Survey, is now published and fully available to the public online with the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM).
Dobson, Marnie PhD; Schnall, Peter MD, MPH; Faghri, Pouran MD, MS; Landsbergis, Paul PhD, MPH. The Healthy Work Survey: A Standardized Questionnaire for the Assessment of Workplace Psychosocial Hazards and Work Organization in the United States. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 65(5):p e330-e345, May 2023.
Learning Outcomes:
- Occupational health practitioners, researchers, and other professionals interested in workplace surveillance for psychosocial hazard risk will be able to utilize the online Healthy Work Survey system after reading this article.
- Upon completion of reading this journal article, occupational health practitioners, researchers, and other professionals will be able to justify and explain why the psychosocial risk assessment tool is valid and helpful to employers and/or other organizations they work with.
In summary, “The HWS is a reliable, valid tool for organizations and individuals to assess psychosocial work hazards.”
Note: The authors acknowledge the significant contributions made by those represented in the Acknowledgements section in the paper.
5-8-23 – HWC Welcomes New Partners – OHCC & PACES Connection
This month, we are delighted to welcome two new Healthy Work Campaign partners:
We are so grateful for their partnership and look forward to collaborating with them to make workplaces healthier throughout the U.S. and beyond.
To learn about our other partners, visit: https://www.healthywork.org/mission/#partners. Or to learn how to partner with us, visit: https://www.healthywork.org/take-action/partner/ or email us at .
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