The New York and New Jersey Education and Research Center is one of eighteen Education and Research Centers funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).[1] The NYNJERC was established in 1978.
The New York-New Jersey Education and Research Center (NYNJERC) is the hub of education and research in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in Federal Region 2, comprising the States of New York and New Jersey, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.
The mission of the NYNJERC is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by preparing the next generation of professional leaders in OSH through training programs that equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they will need to understand, evaluate, prevent, manage, and treat occupational disease and injury in the workers of its region and across the United States.
The NYNJERC was founded by Irving J. Selikoff, MD, a renowned pulmonary physician and pioneer in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) who made seminal discoveries pertaining to the human carcinogenicity of asbestos and was centrally involved in creation of both the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The program has received support from NIOSH since 1978. Under a series of leaders in academic occupational medicine, the program has built research and educational programs and has trained two generations of OSH professionals, many of whom now occupy senior leadership positions and populate the OSH workforce in Federal Region 2 and across the US.
The NYNJERC is a consortium of five educational institutions in two states, and its nine programs in OSH training cover three of the four essential core academic areas of OSH. The programs are:
• Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing (OEHN) at New York University (NYC, NY);
The NY/NJ ERC conducts an annual Historical Perspectives on Occupational Safety and Health Tour. The tour provides trainees the opportunity to see how work impacts health, by visiting work locations around the country that have high injury rates. The tour provides the opportunity for students to understand the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to address occupational safety and health issues.Some of the sites visited include:
The NY/NJERC also provides interdisciplinary educational opportunities through the OSH research methods course, student research day, and the site visits course. The site visits course brings trainees to industries in New York City and New Jersey, including hospitals, set design studios, concrete/glass counter top manufacturers, power generating stations, wastewater treatment facility, and landfill operations. Trainees learn key concepts of industrial hygiene and safety, including hazard recognition and control methods.
Each year faculty and trainees post information about the Historical Perspectives Tour on its blog, http://nynjerc.blogspot.com.
The NYNJERC has presented an Annual Scientific Meeting since 1979. The first Annual Scientific Meeting was September 27–28, 1979 in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.[2] The Scientific Meeting discussed cancer of the bladder, asbestos hazards in schools, and the hazards of lead, mercury, and chemical waste disposal (Love Canal). Over the years, the NYNJERC has presented important occupational safety and health information on topics ranging from nanotechnology to globalization. The 37th Annual Scientific Meeting discusses safety and health hazards of healthcare workers.[3]
The 37th Annual Scientific Meeting was held on April 1, 2016 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The topic was Occupational Safety and Health for Healthcare Workers. The keynote addresses were provided by John Howard, Director of NIOSH and David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the OSHA. The presentations are available on the NYNJERC website.
Two presentations from our 30th Annual Scientific Meeting (April 2009) are available on YouTube. Dr. Stephen Levin presented the Historical Aspect of Asbestos, including asbestos related research at Mount Sinai, a review of Dr. Irving Selloff coming to Mount Sinai, and the work he and others accomplished. Dr. Jack Caravanos presented the Historical Aspects of Lead, providing the health impacts of lead on workers and other populations.