Current health policy is required to respond to a constantly changing social and political environment characterised, particularly in Europe, by ageing populations, increased migration, and growing inequalities in health and services. With health systems under increasing strain there is a sense that we need to seek new means of determining health policy. Much political debate focuses on managerial issues such as the levels of health funding and the setting and missing of targets. Meanwhile our moral imperatives, our values and principles, go relatively unexamined. What are these values? Can we agree their validity and salience? How do we manage the paradox of competing goods? Can we find new ways of talking about, and resolving, our conflicting values and competing priorities in order to create sound, appropriate, and just health policies for the 21st Century? Written by leading health policy makers and academics from many countries, "Constructive Conversations about Health" examines in depth the underlying values and principles of health policy, and posits a more enlightened public and political discourse. The book will be invaluable for those involved in health policy making and governance, politicians, healthcare managers, researchers, ethicists, health and social affairs media, health rights and patient participation groups. 'The literature on health policy is vast. On offer are models of health services, economic theory, management theory, disquisitions on ethical principles, social analyses, literally thousands of publications. In a globalised and electronically networked world, this literature has already generated its own particular language, a policy jargon replete with terms that look deceptively familiar, terms that will be much in evidence in what now follows, terms whose meanings require our closest attention.' - Marshall Marinker.

Throughout the twentieth century, cities such as Houston, Galveston, New Orleans, and Mobile grappled with the safety hazards created by oil and gas industries as well as the role municipal governments should play in protecting the public from these threats. James B. McSwain's Petroleum and Public Safety reveals how officials in these cities created standards based on technical, scientific, and engineering knowledge to devise politically workable ordinances related to the storage and handling of fuel. Each of the cities studied in this volume struggled through protracted debates regarding the regulation of crude petroleum and fuel oil, sparked by the famous Spindletop strike of 1901 and the regional oil boom in the decades that followed. Municipal governments sought to ensure the safety of their citizens while still reaping lucrative economic benefits from local petroleum industry activities. Drawing on historical antecedents such as fire-protection engineering, the cities of the Gulf South came to adopt voluntary, consensual fire codes issued by insurance associations and standards organisations such as the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the National Fire Protection Association, and the Southern Standard Building Code Conference. The culmination of such efforts was the creation of the International Fire Code, an overarching fire-protection guide that is widely used in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. In devising ordinances, Gulf South officials pursued the politics of risk management, as they hammered out strategies to eliminate or mitigate the dangers associated with petroleum industries and to reduce the possible consequences of catastrophic oil explosions and fires. Using an array of original sources, including newspapers, municipal records, fire-insurance documents, and risk-management literature, McSwain demonstrates that Gulf South cities played a vital role in twentieth-century modernization.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 6,000 workers were killed on the job in 2006. Presenting a comprehensive survey of occupational safety and health in the United States, Introduction to Occupational Health in Public Health Practice focuses on recognizing, preventing, and treating work-related and environmentally induced injuries and diseases. Drawing from their thirty-five years of experience in the management of public health programs and occupational safety and health management, the authors provide graduate and undergraduate students with important linkages between preventive public health approaches and occupational safety and health needs.

The field of occupational health and safety constantly changes, especially as it pertains to biomedical research. New infectious hazards are of particular importance at nonhuman-primate facilities. For example, the discovery that B virus can be transmitted via a splash on a mucous membrane raises new concerns that must be addressed, as does the discovery of the Reston strain of Ebola virus in import quarantine facilities in the U.S. The risk of such infectious hazards is best managed through a flexible and comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety Program (OHSP) that can identify and mitigate potential hazards. Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Primates is intended as a reference for vivarium managers, veterinarians, researchers, safety professionals, and others who are involved in developing or implementing an OHSP that deals with nonhuman primates. The book lists the important features of an OHSP and provides the tools necessary for informed decision-making in developing an optimal program that meets all particular institutional needs. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1. Introduction and Overview 2. Background and Context for Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Primates 3. Identifying Infectious Hazards Associated with the Use of Nonhuman Primates in Research 4. Identifying Noninfectious Hazards 5. Risk Assessment: Evaluating Risks to Human Health and Safety 6. Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and Recommendations Applicable to Nonhuman-Primate Research Facilities 7. Risk Management: The Principles Underlying the Design and Implementation of an Occupational Health and Safety Plan 8. Personnel Qualifications, Training, and Continuing Education 9. Postexposure Medical Treatment in Nonhuman-Primate Facilities References Appendix A: Workshop Speakers Appendix B: Committee Member Biographies

Advanced Security and Safeguarding in the Nuclear Power Industry: State of the art and future challenges presents an overview of a wide ranging scientific, engineering, policy, regulatory, and legal issues facing the nuclear power industry. Editor Victor Nian and his team of contributors deliver a much needed review of the latest developments in safety, security and safeguards ("Three S's") as well as other related and important subject matters within and beyond the nuclear power industry. This book is particularly insightful to countries with an interest in developing a nuclear power industry as well as countries where education to improve society's opinion on nuclear energy is crucial to its future success. Advanced Security and Safeguarding in the Nuclear Power Industry covers the foundations of nuclear power production as well as the benefits and impacts of radiation to human society, international conventions, treaties, and standards on the "Three S's", emergency preparedness and response, and civil liability in the event of a nuclear accident.

This book provides a summary of the main obstacles for creating and maintaining high standards of health and safety in higher education and research organisations. The obstacles include high staff turnover and an uncertain and constantly evolving research environment, small groups lacking unified management structure, deadline time pressures, restricted funding models and existing "old school" culture. Often the Health and Safety specialists and personnel managers in these organisations find themselves reiterating the same information, which gets lost as soon as the new cohort of workers arrives. Providing insight into methods of managing health and safety, training, and supervision, which help to build a strong and reliable health and safety system, this book is a collection of "best practices" from experienced safety professionals and researchers in Europe and the United States. These experiences demonstrate how health and safety professionals have overcome these issues and provide readers with ideas and models they can use in their own organisations. The information contained within is aimed at health and safety professionals and managers in universities and research organisations conducting scientific and engineering research with transient workers and students worldwide.