Once of my former students texted me this morning with a screenshot of a new webpage on the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) site:
The webpage is entitled "How to Address Reproductive Health in the Workplace" and is a summary of one of my co-authored research articles.
I'm excited to see the article I co-authored with J. Krzystowczyk in ASSE's Professional Safety magazine is continuing a conversation about protecting susceptible workers in the workplace. I learned that the additional attention is due to this week being National Women's Health Week (#NWHW).
The definition of "susceptible worker" we developed for the research article is based off the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (2016) TSCA updates.
Our working definition for "susceptible worker" in the article includes a worker who is:
![]() |
| Summary of the Industrious Hygienist's article in Professional Safety. |
The webpage is entitled "How to Address Reproductive Health in the Workplace" and is a summary of one of my co-authored research articles.
I'm excited to see the article I co-authored with J. Krzystowczyk in ASSE's Professional Safety magazine is continuing a conversation about protecting susceptible workers in the workplace. I learned that the additional attention is due to this week being National Women's Health Week (#NWHW).
The definition of "susceptible worker" we developed for the research article is based off the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (2016) TSCA updates.
TSCA provides a definition of �potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation� as a subpopulation with a greater risk than the general population for adverse health effects relating to chemical exposure. A potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation can include infants, children, pregnant women, workers, and the elderly.
- Is pregnant or breastfeeding
- Plans to become pregnant
- Has a health condition that makes them more susceptible to workplace exposures
- Has a compromised immune system
- Can also include a worker whose partner is pregnant or breastfeeding or plans to become pregnant
The proposed Susceptible Worker Assessment Program (SWAP) we developed is intended to provide inclusive, gender-equal, and age-equal protection to all workers.
My co-author and I are working on refining the program and making it user-friendly to the everyday occupational health and safety (OHS) professional in the U.S. We found some similar research from Frey, Schuster, Oberlinner, Queier-Wahrendorf, and Yong that supports the basic idea of this program.
